Hi Everyone! Sorry we’ve been away for so long but we promise we have some exciting details for you we can’t wait to share. Like all great things, we hope to bring you back here quite often as we bring some handy new updates the likes of which will help give you the information (and tools) you need to make your Internet better. (Yes, contrary to the internet there are ways you can improve it)

But first we have some super important details to fill you in on regarding Fibre, much of which will be music to the ears of those who are thinking of upgrading.

The Land access reform, or, how your fibre install is going to get SO much easier

If you’re trying to get fibre, and you live in a shared driveway, cross lease, or an multi-dwelling unit, you’ll find one of the hardest things is getting consent. You’d need everyone who shares your land to sign a consent form before you can get fibre, and people sometimes forget, or their landlord is overseas, or your neighbours just don’t like you that much (Awkward…), and things can get a bit messy. Or at least they use to be….

The good news is that the government has implemented a new scheme to make things much easier. Chorus is the first company to sign up.

This scheme will apply to fibre orders submitted on or after 2 October 2017.^[1]

After you order fibre, the local fibre company will send out technicians to check what kind of installation is needed. Your install will then be allocated into three categories: low, medium or high depending on the impact to the land.

Category 1: Low impact

If the fibre installation would only cause a low impact, you can skip the consents process entirely! Your fibre company just needs to send a letter to all affected neighbours, and they can begin work after 10 working days. It’s estimated 36% of installs fall under this category.^[2]

Low impact installation methods include:^[3]

• Aerial installation
• Installation using existing conduit
• Digging grass/soil/sand
• Installing fibre beneath paving stones
• Attaching fibre to a fence, while not damaging the fence and minimising the visual prominence of the fibre

Note: Category 1 only applies to properties without a body corp. For properties with a body corp the install will be upgraded to category 2.

Category 2: Medium impact

If the fibre installation would cause a medium impact, your fibre company will send a letter to your neighbours. If they don’t say no within 20 days then your fibre company can assume they have agreed and can begin works. (This part speeds up the process) There’s a narrow range of valid objections, so your neighbours can’t say no just because they don’t like you.^[4] 52% of installs are in this category.^[5]

Medium impact installation methods include:

• Fence installs that do not meet the low impact criteria
• Microtrenching less than 15mm wide
• Digging up hard surface smaller than 4m² per dwellings on the property
• Installing or attaching fibre or supporting equipment to a building

Category 3: High impact 

All installs that are not category 1 or 2 will be high impact. Standard consents process will continue to apply.

Chorus estimates that 70%^[6] of previously declined consents will now be able to proceed. So if you tried to get fibre before and couldn’t, or your fibre order is stuck in consents, please get in touch with us and we’ll see if this new procedure can help!

More Importantly if you aren’t sure if you can get Fibre, or if the modem you have can support UFB have a look over here. You’ll be able to find both here, just enter your address first.

If you’re already with Bigpipe and want to upgrade to one of our awesome fibre plans, just log in to our website and request a plan change here.

^[1] https://blog.chorus.co.nz/landaccess/

^[2]http://www.mbie.govt.nz/publications-research/publications/telecommunications/ris-land-access-for-telecommunications-to-support-deployment-of-ufb.pdf p.21

^[3] http://legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2017/0082/9.0/whole.html#DLM7233542

^[4] http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2001/0103/latest/DLM7314737.html

^[5] MBIE, p.22

^[6] https://sp.chorus.co.nz/product-update/simplifying-consents-land-access-reforms

Good news everyone!

Specifically, good news everyone who lives in Rotorua, Taupo, Tauranga, Whakatane, Hamilton, Tokoroa, New Plymouth, Nelson, Blenheim, Ashburton, Christchurch, Greymouth, or Timaru.

That’s right – Bigpipe has just expanded the bigness of its pipes. We can now provide fibre connections in many areas in the towns and greater urban areas listed. Over 100,000 more people can now get fibre with Bigpipe.

If you’re a Bigpipe customer in one of these places and you’ve been hanging out for Bigpipe fibre goodness, head to bigpipe.co.nz/login, hop in to your dashboard, and use our nifty new Change Plan tool to see if you can get fibre with us. If your address doesn’t look like it’s listed, but you’re sure fibre is available where you are, feel free to chat live with our team. Hopefully we can get some spiffy new fibre piping straight into your place.

