Chorus to focus on maintaining essential infrastructure

23 March 2020
Media release
Chorus to focus on maintaining essential infrastructure during lockdown
Chorus has today announced that in light of the Government’s increase in the COVID19 alert level to
4 on Wednesday 25 March, it will use the next 48 hours to formalise how field work will be
prioritised.
Access to broadband is a lifeline utility and the Chorus network is deemed an essential service. The
company owns and operates wholesale fixed line broadband infrastructure nationwide that more
than 80 Retail Service Providers (RSP) use as the basis for the fixed line services they sell to
customers.
“Our first priority is protecting the health and safety of the community and of those working on our
behalf,” said JB Rousselot, Chorus CEO. “Chorus provides strategically critical infrastructure that will
be absolutely essential to New Zealand during this time, and we are very aware of the need to keep
as many people as possible connected.”
“Given our status as a lifeline, we will prioritise repairing faults as quickly as possible, and connecting
locations where no other form of fixed line connectivity is available.
“We will continue to perform connections and upgrades in locations that already have a fixed line
connection, but only if field resources are available.”
“We have put a number of controls in place to identify situations where customers may be self-
isolating, and any technicians who display any signs of illness are stood down and put into self-
isolation immediately, along with their close contacts.
“We also have detailed health and safety requirements in place for use on occasions where faults
occur at homes where individuals are ill or self-isolating.
“I would like to thank our field force for their immense commitment during a very difficult time,
recognising the importance of the work they do to all New Zealanders,” he said.
Broadband performing well
Chorus’ broadband infrastructure continues to have the capacity available to support widespread
working from home.
While daytime data consumption continues to grow rapidly, consumption is still currently lower than
the usual 9pm busy hour.
Significant capacity headroom is also available above the record peak throughput ever recorded on
the network. In addition, the company is continuing to work collaboratively with our RSP partners to
support them to add capacity as required.
Wholesale broadband pricing

As a regulated utility, Chorus is able to apply an annual increase of the prices of its wholesale
broadband products, however the company has today agreed to postpone the usual annual CPI price
increase for broadband products until further notice.
Chorus will continue with its plans to reduce the price of its Gig connection from $60 to $56 on 1 July
2020 as originally planned, to help support improved working from home.
Further, Chorus is working through additional options to provide support for customers, retailers
and service companies, to ensure as many Kiwis as possible are able to stay connected to essential
infrastructure.
“We work within a complex ecosystem and the situation continues to evolve rapidly. We need to
ensure our support helps those who need it most, across our entire industry.
Chorus staff now working from home
The majority of Chorus staff are now working from home., A small number of key employees
continue to work from Chorus premises, which is currently necessary to ensure the ongoing integrity
of essential infrastructure.
“At this stage it appears that we have managed the transition to working from home without
significantly impacting our core processes, but we continue to watch this very closely.”
ENDS
For further information:
Steve Pettigrew
Head of External Communications
Mobile +64 (27) 258 6257
Email: steve.pettigrew@chorus.co.nz
Brett Jackson
Investor Relations Manager
Phone: +64 4 896 4039
Mobile: +64 (27) 488 7808
Email: brett.jackson@chorus.co.nz