Bay firm finds home Wi-Fi solution

NOW CEO Hamish White (left) and head of sales and marketing David Nation are launching an in-home service to lift Wi-Fi performance. Photo / Warren Buckland

NOW of Hawke's Bay says it may have an industry first with its in-home service taking the bottleneck out of Wi-Fi.

"With the average Kiwi family household now boasting an average of 3.4 wireless devices, and growing, the problem is only set to become more pronounced," CEO Hamish White said.

The solution will enable homeowners to achieve high performance wireless connectivity throughout the home and garden. He said the telecommunications industry had been typically reluctant to get involved in customers' internet woes if it means going beyond the customer's router.

"Our research highlighted that the average home was not only experiencing frustrations with the extent of wireless coverage and black-spots, where signal strength was marginal, but also the ability for numerous devices to simultaneously stream content from the internet without buffering."

NOW's "digital concierges" provide the solution, featuring cabled-in wireless access points similar in appearance to a smoke alarm for residential customers on ADSL2+, VDSL or Ultra Fast Fibre networks.

David Nation, head of sales and marketing, said it was the first step towards consumers having automated control of all electronic devices - the "Internet of things" in which countless appliances and devices will be networked in the future.

"Smart home technologies are moving rapidly and a managed wireless network will provide the platform for these systems. It needs to be simple and for us it is all about making things work seamlessly. After all, the home is for living."

Installation is from $149 with an ongoing cost of $7.95 per month.

"Customers that have been on the trialist programme can not believe how much better the user experience has become."

NOW offers services across Hawke's Bay, Rotorua and recently entered the Wellington market.