Full Flavour is an excellent rural broadband provider that delivers high-speed internet to remote areas of New Zealand. They specialise in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato areas, where a stable internet connection can be challenging.
Before switching to Full Flavour, you should check out their plans, pricing, coverage, and pros and cons to decide if they're a good fit for you.
In this Full Flavour broadband review, we'll cover all these things and more so you can make an informed decision!
Full Flavour has a wide network of signal repeaters which help extend their coverage to places most broadband providers can't reach. They proudly boast that they offer "rural broadband at city speeds".
All of their plans are fixed-term contracts, meaning you'll have to sign up for at least 6 to 24 months. Like most NZ broadband providers, you'll need to pay early exit fees if you cancel early, and the fees depend on the time left on your contract.
Full Flavour offers three distinct broadband plans according to the broadband speeds and connection type you need. Here's a breakdown of their broadband deals:
Full Flavour's wireless broadband plans operate on an extensive 4G network. They currently offer two plans for personal use and one business-level broadband plan.
Go Fast 300GB
Full Flavour's most basic internet plan is the Go Fast 300GB plan. It gives you broadband speeds of about 20 Mbps but comes with a 300 GB data cap. Once you exceed your 300 GB, you can add extra data for NZ $1 per GB.
The Go Fast broadband plan comes with free installation and free Wi-Fi 5 modem rental for the duration of your contract. This plan costs NZ $100/month and is available with a fixed contract of at least six months.
Full Flavour also gives you the option to add a wireless landline with free regional 07 calls for just NZ $15/month.
Go Fast Unlimited
The Go Fast Unlimited plan features broadband speeds of up to 50 Mbps. It comes with the same free installation, rentable router, 6-month commitment, and optional landline add-on as the Go Fast 300GB.
The main difference, however, is the Go Fast Unlimited plan comes without a data cap. You can stream and download as much as you like without worrying about your data consumption.
This plan costs NZ $130/month, which is NZ $30 more than the 300GB plan, so you should consider whether the extra data is worth it.
Business Unlimited
The Business Unlimited plan is a prioritised wireless broadband plan for businesses. It provides a fast connection with speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
However, your business needs to be within 10 km of any Full Flavour network repeater for their internet to work. They'll do a network check to confirm before you sign up.
Once you've signed up for the Business Unlimited plan, you'll need to pay a one-time installation fee of NZ $1,000. You can also add a Wi-Fi 6 router, which improves your wall-to-wall coverage, for an additional NZ $250.
The Business Unlimited plan costs NZ $200/month and is only available with a fixed 12-month contract.
Full Flavour offers two rural fibre plans, which come with a hefty installation fee of about NZ $2,500. The installation cost depends on whether you already have Chorus Fibre installed and the amount of work contractors need to do to extend fibre to your home.
Here are the two rural fibre plans:
Residential Go Fast Max
Full Flavour offers a fibre-max plan called the Residental Go Fast Max, which gives you speeds of up to 900 Mbps for download and 500 Mbps for upload.
However, they don't guarantee that you'll always get exactly 900/500 Mbps because of the difficulty of supplying remote areas. That being said, they promise their best efforts.
The Residential unlimited fibre plan costs NZ $115/month and comes with a fixed contract of at least 24 months, which is a long commitment.
Business Max
The Business Max plan gives you the same maximum speeds of up to 900/500 Mbps but comes with a performance guarantee. You can also get faster speeds, but you'll need to contact Full Flavour for a tailored business quotation.
This business plan costs NZ $155/month and comes with the same 24-month minimum contract.
Full Flavour has been in the broadband industry for over a decade, and some of its customers have been with them from the very beginning! This shows just how reliable their service and customer support team is.
They have a hotline for general inquiries and several other landline numbers dedicated to different areas of New Zealand. This helps streamline any inquiries or complaints you may have and minimises on-call waiting times.
It depends on where you live. If you're in the Rotorua Lakes, South Waikato, TaupÅ, or Western Bay Of Plenty areas, Full Flavor is an excellent broadband provider to consider.
However, if you live in urban areas where wireless and fibre broadband plans are readily available, you can find dozens of better deals. If that's the case, you can use Glimp's broadband-compare tool to find cheaper and faster internet service providers (ISP).
Also, businesses that are more than 10 km away from the nearest Full Flavour network repeater should consider other broadband options.
Full Flavour is an excellent rural ISP for Kiwis living in remote areas such as the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
However, it's a bit more expensive than most providers, so we'd recommend it only if you live in those areas and aren't covered by other ISPs.