And if you’ve got fibre with a different company already? We’ve extended our wildly popular UFBSWITCH promotion, so if you’ve already got fibre installed, switch to us by signing up with the promo code UFBSWITCH and you’ll get 2 months of fibre on us, on any Bigpipe fibre plan!

If you’re sure fibre is available but it doesn’t show on our address checker, feel free to open a live chat with our care team so they can double-check for you. Also, some customers will be in areas where there’s an overlap between Chorus customers and other Local Fibre Companies, like UFF or Enable. When this is the case, we’ll hook you up with whoever it’s faster to get your fibre with. If you’ve got fibre installed with someone already, we’ll use that, rather than doing a whole new fibre order.

We’d love to try to hook you up with our fast internet, so give it a go 🙂

We’d love to get you all hooked up with fibre, so give it a go 🙂

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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By The Bigpipe People                                                           @BigpipeNZ

At Bigpipe, we do everything we can to make your broadband experience as good as it can be, but we thought it would be a good idea to share some tips on the things you can do in your own home to help you improve your own broadband experience.

Choosing the fastest possible broadband plan in your area so you can get the most out of what is available to you. with Bigpipe, our 100Mbps UFB plan is only $79, that’s the same price as our most popular ADSL2 plan.To check what broadband technology is available in your area, use the address checker on our site (link to homepage) to see what plans are available at your address. If you can get UFB at your place, we highly recommend going for that.

Bigpipe’s UFB plans, available in Auckland and Wellington.

Pick a decent router, this small piece of equipment is essential in contributing to your home’s broadband experience, especially if you have lot of devices accessing the net at the same time. You wouldn’t buy a new 64” LED TV and place it onto an old, wonky and unsuitable TV stand, so why have broadband and use a really cheap router? Ensuring that you have a decent router with updated firmware will optimise your Bigpipe broadband experience. The expected lifespan of a cheap router is 1-3 years whereas if you invest a little more, you can expect your router to last you 5+ years. Bigpipe recommends the Netcomm NF8AC as this router is suitable for all broadband plans including UFB all the way up to 1Gb speeds, so you’re really investing yourself in the broadband of the future.

The Netcomm NF8AC router

If you have ADSL or VDSL, ensure that your home wiring is in order for optimum broadband connectivity in your home. Older homes especially often have wiring not optimised for delivering good broadband. Over time, wiring in your home can corrode or get damaged, this corrosion seriously inhibits the maximum speeds that you can obtain from your connection. If you notice that your internet sometimes slows down and can cut off from time to time, we recommend you get a technician to have a look at your internal wiring and fit a ‘master filter’ to bypass any bad wiring. As your ISP, Bigpipe can organise this for you, although there is a cost of around $200.

A master filter

Don’t allow your neighbours to piggyback off your network. This is important, if you don’t have a secured password on your home network you open yourself up to people leeching your connection, or, worse, using it for illegal purposes for which you might get the blame! Most routers come with the wifi connection already secured with a default password, but if your doesn’t just follow the manual to make sure you turn it on and set a secure password.

Members of the public leeching off of Apple’s free Wi-Fi outside one of their stores.

Placement of your router around your home is very important. If you have your router placed in an unsuitable location in your home, you’re instantly limiting your broadband speed capabilities. It is also best to keep your router away from any electrical devices in your home that could interfere with the Wi-Fi frequencies that your router omits. When placing your router somewhere in your home, think about the most central place, or the place closest to where you want to be using the internet the most. The fewer walls/floors between your device and the router-the better! Here’s an example of how poor router placement in the corner of the house inhibits wifi signal strength.

Diagram showing the Wi-Fi signal around the home and how the infrastructure of your home inhibits the signals strength from room to room.

Also, if you find your Wi-Fi speeds are much lower than expected, it could be your neighbours Wi-Fi interfering. Try logging into your router and changing the Wi-Fi channel to see if that improves things. Try channels 1, 6 or 11 for the best chance of avoiding interference.

