CNU - Q4 FY26 Connections Update

Friday 24th July 2026

Chorus’ total fixed line connections at the end of June 2026 were 1,191,000, down 4,000 connections overall compared to Q3 FY26. This reflects the continued decline in copper connections as consumers shift to modern broadband technologies.

Fibre connections increase quarter on quarter

Total fibre connections were 1,147,000 at the end of June 2026, increasing by approximately 5,000 lines in the quarter.

Fibre uptake across Chorus’ wider fibre network footprint, excluding other local fibre company areas, lifted by 0.4% to 75.9%. Fibre uptake across the major urban areas – Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin – were above 78%. During the quarter, a further 6,000 addresses were passed by fibre, with the increase partially offset by address data cleansing as the new data and analytics function continues to enhance data quality. The address base has been adjusted, removing ~53,000 non-serviceable/vacant lots where a premise cannot be connected.

Data use continues to increase

Fibre usage continued its unabated upward trajectory, with June 2026 average fibre usage 731GB, up 9% year on year. This was also the highest monthly average data usage with FIFA World Cup streaming adding at least 7.8PB to the usual total monthly traffic. Plan activity remained stable, with more than four in five customers on 500Mbps plans or higher.

Copper withdrawal largely complete across fibre footprint

The copper-to-fibre transition is now largely complete across New Zealand’s fibre footprint, with fewer than 1,000 copper connections remaining to migrate to fibre across both Chorus’ and the other local fibre companies’ networks.

A total of 9,000 copper lines disconnected in the quarter, leaving approximately 44,000 services at the end of June. In areas where fibre is not available, around 6,000 copper customers migrated from copper to alternative network options during the quarter, leaving approximately 43,000 copper lines outside of the existing specified fibre area footprint.

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