Turbo-Charging The Broadband Drive For Kiwis

Turbo-Charging The Broadband Drive For Kiwis

New Zealanders are set for a dramatic rise in the world’s broadband stakes. Telecom has signed up to a strategy to get broadband into 250,000 New Zealand homes by the end of 2005, Telecom Chief Executive Theresa Gattung said today.

New Zealanders are set for a dramatic rise in the world’s broadband stakes.

Telecom has signed up to a strategy to get broadband into 250,000 New Zealand homes by the end of 2005, Telecom Chief Executive Theresa Gattung said today.

“Uptake of broadband has really taken off since we launched our new plans last month.

“Record numbers of customers are signing up to the new plans which include a $39.95 entry level plan, an all-you-can eat flat rate plan and easier installation.

“Now we’re turning up the volume even more to get it out there to as many New Zealanders as possible.”

Ms Gattung said an integrated team from across Telecom had been pulled together to work on the 250,000 target. Telecom would also work closely with wholesalers and resellers who will play an increasingly significant role in driving broadband uptake.

“The target is going to be a big ask, but it is baked into our business plan and we will invest a lot of money and resources into making it happen.”

Telecom will be committing more than $100 million from its existing capex budget over the next three years to drive broadband. This will be invested in initiatives which will be designed to make it easier, cheaper and more attractive for customers to make the switch to broadband.

“We’ve already made the investment to get broadband available to more than 90% of our customers and with satellite coming soon it will be available to virtually 100%. So the time is right now to shift the focus to customer initiatives that will lift the appeal of broadband,” Ms Gattung said.

At 31 March 2004 Telecom had 103,000 JetStream customers – 66,000 residential and 37,000 business customers. Over the last 12 months, JetStream numbers have grown by 66%, or 42,000. Ms Gattung said Telecom was well on track to reach its current target of 100,000 residential broadband customers by the end of 2004.

“New Zealand businesses have been earlier than many countries to get into broadband. Now it’s taking off at home as well,” Ms Gattung said.

“As well as ramping up our own marketing we’re going to be working with many players in the industry.

“The developing wholesale scene and the unbundled bitstream service (UBS) and unbundled partial circuits (UPC) offers which we are now building are going to add a lot of momentum to the broadband push.

“We expect that just on a third of all DSL connections will be sold through a combination of wholesaling by other carriers and resale by other ISPs. There’s no doubt that competition is boosting take-up of broadband and encouraging more and more focus on delivering what customers really want,” Ms Gattung said.

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