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Orcon Xbox deal lures gigabit gamers
Orcon consumer general manager Taryn Hamilton says his company will be first off the block when gigabit fibre services go live around New Zealand on October 1.
Hamilton says Orcon will be aggressive going after the market. It is selling an unlimited, naked gigabit plan for $135.
To sweeten the deal, Orcon will give an Xbox One S to customers signing a 24-month contract. Those signing for 12 months will get one month free.
Hamilton says Orcon was the first ISP to offer Ultra-Fast Broadband and plans to stay ahead of the pack. “We’ve been providing gigabit plans in Dunedin since 2014 and we have the technology and systems to support high-end plans”, he says.
Orcon is only one of four broadband brands owned by Vocus, New Zealand’s third largest telecommunications company after Spark NZ and Vodafone.
The other Vocus broadband brands are Callplus,
Slingshot and Flip. Although each sell similar products and
in some cases share infrastructure and services, each
addresses a different market sector. Orcon targets more
technically advanced and more demanding
customers.
Big cities first
Orcon says it has already begun taking orders for its gigabit plans in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch. Dunedin already has gigabit fibre.
Hamilton says existing customers who order an upgrade this week can expect to download at gigabit speeds in about a week. Orcon says it will take a little longer to put customers transferring from other ISPs online.
Orcon says the first gigabit areas will soon be joined by New Plymouth, Whangarei, Cambridge and Te Awamutu.
To show the company’s preparation for faster fibre speeds Orcon showed journalists around its central Auckland facility, one of three sites in the city servicing fibre customers.
At the site, Orcon showed cabinets full of caching hardware including equipment for Google-You Tube, Facebook and Akamai. It has similar equipment in a handful of sites around the country. Orcon says it now caches more than half its network traffic locally and this helps gets data to customers faster.
Orcon Xbox deal lures gigabit gamers was first posted at billbennett.co.nz.
Bill Bennett
New Zealand technology news
Bill Bennett publishes technology news and features that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
Covering enterprise and small business computing, start-ups, listed companies, the technology channel and devices. Bennett's main focus is on New Zealand innovation.
Bill Bennett stories are republished on Geekzone and Scoop.
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