Vodafone has switched on its newly built cell site at Ngongotaha North, the first of four towers planned for the Rotorua district under the Government's Rural Broadband Initiative.
The 30m monopole tower provides mobile coverage and wireless broadband for the first time to more than 260 households in the area. It was turned on yesterday.
Three more towers are planned for the Rotorua district over the next three years, including Reporoa, Lake Okareka and Lake Rotoma, jointly providing mobile coverage and wireless broadband for more than 1200 homes and businesses.
Five more of Vodafone's existing eight sites in the area - Paeroa Range, Whakarewarewa, Mamaku, Okere Falls and Rainbow Mountain - will also be upgraded under the initiative.
Vodafone's local business development manager, Kevin Houlton, said there was no question that access to high-speed broadband made a major difference to rural New Zealanders' lives.