Recently we let you know about the results of our industry consultation on Chorus SME business fibre enhancements.

After assessing the feedback, which was generally very positive, we confirmed the specific enhancements in February, so that RSPs can plan to align their offerings with those we provide, if they choose.

Our most recent Business Research 2024 highlighted some areas around connectivity  that New Zealand businesses value. Following RSP feedback, here are the enhancements that Chorus have delivered for selected SME Business Fibre plans:

Launch Small Business Hyperfibre 1G – with a 1G symmetrical plan (1000Mbps download & upload), there is real benefit for customers to move into the XGSPON space, which offers greater performance and facilitates simpler upgrades to higher bandwidth plans as data needs for businesses inevitably grow.

Increased CIR for all Small Business Fibre plans to 5Mb (up/down)  

Increased CIR for all Small Business Hyperfibre to 10Mb (up/down)

To offer more support to businesses who want to eliminate data degradation on certain key collaboration applications such as VoIP, video conferencing and cloud connectivity.

SME enhancements – High Priority CIR upgrades

Improved Business Restore SLAs – we have shortened the SLA for restoration for faults reported before midday from 7pm to 6pm for all plans that benefit from Business Restore, which will contribute to an overall improvement in reducing business downtime due to network outages.  

(Faults reported after midday will continue with the existing SLA of restoration by midday the following day, as is the status quo for Business Restore.)  

Improved Business Restore Reporting – this report will be available to show average hours to restoration. For many businesses, every hour offline will cost money, and every hour back online gets their business back up and running effectively. This report will help businesses better understand the value of being on a prioritised service with SME Business Fibre plans.

One year TRIAL OFFER – one free Critical Response (CR) for Small Business Hyperfibre and Business Hyperfibre plans (12 months only) – data shows that when our service company technicians get to site faster, this can improve the restoration time. Hence, we are offering a 12-month trial on any Small Business Hyperfibre or Business Hyperfibre connection for CR. If there is a network issue, and the customer has real urgency to get the fastest response possible, then they can request our CR service. The offer provides x1 free CR per 12-month period on these plans, per customer connection. There will be a fair use clause in this trial offer, as the intention is that customers only invoke the one free CR per annum in urgent cases. After one successful application of CR, any subsequent CR on that connection will have to pay the normal rate ($861.55+gst), as will other business plans not included in this trial.

Next steps

You can take advantage of these SME enhancements from 5 May 2025.

Contact

If you have any questions, please contact your Customer Engagement team, or Jeremy Lane – SME Portfolio Lead.