On 24 November 2019, Minister Faafoi announced that the first phase of the UFB (UFB1) roll-out has been completed one month ahead of schedule and within budget, and now offers high quality broadband to 79 per cent of New Zealanders.
For more information, lease click on this link to see the full press release.
What is UFB?
Ultra Fast Broadband fibre provides a reliable, consistent experience even at the busiest time of day.
It delivers speeds in excess of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps), using optical fibre technology rather than the slower copper technology (ADSL or VDSL).
Not only does this make your online experience faster, it allows multiple people in your household or business to be online at the same time. You will experience faster download and upload speeds, more reliable connectivity, the speeds will be consistent and you won’t have to deal with buffering.
The fibre network built under the Ultra Fast Broadband programmes (UFB) is completely new infrastructure, so work needs to be done on your street and property before you can connect.
Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) is one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in New Zealand, and the expansion to over 340 towns is a significant nationwide undertaking, from Kaitaia in the far north, to Bluff in the far south.
The entire UFB programme will be complete by 2022, with many towns starting and completing before that time.
More than 1.19 million businesses, schools, health centres and homes can connect to the UFB network.
CIP entered into contracts to deploy the UFB Programme with Chorus, Ultrafast Fibre, Northpower andEnable Services Limited (ESL).
Under the UFB programme, we will see smaller New Zealand towns receive world-class connectivity, with up to 1 gigabit broadband speeds, on par with the major cities in New Zealand and ahead of most cities globally.
This will provide a boost for the regions which can lead to improved health and education outcomes, new and improved business opportunities and greater connectivity with main centres as well as internationally.
New Zealand continues to advance in the OECD country rankings for population coverage with fibre available, from 14th in 2015 to 11th in 2016,and once the UFB programme is complete in 2022 New Zealand should be in the top five in the OECD for fibre availability.