Choose an ISP that doesn’t throttle your speeds. Some ISP’s throttling their customers speeds to keep their costs down. This occurs during peak usage times on their networks (usually between 4pm and 10pm). Bigpipe believe in providing enough bandwidth for all our customers to use, all the time, so we don’t throttle our customers speeds and we’ve got the evidence to prove it. We’re the top performing download ISP in New Zealand during peak times. See our performance as tested in the TrueNet report.

Manage your auto-updates and see when your devices are scheduled to update their own software. You don’t want to get home in the evenings ready to stream your favourite series online and to then realise that your laptop needs to update a million programs at once. Also, ensuring that other devices around your home aren’t running programs in the background will help you to ensure that only the devices you’re using are what is connected to your network.

Spread your traffic. If you have housemates who do a lot of downloading, try and get them to do it overnight or when other people aren’t trying to use the internet. Sharing is caring.

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Follow us on Twitter @BigpipeNZ

By Felix Lee

Most of you should by now have heard of the ultra-fast broadband project or more commonly known as UFB. If you haven’t it’s the government’s plan to bring superfast fibre internet to all the towns and cities in New Zealand. This means almost everyone living in this country would be able to access world leading internet by 2020. There are a few exciting recent developments which I will share here.

Build progress

The latest figures as at March 31 shows that UFB network is 46% complete, it has been rolled out to more than 618,000 users. This means the project is actually ahead of schedule and on budget which is pretty impressive.

Gigabit speeds

You can get gigabit UFB right now if you live in the central North Island, or Dunedin. Other areas are set to get it soon. Whangarei should get it this month, and Christchurch would be later this year. The rest of the country though, is covered by Chorus. Bigpipe currently have UFB in Auckland and Wellington. Chorus have said that they would roll it out nationwide within three years, but this could be sooner. We’re on track to become one of the first countries to have gigabit available nationwide!

Just imagine the possibilities we can do with this; SuperHD TV, 3D printing, virtual presence, fully automated security and lighting systems all controlled by your phone via the internet. It’ll also be a boost to the economy, we can export our technology all around the world and don’t have to rely on selling milk powder any longer.

And there’s no need to worry fibre will run out of capacity any time soon. You can put up to 96 different colours of lasers down a single fibre, each colour can support 100Gbps, and each house gets two strands of fibre. That’s crazy amounts of bandwidth, and should last us a few decades at least.

Consents for UFB

One of the problems with getting UFB installed is that if you live down a shared driveway, you will need consent of everyone who share that driveway before you can have fibre connected. If one of your neighbours don’t agree, then sorry you’re not getting fibre. The government is currently looking at changing the law to make this easier. All the affected owners are notified of a pending install, and if they don’t object then Chorus can go ahead. This should make the process easier and faster.

Another tricky and time consuming consents type is multi dwelling units such as apartments, townhouses or duplex’s. Also known as MDU’s, a number of consents are required for installation to occur. Body corporations, building managers, legal owners and agencies are all contributors to the consents process. The reason why this takes so long is due to gathering the consents and having everyone on the same page. Without all consents gained, Chorus cannot proceed with installations.

Although this is rare, most people, to include those tricky building corps are fully aware that UFB is the next generation of broadband in NZ. As copper lines begin to feel the strain, UFB is the only way forward.

UFB expansion

The coverage of UFB has recently been expanded from 75% to 80% of the population, so this means every town with a population exceeding a few thousand will be covered by UFB. The exact list of towns this cover would be announced later this year. The expanded UFB would be pretty similar to the existing UFB rollout, the main difference is that users may have the option of choosing to connect using G.fast. This is where the fibre is connected to the kerb of each house, then the existing copper cabling is used to connect the rest of the way in. This means there’s no need to dig up the driveway to install the fibre, should save a big of hassle.

Us Kiwi’s are all collectively contributing $1.5 billion to the UFB project as taxpayers, so if it is rolled out to your place, get it! Remember to check out Bigpipe’s amazing no-term-contract unlimited UFB plans! Check your address here. We now cover Wellington in addition to Auckland, and we hope to be cover the rest of the country soon!

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Follow us on Twitter @BigpipeNZ