FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
Story image
Bigpipe takes on Wellington; other cities to follow
Fri, 8th May 2015
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Naked broadband provider Bigpipe has launched its assault on the Wellington market as it begins a ‘targeted growth plan'.

Rollouts into Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Palmerston North are also planned for the Spark-owned business.

Earlier this year Bigpipe head Oliver Smith told TechDay growth had been ‘explosive' for the company and within five years he believe it was ‘quite plausible' that Bigpipe would be number three in Kiwi ISPs.

The company, which began operating in February 2014, has carved out a solid niche providing fast, naked, uncapped broadband, with no fixed-term contracts.

Smith says Kiwi consumers expect high speed internet connections even during peak periods.

“Bigpipe has proven its ability to deliver on this front, even with the launch of bandwidth intensive video streaming services like Lightbox and Netflix,” he say.

“We pride ourselves on offering UFB with a download speed of no less than 100Mbps. Anything less defeats the purpose of UFB.

Smith says that speed is even more critical with the entry of new digital entertainment offerings, now in market, consumer online interaction and changing consumption patterns.

He says cites a March Truenet report showing Bigpipe as the least congested network at peak times.

“We maintained our position throughout with 98% speed obtained at peak times and we're thrilled to deliver a consistently great service to our customers in Auckland and now in Wellington,” Smith says.

Three UFB plans will be available in Wellington, ranging from a $79/month starter plan with 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload to the Elite plan at $129/month for 200Mbps download and upload. Connection fees are extra.