Ultra-fast and rural broadband connects 1.2 million Kiwis
Uptake of UFB hits 21.3%.
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Hawke’s Bay
More than 1.2 million Kiwis can now connect to Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and rural broadband, the government says (see full stats here).
“More than 921,000 households, businesses, schools and hospitals are able to connect to the UFB network, and more than 285,000 rural premises are able to access a Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) service,” Communications Minister Amy Adams says.
Uptake of UFB has nearly reached 200,000, or 21.3%, with the build in 16 regional towns now complete, as at March 31, this year.
“The RBI continues to extend coverage to rural areas across New Zealand and uptake of these services by both residential and business customers has reached 37.3%,” Ms Adams says.
A total of 142 newly built rural broadband towers are in operation, making the new tower build 92% complete. In the past three months, more than two million individual mobile devices accessed services from the new RBI towers.
“Tower upgrades are now 87% complete, with 338 RBI towers upgraded. New and upgraded towers have meant about 269,000 homes and businesses in rural areas are able to connect to 3G or 4G fixed wireless,” Ms Adams says.
“Nearly 1200 cabinets in rural areas have been upgraded under the RBI, meaning that over 108,000 rural households and businesses can now access faster copper broadband.”
Chorus has been contracted to deliver 70% of UFB and in February, chief executive Mark Ratcliffe said it will need twice as many technicians as it has now by the middle of this year because of record connections earlier this year.
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Staff Reporter
Tue, 10 May 2016
Tue, 10 May 2016
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Ultra-fast and rural broadband connects 1.2 million Kiwis
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