The single most common reason Auckland fibre customers get less than 200 Mbps is that their in-home cabling is Cat5 or older — not the Cat6 your fibre needs. Your ONT and router are fine. Your ISP is delivering the speed you pay for. The bottleneck is the last 30 metres of cable between your router and your devices. Below is how to diagnose it in 5 minutes and what each fix costs in 2026.
“If you pay for fibre but your speed test still shows 100 Mbps, your internet is being throttled by a Cat5 cable inside your walls — not by your ISP.”
How do I check if my in-home cabling is the bottleneck?
Plug your laptop directly into your fibre router with a known-good Cat6 patch lead. Run a speed test at speedtest.net. If you now get 800+ Mbps, the issue is your in-wall cabling. If you still get 100 Mbps, the issue is upstream (router, ONT, or ISP).
What’s the difference between Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6A?
Cat5 maxes out at 100 Mbps and is what most pre-2008 Auckland homes have. Cat5e handles 1 Gbps over short runs. Cat6 handles 1 Gbps over 100m comfortably and 10 Gbps over 55m. Cat6A handles 10 Gbps over 100m. If you bought a fibre plan over 100 Mbps, you need Cat6 minimum at every wall outlet.
How much does it cost to upgrade in-home cabling?
Replacing the cabling in a 3-bedroom Auckland home with Cat6 typically costs NZD 800-1,500 (5 outlets) or NZD 1,500-2,800 (10 outlets, two-storey). Smart-home pre-wires during a renovation are 30-40% cheaper because walls are already open.
What if I rent and can’t re-cable?
Two options. Option 1: powerline adapters (NZD 100-200) — fine for streaming, OK for browsing, terrible for video calls. Option 2: a mesh WiFi system (NZD 300-700) with the satellite hardwired back to the router via a single Cat6 run we install for you. The single Cat6 run is usually NZD 220-350.
What does slow in-home internet actually cost you?
If you pay for 900 Mbps fibre and get 100 Mbps, you’re paying roughly NZD 60-90 per month for speed you can’t use. Over 3 years that’s NZD 2,200-3,200 thrown at the wall — more than enough to re-cable the entire house in Cat6 once and use the speed you’re paying for forever. The math almost always favours fixing the cable.
Frequently asked questions
Will Cat6 actually make my WiFi faster?
Is fibre ‘inside the home’ a thing?
Can I install Cat6 myself?
How long does a re-cabling job take?
Do you do free site surveys?
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Reviewed by Namra Shah, Founder & Director of Cabling For U. Cabling For U has been delivering certified network cabling, fibre and CCTV installations across Auckland since 2018, installing to TIA/EIA and AS/NZS 3080 standards.