Hon Amy Adams

Minister for Communications and Information Technology

9 May 2013 Media Statement

UFB and RBI continue good progress

The latest quarterly report on the Government’s Ultra-Fast Broadband and Rural Broadband programmes shows good progress was made in the first three months of this year.

The report released by Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams shows nearly 1500 schools are able to access the Government’s ultra-fast broadband network.

In addition, 26 of the most remote schools in New Zealand now have access to broadband capable of peak speeds of at least 10 megabits per second, which is about four times faster than previous services.

The report also shows fibre was rolled out to more than 36,000 end users across New Zealand during the first three months of this year. This brings the total number of homes and businesses that can now connect to the Government’s UFB network to more than 171,000.

More than 5100 customers have already made the decision to subscribe to a fibre-based service under the UFB programme. This is in line with government expectations and overseas experiences at this early stage of deployment.

In addition, more than 100,000 rural households are now able to connect to improved wireless broadband through Vodafone under the RBI, and more than 42,000 users have access to better fixed-line broadband through Chorus.

Six new towers have been installed so far this year by Vodafone in Manawatu-Wanganui, Southland, Grey District, Westland, Northland and the Wairarapa.

Vodafone also upgraded 14 towers, and Chorus upgraded 77 roadside cabinets with fibre during the first three months of the year.  To date, there have been 36 new towers installed and 145 upgraded, and 407 cabinets upgraded.

Report:

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1305/UFB_and_RBI_quarterly_report.pdf

ENDS

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