We’re proposing to adjust the prices we charge for fibre services under the 2022 CSA from 1 October 2022. We want your feedback on these proposed changes.

What’s happening?

Data usage on our UFB fibre continues to grow at record levels – the average monthly data usage in March 2022 was 511GB; that’s an increase of 23% since March 2021. To meet this significant growing demand, we are continuing our investment in infrastructure. Chorus is also experiencing inflationary cost increases in operating our business. We need to ensure we maintain a balance between our return on investment within the current increasing cost environment and shaping our future product portfolio. 

We’re proposing an increase of 5.49% to most fibre services we provide under the 2022 CSA which is only a portion of the March CPI, confirmed at 6.9%. This limits price increases but addresses these inflationary pressures whilst maintaining our world class fibre network.

What are the details?

You can check out a full list of the fibre services to which these proposed price changes will be applied here. We’ve proposed applying the increase of 5.49% to most fibre services we provide under the 2022 CSA from 1 October 2022, other than:

• Anchor and linked services – while under the new regulatory framework any increase to the Chorus pricing of its regulated fibre services is capped at the annual change in the CPI to the June quarter, we believe it is important to provide Service Providers with as much certainty as possible. We’re proposing the adjustment will be the lower of either 5.49% or the annual change in CPI to the June quarter so that our customers have certainty the increase will not exceed this amount. This also applies to Fibre 300 where we committed to link pricing to the broadband anchor service throughout the first regulatory period. 
• Hyperfibre – we’re proposing price reductions across all Consumer and Small Business Hyperfibre Bitstream 2 plans and Business Hyperfibre Bitstream 3a plans to encourage early adoption. 
• Home Fibre Starter 50 – as this plan only launched 1 April 2022, we are not proposing to change the price where the service provider sells the retail price at or below the price cap of $60. If the retail price exceeds $60.00 per month the standard Fibre 50 plan price will apply.
• Consumer Fibre Max – we want to continue to support upsell of this plan so are proposing a limited increase of $2.00 to this plan. 
• Fibre 50 plan – Service Providers have told us that they do not see a place for two 50Mbps plans in the portfolio in the long term.  With the introduction of Home Fibre Starter 50, we are signalling our intention to make that our focus at the lower speed end of the portfolio and, therefore, are proposing to increase the price of the Fibre 50 plan by the full March CPI (6.9%).  We are considering developing an incentive offer specifically to support upsells from 50Mbps to higher speed fibre plans. We’ll consult with you on this before confirming any details.
• Small Business Fibre Max – we will continue to hold the pricing of this plan at the existing $65.00 price point.
• New services - any new services launched by us after the date of this Customer Update. If we launch any of these types of services, we’ll provide appropriate pricing information related to those services at the time of launch.

Important note: This proposed price increases remains subject to internal approvals.

What’s Next?

You can see a summary of the key milestones for this fibre price change process here.

From 2:30-3:00PM on 10 May 2022 we will host a call providing background information about, and an explanation of the rationale for, the proposed changes. All service providers are welcome to attend, contact Roxinne McCord to register. 

This is an inform-only session, you will be able to submit any questions before 5pm on 12 May 2022 using our Q&A Registration process.

Consultation Feedback

We’d like your feedback on the proposed price changes by 5pm on 27 May 2022. We’re specifically interested in your thoughts about what fibre services are in scope/out of scope. Please send your feedback directly to CPIFeedback@chorus.co.nz. 

We’ll then publish a Customer Update by 7 July 2022 letting you know whether:

• we have decided to go ahead with the proposed price change, and
• there are any amendments to the proposal as a result of the consultation feedback.

We’ll include a high-level summary of feedback as part of that Customer Update.  

Our default position is that we won’t identify the service providers who gave feedback nor what feedback belongs to which service provider. We’re open to making a connection between you and your feedback as part of the summary if you want us to do so. 

More information?

We’ve created a dedicated space on our Service Provider website where you’ll find all the information about these proposed price changes. 

For any other queries, please contact Roxinne McCord or Alan Mitford-Taylor in the first instance.