Consultation outcomes: Chorus SME business fibre plans
We recently consulted with you on some proposed enhancements to SME business fibre plans. The consultation period closed on 16 October 2024, and we received a good amount of feedback from you. We appreciate the submissions received as part of this consultation process.
Consultation feedback and outcome
Overall, the feedback was highly positive for most of the changes and for the remaining few the general feedback also moderately positive. Below is a high-level breakdown of the feedback we received and our responses:
| Question | What you said | Our response |
| Do you think enhanced restoration levels on business fibre plans offer RSPs more value? | 75% of respondents indicated HIGH value, with the rest saying good or moderate value. | We are satisfied that enhanced restoration levels are favorably viewed. |
| Do you think enhanced restoration levels on business fibre plans offer end-customers more value? | Over 60% of respondents indicated HIGH value, with the rest saying good or moderate value. | |
| What would extra CIR be worth to your monthly RRP? | If the increase was to 5Mbps CIR up/down, 14% said $10, 57% said $5, and 29% said none. | We are satisfied that extra CIR has merit in the market. |
| If the increase was to 10Mb then 14% said $20, 57% said $10, 14% said $5 and 14% said none. | ||
| Would a symmetrical 1000 plan on Small Business Hyperfibre (SBHF1G) assist your business to appeal to your customers? | Nearly 90% responded that a 1G symmetrical plan would appeal and the rest were not sure. | We are satisfied that SBHF1G would be well received in market. |
| Would you sell Small Business Fibre 920 (the 920/500 plan) or SBHF1G (1000/1000) or both: | About half would sell both, and half would sell just SBHF1G. | |
| What operational impact would following have in terms of Setup and Support (SLAs, CIR increase, introduction of SBHF1G) | For SLAs 50% said low, 25% said negligible, and 25% said moderate. | This seems to show there are some operational matters for RSPs to deal with through these propose enhancements, but that most feel the impact is low or negligible. |
| For CIR, 56% said negligible, 12% said low, 25% said moderate, and 6% said high. | ||
| For the symmetrical business gig plan 13% said negligible, 31% said low, 50% said moderate, and 6% said high. | ||
| Other feedback on proposed enhancements to Chorus business fibre plans? | Uptake of the SBHF1G would be somewhat influenced by its price positioning. Overall the feedback on the symmetrical business gig plan was very positive. | We acknowledge your feedback and thank you for your consideration. We are taking the feedback onboard in determining the final specific business fibre plan enhancements that we will confirm in coming weeks. |
| Some mentioned a desire for the Hyperfibre ONT to be smaller, and mentioned that a truckroll could be an issue at times. | ||
| The idea of enhanced restoration was generally well received. | ||
| Some expressed that while customers may appreciate more CIR being available they may not expect to pay extra for it. |
This offers our team the confidence that the industry is clearly in favour of these enhancements in some shape or form.
Next steps
We will now start finalising the shape of these enhancements and delivery planning. We will keep you informed as we make progress and expect to confirm these details by the end of the year including indicative implementation timelines.
Contact
If you have any questions in the interim, please contact your Customer Engagement team, or Jeremy Lane – SME Portfolio Lead.