Tauranga's broadband upgrade completed

High speed broadband is now available to virtually all areas of urban Tauranga following the completion of a three-year upgrade costing more than $10 million.

It means that speeds have at least trebled for the thousands of residents that were previously too far from a telephone exchange - provided their computers and wiring were up-to-date.

Chorus, a Telecom business, has laid an extra 60km of fibre optic cable and installed 147 roadside cabinets to boost broadband speeds to at least 10 million bits per second (Mbps) - a huge improvement from old speeds of one to three Mbps.

However it does not mean that everyone's speeds have automatically trebled.

Project general manager Chris Dyhrberg said customers played a big part in making the most of the new capacity.

Accessing higher speeds depended on factors such as people's broadband plans, the age of their modem and computer and the wiring in their home or business.

Prior to the work starting, only customers within 2.5km of a telephone exchange had access to high speed broadband.

The upgrade has added 60km of fibre optic cable to the existing 400km network, with the cabinets the key to getting access to faster broadband for those previously too far from a telephone exchange.

Broadband speeds now average 13 Mbps in Tauranga, with speeds increasing up to 40 Mbps the closer customers were to the cabinets or their local telephone exchange.

Communications manager Robin Kelly said that generally everyone in Tauranga's 50km/h areas would have access to high speed broadband.

He said Chorus has also significantly reduced prices for businesses to access its existing business network for ultra-fast broadband. Chorus has a large business fibre optic network, particularly in the CBD.

Completion of the high-speed broadband project was not linked to the Government's initiative to invest $1.3 billion to deliver ultra-fast broadband to 75 per cent of New Zealand by 2020.