Faster broadband allows users to access much more data. Comparing plan prices and performance will keep these costs under control

With Chorus’ Ultra Fibre Broadband (UFB) roll-out spreading rapidly to more corners of New Zealand, more and more Kiwis are taking advantage of internet that is up to 10 times faster than the old technologies.

And they haven’t been shy to take advantage of the trend. Data from Glimp.co.nz which powers our new tool to compare broadband plans shows that three quarters of users who switch provider using their service now opt for fibre, if it is available, compared with just 20% in 2016.

But which company offers the fastest fibre of them all?

Take a bow Orcon. Their service consistently tops the fastest download speeds of any ISP in New Zealand, according to data from the truenet.co.nz website.

You can test your speed here.

Truenet ranks the speeds of companies across each of their offerings (fibre, ADSL, VDSL, wireless) every month.

The rankings from August put Orcon on top of the pack with average download speeds from New Zealand websites of 41.2 Mb/s and 32.3 Mb/s from international websites.

Trustpower’s fibre ranked second for surfing speeds on international websites, but lagged behind Vodafone when it came to speeds on New Zealand sites.

Perhaps because of these superior speeds, Orcon appears to be the ISP of choice for heavy internet users, such as gamers.

Data from Chorus shows Orcon users are the most data hungry in the country, chewing through about 240 gigabytes per month, compared to the national average of 150 gigabytes.

However, fibre downloads speeds on fibre for all of New Zealand’s providers are above 30 Mb/s for New Zealand websites, which is significantly greater than speeds achieved by the old technologies.

So for savvy consumers looking at high-speed fibre connections other factors such as price and plan will be important just as important as maximum download speeds.

You can find if your street has UFB and compare ISP prices and fibre broadband plans here.

► You can check the features, price and terms of most broadband offers using this handy tool.