Orcon offers free internet for those on UFB

Orcon is offering free internet to those who choose to switch to ultra-fast broadband, and will do so for the rest of the year, the company announced today.

Orcon chief executive Scott Bartlett said uptake of UFB had been slow, and the company wanted to challenge ISPs to offer free installation permanently.

Orcon currently has less than 200 customers on fibre, and Bartlett wants to get people to switch because he believes consumers will not go back to copper.

By the end of the year, UFB will be available to parts of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and many smaller towns and cities.

“What we need in this country is to get people on this network and remove all the barriers,” Bartlett said today.

“So we're going to be making fibre – both the installation and the monthly service – free for the rest of the year.”

Orcon will offer the $75 plan, with 30GB data, for free until the end of the year, with upgrades possible for a small extra cost. Bartlett said the company wanted to extend free installation of fibre in the home “forever”.

Bartlett said Orcon was the first, and “still really the only ones” to sell broadband in New Zealand.

Installation is free for the base fibre plan, which costs $75/month for 30GB of data. However, customers are required to pay from 1 January 2013, and will go on contract through to 31 December 2013.

Users also have to sign up before 31 August.

Orcon's free service applies to schools, businesses, and consumers.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen said TUANZ was “delighted to see Orcon lay down a challenge like this”.

“A price point of free is pretty spectacular and throws down the gauntlet to other providers – if you want customers in the UFB world you'll have to compete for them,” he said.