ADSL
Basic fixed line broadband
ADSL is our basic fixed line broadband service and supports everyday activities such as web browsing, online banking, and emailing.
ADSL was traditionally the most widely available form of broadband in New Zealand as it uses the legacy copper network and phone lines to connect a property to the internet. But with fibre and the better performing copper broadband, VDSL, now available to nearly all of New Zealand, ADSL is used less frequently.
It does still have its place however as ADSL still offers a dedicated connection from your home to our congestion-free network, meaning your internet won’t slow down significantly at peak usage times like nights and weekends. This makes it a good option if you are unable to get VDSL or fibre.
Check if you can get fibre or discover what you can do to connect your home or business to fibre from outside the planned ultra-fast broadband Government sponsored rollout programme.
- Available in most areas
- Dedicated broadband connection
- Good for web browsing and email
- Basic video streaming
- Suits small households
ADSL comes in two types, basic and enhanced - also known as ADSL2+. Basic ADSL provides basic broadband access over our copper lines and deliver speeds up to 7.5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. ADSL 2+ also provides broadband access over copper line and can deliver data at a rate up to 24 Mbps and 1 Mbps upload.
The speed and performance of an ADSL broadband connection may differ from these potential speeds due to a range of factors beyond the Chorus network such as the age of devices, wifi performance, the quality of the modem, a broadband provider’s network and capacity and the distance between your house and the exchange. The average ADSL 2+ connection speed in New Zealand is 10 Mbps upload and 0.8 Mbps download.
It matters how far away you are from the local cabinet. With copper connections, speed does decrease over distance. The further away you are, the slower the connection may be. Chorus can deliver ADSL 2+ services over the copper network within approximately two kilometres of the cabinet and ADSL within six kilometres of the cabinet. Fibre broadband is not affected by distance.
As outlined above, ADSL broadband connections use the legacy copper network which is the same network that has been used to connect our landline phones for over a century. As part of the natural evolution of technology and with fibre now available to over 80% of New Zealand, over the next couple of years Chorus will be retiring parts of the copper network in high density areas where fibre is available. There’ll certainly be no ‘switch off date’ for the copper network, like terrestrial TV for example. Instead it will happen gradually on a street by street basis and will only happen if fibre uptake is at a level where it needs to be. So if fibre is available in your area, you may want to consider a fibre connection. It's proven as the best performing broadband, costs not much more than ADSL and is generally free to install.
If you're in a rural area where fibre is not available today or planned for anytime soon, it's also ok as we'll be ensuring the copper network will remain in these areas so you can continue to access landline and broadband services.
Find the right connection for you
Not all broadband is created equal. Before you choose a plan with your broadband provider it’s good to understand the difference between the technologies and connection types available.
- Web browsing
- Emailing
- Download music / photos
- Web browsing
- Emailing
- Video streaming
- Streaming ultra-high definition video
- Video calling with apps like Zoom
- Uploading large files
- A wide range of online activities
- Streaming ultra-high definition video
- Online gaming
- Video conferencing
- All online activities that standard fibre broadband supports but 40x faster and with much more data capacity
* Average percentage of the time a household could stream the highest Netflix video quality (UHD) - Measuring Broadband New Zealand (Winter 2020) report, Commerce Commission New Zealand.
** These download times are an estimate and assume the best typical speed for each broadband connection type (Source: Measuring New Zealand’s broadband performance). These estimates are not a guarantee of the speed you'll get at your address. Actual download times may be longer - especially for ADSL, VDSL and fixed wireless connections. Your broadband performance can be affected by range of factors beyond the Chorus network.
*** Please note that broadband offers vary between service providers.
Here's what to do next
Ready to take your connection to the next level? Follow these steps.
1. Check what's available
Our broadband checker tool will tell you in seconds if fibre is available now or when it’s coming. Check your address now.
2. Order with your provider
Talk to your preferred provider about the best fibre plan. Here are some tips of what to look out for.
3. Get connected
Chorus will connect your home or business to the fibre network. For most properties this is very straight forward. If you're outside the Chorus fibre network, we can still connect you.
The basic unit of measurement for a piece of computer data is the bit (which can be either 0 or 1). When we talk about the speed at which data moves across the internet we refer to megabits per second (1,000,000 bits per second) and more recently gigabits per second (1,000,000,000 bits per second).
The faster you can download and upload data, the more enjoyable your internet experience will be. That's because the things we like doing on the internet - like streaming movies, TV and music, and playing games - require lots of information to move quickly from the internet to our computer, device or TV.
Broadband connection types (like ADSL) are advertised using the best speeds possible for the connection - a maximum potential upload and download speed. There are lots of factors that can affect the performance of your broadband, but the good news is, many of these things are within your control.
Latency - also referred to as ping - relates to the time (or delay) it takes for data to move from one device to another. Online gamers are especially keen to see low latency to ensure they experience fast, smooth game-play and can keep up with other players on fast broadband connections.
A typical ping rate across the same city should be lower than 20ms, while between cities you'd expect to see ping values between 30-60ms, and between continents that figure can climb to 150-200ms.
Wireless internet connections are more likely to be prone to poor latency which can affect the performance of your internet experience, including voice and video streaming services.
You can use the Chorus speed test to check the performance - including latency - of your connection.
Different connections and cable types (copper, fibre, 4G wireless) carry data at different speeds, so a good download speed will depend on which of these connections you have at home. Ideally, you'll want to your speed test result to be close to the advertised top speed for your broadband plan.
If you’re not sure what type of broadband you have, you can use the Chorus Broadband Checker to find out what connection you’re on now and what options might be available at your place. Fibre and Hyperfibre connections are faster and more reliable than all the other types of broadband and come with dedicated capacity for multiple devices to connect at once - ideal for families!
Explore more
The future of the copper network
Broadband connection types explained
What can affect my broadband performance?
