Vodafone brings rural broadband to Carrington Road

Wednesday, 22 January 2014, 10:51 am
Press Release: Vodafone

Vodafone brings rural broadband and mobile coverage to Carrington Road

South Taranaki residents and visitors will experience improved mobile coverage and broadband options this year, as Vodafone switches on its services at Carrington Road as part of the Government’s Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI).

By adding new equipment to an existing 30 metre lattice tower in the area, Vodafone has enabled mobile coverage and wireless broadband to over 1,000 households in the area.

Two other towers are planned for the South Taranaki District over the next three years at Normanby and Kaponga, jointly providing mobile coverage and wireless broadband to around 2,800 homes and businesses. Vodafone will also upgrade its site at West Egmont. Sites at Hawera, Waverley, Patea and Opunake have already been upgraded.

Vodafone’s Regional Sales Manager, Megan Thomas, says there’s no question that access to high-speed broadband makes a significant difference to the lives of rural New Zealanders.

“The faster, 21MB wireless broadband modem introduced last year, allows customers to experience speeds in excess of some city dwellers, and provides a consistent and reliable service – far superior to dial-up speeds.
“Having high-speed broadband not only enables the use of farming technology and agri-innovation, but employment and study options for rural youth. It also gives farmers the opportunity to explore machine-to-machine technology, used for example to track fertilizer spreading, rainfall and frost temperatures, preventing waste and loss.”
An additional benefit of RBI for rural communities is the extension of mobile coverage to include 4,500km of rural New Zealand roads, which until now have been without.

Megan adds: “This is a massive benefit for rural areas like Taranaki in dealing with emergencies, transport logistics and road safety previously hampered by limited coverage.”

Vodafone has ploughed ahead of the Government’s RBI targets, completing the construction of 74 new sites, and upgrades to 248, meaning new services for over 130,000 addresses in rural New Zealand. At the half way point of the five year programme the company has already secured the necessary agreements and consents for 65% of new sites.

Under the five year RBI plan, Vodafone will fund the upgrade of 387 existing cell towers and build a further 154 new towers in rural areas all over New Zealand to achieve government community coverage targets. The government is funding the civil construction costs of the new sites which are designed to accommodate Vodafone equipment and that of other mobile and wireless operators.

The addition of mobile and broadband coverage at Carrington Road is another enhancement to the Vodafone SuperNet, New Zealand's superior network for landline, mobile, broadband and TV.

Customers can find out if this service will be available at their address by checking online at
www.vodafone.co.nz/rural-broadband.

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