It’s one of the most commonly asked questions we get. In the shortest terms, we’ll give you the fastest broadband service possible at your house.

However, different broadband technologies behave differently.

ADSL2+

ADSL2+ is the copper broadband that most NZers know and love. In theory, ADSL2+ technology can achieve speeds of up to 24Mbps. But, in reality, the speeds you will get will be lower, and sometimes quite a bit lower than this – mainly dictated by how far from the exchange or cabinet your house is, and a number of other factors. ADSL is an older copper technology that is still around at some exchanges, and has a theoretical top speed of 8Mbps.

VDSL

VDSL is a much faster type of broadband that runs along the same copper lines as ADSL. However, it's only available up to about 1km from the exchange, and isn't as friendly with interference and hiccups as ADSL is. This is why VDSL can go up to 70Mbps, but actual speeds are lower, especially further away from the cabinet. If you can't get at least 15Mbps on VDSL, then you're better off on ADSL2+ anyway.

UFB / FIBRE

UFB, Ultra Fast Broadband, is a much better quality broadband - because it uses glass fibre cable instead of copper, it doesn't matter how far away from the exchange or cabinet you are, and it's much less likely to suffer from any interference. The biggest restriction on UFB speeds is the bandwidth available at the service you're trying to access - e.g. at a video service provider, a download server, or website. These services all have a limit to how fast they can send information to your computer, and often it's much less than what your line is capable of. But, because UFB has so much more bandwidth, you can do lots of things at the same time, all at full speed!

If you want to know what the internet speed jargon all means, click here.

Rest assured that we keep up the good fight by doing everything we can to give you the fastest possible internet. If you want lightning fast internet, visit our plans page here, check your address and see what flavour of Orcon Broadband is available at your house!