As New Zealanders sit through the Stage 4 lockdown in a bid to combat COVID-19, you may be wondering what this means for broadband services. Especially as broadband is more important than ever as we work from home, and spend our days at home.
Fortunately the services that provide our broadband are essential services. That means that maintaining capacity on the broadband network is treated as a priority, and you can still upgrade to faster broadband if you need to.
Here is a daily summary of latest updates and developments to help you understand what to expect from broadband in NZ.
In most cases, if you already have a broadband connection set up at your home, switching to a new plan can be handled remotely without a visit from a technician, for example switching from one VDSL plan to another VDSL plan, or switching from one Fibre plan to another Fibre plan. This means you can still switch to a new broadband plan to get a better deal during lockdown.
As with switching to a new broadband plan, you can also switch to a new provider as long as the switch can be handled remotely without a visit from a technician. This means you can switch to a plan with a different broadband provider if you wish to. Click here to see how different broadband providers are supporting their customers during lockdown.
If your home broadband connection is struggling, it may be time to consider upgrading your broadband plan. Especially if you have multiple people in your home working remotely, streaming content or gaming. For example, if you have a Fibre100 connection, you may find that a Fibre 200 or Gigabit fibre plan is better suited to your needs.
Your internet service provider is an “essential service”, that means they will continue to operate during the lockdown period. Most broadband providers have customer support services set up to work from home during lockdown, Most providers have announced measures to support their customers by removing data caps, and measures for customers experiencing financial hardship. Learn more.
Lines companies like Chorus and Enable handle the technical side of setting up a new broadband connection, for example a technician will visit your home if you upgrade to fibre to set up the new line. New broadband connections are being prioritised for:
This means all customer connections where a customer is shifting to fibre from an alternative broadband technology for customers in category 4 will be deferred until the Alert Level is reduced.
If you want to know more about changing broadband plans during lockdown our customer support team are ready to take your call and chat about your situations.
And during these uncertain times, many people are looking for ways to reduce their spending – this is a great time to compare plans and make sure you’re not paying more than you should for broadband.
