Fast fibre network nearly complete

BETTER: Tauranga Moana Restorative Justice Trust general manager Bastiaan Kramer loves the fact his office is close to becoming paperless as it embraces faster, better internet.PHOTO/JHON BORREN

A Tauranga organisation is transforming itself into a paperless office as installation of Ultra-Fast Broadband in the city nears completion this month.

Since taking on the Ultra-Fast Broadband, the Tauranga Moana Restorative Justice Trust has reduced its paperwork by 95 per cent with the goal of becoming a paperless office.

The not-for-profit organisation often experienced download delays on large legal documents, with up to 70 folders of paperwork needing to be stored annually.

General manager Bastiaan Kramer realised he needed a better solution.

"Our staff were complaining that they couldn't download files fast enough. It turns out the slow internet connection was causing a bottleneck for people trying to access it at the same time. So we decided to move to fibre," Mr Kramer said.

Local fibre company Ultrafast Fibre Limited has now built 99 per cent of its Ultra-Fast Broadband network in Tauranga and completion is expected by the end of next week.

"Ultra-fast broadband is the ultimate solution. It has absolutely transformed the way we work," Mr Kramer said.

"Ninety per cent of our staff work in the field, many of whom would have to come to the office and pick up the printed files. For those who work further afield, we would email it to them and they would print it out. We'd also have a printed copy on file here. There was just way too much paper being used."

Using fibre optic cables, Ultra-fast broadband can typically provide download speeds of up to 100Mbps (megabits per second), and in some areas up to 1000Mbps.

By 2022, at least 80 per cent of New Zealanders will be able to access the internet using the broadband, with more to come. And all of our schools, hospitals and 90 per cent of businesses will be connected by the end of 2015.

"Looking at the quantity of paper we had compared to what we have now, I'd say it's a 95 per cent reduction," Mr Bastiaan said.

"If we'd continued as we were, we'd have needed four or five administration staff to handle our growing workload. Fortunately, I've been able to keep that at two full-time and one part-time. Those cost savings are vital for a not-for-profit, and they happened because we got UFB."

The broadband is now available to nearly 45,000 homes, schools and businesses across the city.

The Government invested $2 billion to help deliver the faster, better internet.