Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

City welcomes faster internet

By Cassandra Mason
Bay of Plenty Times·
5 May, 2014 02:30 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Ultra-fast internet is helping small businesses.

Ultra-fast internet is helping small businesses.

Ultra-fast broadband (UFB) is having a "powerful" impact on growing small businesses in Tauranga, a local business leader says.

Thirteen per cent of small and medium-sized businesses in the Bay of Plenty are already connected to UFB, a new survey reveals.

As of December, 47 per cent of the fibre optic network infrastructure in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato had been built.

Trans-Tasman accounting software provider MYOB surveyed more than 1000 small and medium businesses nationwide this year.

More than half the Bay businesses questioned said hooking up to a fibre-based ultra-fast network would have a positive impact on their operations.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dave Burnett said UFB had a lot of positive spin-offs for local businesses.

Benefits included faster, and increased, access to market information.

"Information is powerful. It gives you knowledge, and to have that knowledge can be used to grow that business," he said. "In terms of assisting businesses to grow, ultra-fast broadband is very powerful."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Telecommunications Users' Association New Zealand (TUANZ) chief executive Paul Brislen said small businesses stood to gain the most from UFB.

"If you're a medium or a large business ... it's just a matter of reducing your costs. But if you're a small business, you take the leap from a fairly basic connection that's really designed for consumers ... to the sort of things that your corporate competitors have always had at very little cost.

"That's going to change the way a lot of companies do business."

Fibre-based internet would reduce hour-long tasks to a matter of seconds, and drastically lower costs, he said.

UFB had cut TUANZ's own annual IT bill from $30,000 to $500.

The other "big winner" was the household consumer, as internet use in the home increased every year.

Wellington was the most connected main centre with a quarter of its firms saying they were hooked up to a fibre-based internet network. Auckland had 16 per cent and Christchurch 10 per cent.

Fibre will be capable of peak speeds of at least 100 megabits per second - that's up to 10 times faster than a regular broadband connection.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

07 Jul 08:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

07 Jul 07:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Hunter who feeds the hungry named Volunteer of the Year

07 Jul 06:56 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

07 Jul 08:00 AM

The man apologised to his victim, but pleaded not guilty.

'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

07 Jul 07:00 AM
Hunter who feeds the hungry named Volunteer of the Year

Hunter who feeds the hungry named Volunteer of the Year

07 Jul 06:56 AM
Downhill mountain bikers impress on world stage

Downhill mountain bikers impress on world stage

07 Jul 06:38 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP