In late January, we provided an update on feedback we received from you on our proposal for simplification of the business portfolio. We have reviewed all feedback and can now confirm our final approach (refer to table below). Changes from what were initially proposed are now confirmed as below. The plans notified cover all bandwidth profiles unless specified.

What this means

Stop-sell (or “grandfathering”) means that from the grandfathering date:  

• No new orders will be accepted for these plans;
• existing connections can remain in place, but no moves, adds or changes (including transfers between RSPs) can be made for these plans (with the exception of NGA Business P2P, for which transfers between RSPs is permitted, but no other moves, adds or changes).  

Withdrawal means that the specified plans will no longer be available for either existing or new users from the withdrawal date.  Any existing connections will need to be migrated to an alternative plan (or disconnected) before the withdrawal date:

• All affected connections on affected Evolve plans, and Education Hyperfibre, must transition by 31 March 2025  
• All NGA Business 1,2 and 5 connections must transition by 31 March 2026
• All HSNS Fibre Lite connections must transition by 31 March 2027  

Please note that in order to ensure you have migrated all plans by the notified withdrawal date, orders for alternative plans will need to be placed at least three months in advance of the relevant withdrawal date. 

Transitioning existing plans to alternative Chorus products

Below is a list of suggested alternative Chorus business products that existing connections subject to withdrawal could be migrated to: 

Chorus will provide to each affected RSP (by email) a summary containing:

1. A list of your connections impacted by these changes, including plan name, bandwidth, pricing and addresses.
2. Suggested alternate products to migrate your affected connections to, and pricing and other product information for such alternatives.  

Chorus’ suggestions of alternative products are based on what is believed to be the closest substitute, providing the best value. Your Chorus account manager can discuss options with you.

This summary will form part of the withdrawal notice for those affected RSPs.

Migration planning

The majority of the affected connections as a result of this notice are NGA Evolve connections. We can migrate all impacted Bitstream 2 plans to our recommended alternative, Small Business Fibre, as bulk transfers free of charge.  

We can work with you to plan this migration, including scheduling (for which at least three weeks’ notice is required). We can migrate up to 800 circuits per day, so will need to work with RSPs to space migrations effectively so that the final batches of migration orders are placed with sufficient time before withdrawal. Migration of each circuit is fully automated with minimal end customer outage (1-4 minutes). For migrations from Bitstream 3, 3a and HSNS, we are working on transition planning and will communicate with you further about these. Orders to migrate to alternative plans should be placed at least three months before the relevant withdrawal date.

Next steps

Your account team will be in touch with affected RSPs to discuss next steps and answer any questions.