UFB roll-out for townships over the next three years

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

CHORUS has announced an ultra-fast broadband roll-out for Tolaga Bay, Makaraka, Ruatoria, Manutuke and Te Karaka.

The townships will have UFB from November in Tolaga Bay, through to Te Karaka the last to come online in January 2021.

Makaraka and Ruatoria are scheduled to come online in January 2019, and Manutuke in November 2020.

Mayor Meng Foon said he was delighted at the news.

“The public wanted more efficient broadband as the demand for data grows, especially in the entertainment category.”

About 190 towns will receive UFB under this second extension to the UFB programme and the entire network will be complete by the end of 2022.

At that time, 87 percent of New Zealanders will have access to fibre-to-the-premises.

Chorus spokeswoman Jo Seddon said that after working with “the Government, Crown infrastructure partners and our build companies, we have been able to bring the programme completion forward by a massive two years”.

“We are pleased to be able to confirm not only the timings for the extension to our fibre roll-out throughout the country, but also that Broadspectrum is our service partner for UFB2 and Visionstream for the UFB2+ extension.

“When we are done, more than 1.3 million customers will be able to connect to our fibre network.

“That’s about three-quarters of the 87 percent of New Zealanders to be covered, with the balance provided by the other local fibre companies.

“It makes sense to get the best you can and we already have very fast VDSL available in most towns, so this is a good interim answer while waiting for fibre.

“We encourage people to check what they could be getting through our broadband checker or go on to our Ask For Better site."