Wholesaler and network operator Chorus has this morning cut the price of its VDSL to a “mass market” level.

The move has finally nudged big ISPs to embrace this faster form of copper broadband, which has so far been pushed by smaller-to-mid-tier ISPs, most notably Snap.

Some see VDSL (which is much faster than the ADSL used by most homes today) as a good alternative while you wait for fibre to come to your neighbourhood under the Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) rollout. And as a useful way for people to get acclimatised to the benefits of faster broadband.

Others say VDSL is all you need for today’s internet, full-stop, given the technology can deliver speeds around the level offered by the cheapest fibre plans (30Mbit/s down, 10Mbit/s up).

The catch: you have to live relatively close to the nearest phone exchange or cabinet to get the full effect (unlike fibre, copper bandwidth degrades with distance, and this effect is exaggerated with VDSL). That rules out around half of urban households.

Telecom – which holds around 50% of the residential ISP market – has been conspicuous in not offering a VDSL plan.

Now, that’s about to change.

“This month, we initiated a commercial VDSL pilot with a small number of selected customers to explore how it might be made available more widely,” spokesman Andrew Pirie told NBR Online this morning.

“We also have an internal staff trial underway (I’ve been connected at home via VDSL for a few weeks, and it’s working great, much faster than ADSL2.”

Telecom is now looking to move to a full commercial launch, Mr Pirie says. Timing and other details are still to be confirmed.

“We agree with Chorus that VDSL is a technology that provides an ideal ‘stepping stone’ to fibre, bringing better broadband sooner to those customers who are not in-line for Ultrafast Fibre in the short term,” Mr Pirie says.

CallPlus/Slingshot Mark Callander told NBR this morning, “CallPlus will be deploying VDSL services from our own exchanges in the next few months and we will also be wholesaling Chorus VDSL services where we do not have coverage.”

An Orcon spokesman told NBR the company is currently testing VDSL ahead of a launch. No date has been set.

A spokeswoman for Vodafone said the company was accessing the Chorus price cut, and is still accessing whether to launch a VDSL service (Vodafone has previously trialled VDSL. Two other factors: It is the only major ISP not to have launched UFB plans, and it has a third broadband option on its hands through the Wellington and Christchurch hybrid fibre-cable networks it gain with its purchase of TelstraClear).

Might get pulled
The question now: will VDSL make UFB update even more sluggish?

Notably, Chorus says in its statement (below) that it won’t sell VDSL once its fibre rollout is complete in any given region and that “Chorus may also review the ongoing provision of VDSL if its continued availability affects fibre uptake in Chorus’ UFB areas.” Ouch. If you want VDSL, get in quick.

Article at NBR