On a conference call, chief executive JB Rousselot mentioned a "win-back payment" of up to $600 to a retailer if an "off-net" - such as fixed-wireless - customer was lured back to Chorus fibre. Chorus' investor presentation drew on Statistics NZ data to illustrate Covid's effect on net migration - which it said had in turn dampened demand for new UFB fibre connections. However, the direct impact cost of Covid to Chorus, initially put at $10m, was nowe estimated at $6m to $7m. The decade-long, public-private Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) fibre rollout had been "bloody hard", chairman Patrick Strange told investors at the virtual AGM. Retail ISPs have peeled some 200,000 customers away from Chorus with fixed-wireless (aka wireless broadband) offerings.

Source: New Zealand Herald February 21, 2021 20:04 UTC