Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fast broadband data cap should be bigger - TUANZ

Updated at 6:05 am on 8 March 2012

A telecommunications users group is applauding the pricing of the first ultra fast broadband services - but says data-caps need to be larger.

Orcon announced its retail pricing for the fibre network on Wednesday, becoming the first internet service provider to do so.

Plans begin at $75 for households and $169 plus GST for businesses.

The entry-level package for both sets of customers consists of a 30 megabit a second download speed, a 10 megabit a second upload speed and a 30 gigabyte data-cap.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen says the prices are good.

He says the data caps are an issue because, at the speeds offered, people will use 30 gigabytes of data in a few minutes.

Mr Brislen says he would expect to see 100 gigabytes at the entry level and then to move up from there, because the faster users can go the more data they will use.

Orcon says it has to pay $38 a month to infrastructure provider Chorus for each account, plus bandwidth costs.

It says the margins are much lower than those on conventional ADSL broadband products.

Mr Brislen agrees the sums are tight and entry levels plans work on very low margins.

He says the prices offered to businesses are attractive - especially to small and medium size enterprises.

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