WHAT: scheduled maintenance is taking place between 1 AM and 6 AM on Wednesday 9 November.

WHO: Up to 1000 fibre connections will be affected.

WHY: Chorus is upgrading the firmware on a number of ONTs.

IMPACT: You will lose connection to the internet for a time from 10 – 30 minutes between 1 AM and 6 AM.

If your connection doesn’t come back automatically, please restart your router and ONT.

If your connection is still down after restarting your equipment, check out our network status page. If there is no widespread or ongoing outage, use our support resources at bigpipe.co.nz/support-centre. 

Some customers may experience lower speeds for a limited time after the scheduled maintenance. This shouldn’t last long. If your connection is still slower than normal 24 hours after the scheduled maintenance, please check out our Big Guide To Improving Your Broadband or visit bigpipe.co.nz/support-centre. 

Earlier today, we had a very brief outage (it lasted about ten seconds) that affected a reasonable number of customers. Most \ won’t have noticed as most modems will have automatically picked up the connection again, but if your connection is still down, a quick modem restart should fix things up.

Alright, Elite customers! It’s almost time to upgrade you from your already-fast 200/200 megabit experience to a blazing-fast next-gen world. (And if you’re not an Elite customer yet, there’s no time like the present!)

Naturally, you’ve got questions about this process. We’re pleased to report that it should be nice and painless for you. Here are the details, in a convenient bulleted list:

• Dates: We’re upgrading Elite customers between 1 and 8 October. When your upgrade goes through will depend on where you’re located – we expect Christchurch and Hamilton upgrades to be done a bit earlier, and other regions to take a bit longer. Regardless of your location, we currently expect the upgrade should be complete by 12 October. If yours is not done by then, please get in touch.
• We don’t expect any downtime: There should be no need to reconfigure or restart anything. However, if you’re on Elite and you’re not getting higher than 200/200 speeds by October 12, try the ol’ on-and-off-again. If it still doesn’t work, drop us a line.
• Max speed: We want to be very up-front about this. Due to technical limitations, the absolute maximum speed you can expect to get under perfect conditions is around 930Mbps down/480Mbps up. It may be possible to get faster than this. However, it is very likely that your speeds will be considerably slower. it depends on a lot of factors. Our network engineers have suggested that the fastest a customer with good equipment on a wired connection should expect from Elite is around 600 – 900 Mbps download / 300 – 500 Mbps upload (although it’s certainly possible that some connections will be faster.) This is likely the case for other ISPs, not just Bigpipe. Don’t worry – this is still insanely fast!
• Your router: Check that your router can actually manage Elite speeds. It may be fine with 200/200 and baulk at anything higher, so it pays to have a look. Googling it is the best option.
• The Bigpipe Modem: While Bigpipe modem (the Huawei HG659 modem/router) is technically capable of gigabit switching, our internal tests show it can achieve maximum speeds of around 500 Mbps upload/download when routing actual internet traffic in a real-world environment. Your results may vary. We have had customers achieve speeds in excess of 800 Mbps on speedtests when using this modem.
• Your computer / device: We’ve now reached a magical new era when the internet connection is actually faster than many people’s home computer can handle. If you want to get the most from Elite, your computer must be fast as well. If your device is not up to it, you will not be able to get high speeds. The recommended spec for the computer is an Intel i5 CPU or above, and you will absolutely need a gigabit ethernet adaptor.
• WiFi: There is a very good chance that your speed on devices connected using WiFi will not hit anywhere near max speeds (see here for Reasons.) Our advice is to always measure speeds using a wired/Ethernet connection to an actual computer, as a mobile device (iPad, smartphones, etc) relies on WiFi and simply won’t be up to it.
• It might take a while to get up to speed: Allow at least 24 hours of consistent connection to let the hyperdrive spin up properly.
• Speedtests: Speedtests often don’t reflect real-world performance. They’re like taking a car out on a racetrack and driving it at full speed – it’s very different to everyday driving on the road! Your speedtest results will vary – often massively – depending on where you are sending traffic to and from. If you’re looking to take your line for a speedy spin, the server you use must also be fast enough to serve you at max speeds. If you’re running speedtests, we recommend you use speedtest.net’s Auckland Spark server. Here’s a video on how to switch to the correct server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toI84pQnvPo

And that’s it for now! Enjoy the new Elite goodness, and as always, if there’s something we haven’t covered above, feel free to leave a comment. If you’re having trouble and you’ve run through the above checklist, drop us a line and we’ll suss it as soon as we can.

Bigpipe is very pleased, stoked even, to announce it will begin offering unlimited, naked, max-speed fibre connections for $129 a month

Yes! Bigpipe will be upgrading customers on our Elite ($129 per month) plan to Gigabit speeds wherever available 😀 https://t.co/7SopJneF1m

— Bigpipe Broadband (@BigPipeNZ) September 7, 2016

Chorus last week announced that it was set to begin offering “Gigabit” plans nationwide from October 1, 2016.

Customers on Bigpipe’s Elite plan, who currently receive speeds of 200 Mbps upload and download, will be upgraded to max speeds speed free of charge. The Elite plan will keep the same name, but it will be upgraded to allow speeds of up to 900 Mbps download and 500 Mbps upload.

The usual Bigpipe cool stuff will apply to the new Elite plan: no term contracts, no throttling, no data caps, and great online support.

Customers who sign up for Elite fibre between now and the upgrade will also get max speeds as soon as they become available. From October, anyone who signs up for the Elite plan in an area where Bigpipe offers fibre connections will get gigabit speeds automatically.

Bigpipe is already starting the process of upgrading customers on its Elite fibre plans to max speeds in areas serviced by Enable and Ultrafast Fibre, and we look forward to having customers in areas serviced by Chorus connected to max speed fibre from October.

Customers on the Elite plan, who currently receive speeds of 200 Mbps upload and download, will get the max speed upgrade as soon as it is available.

I made a GIF of John Cena going Super Saiyan

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WHAT: scheduled maintenance is taking place on Bigpipe connections from 17 August until the beginning of September.

WHO: Any Bigpipe connection may be affected. We are processing customers in batches to provide the least possible interruption to service. Approximately 300 Bigpipe connections may be affected on any one day. Once your connection has been processed, it is unlikely to be affected again. We are sending emails and push notifications via the Bigpipe app to affected customers.

IMPACT: Until the end of August, there may be instability on your connection between 12:30 AM and 7 AM. You may not be able to connect consistently, or at all, to the Internet during this time. From 7 AM your internet connection should return to normal. 

If your connection doesn’t come back automatically, please restart your router (and your ONT, if you’re a fibre customer.)

If your connection is still down after restarting your equipment, check out our network status page. If there is no widespread or ongoing outage, use our support resources at bigpipe.co.nz/support-centre. 

Some customers may experience lower speeds for a limited time after the scheduled maintenance. This shouldn’t last long. If your connection is still slower than normal 24 hours after the scheduled maintenance, please check out our Big Guide To Improving Your Broadband or visit bigpipe.co.nz/support-centre.