Northpower Fibre technician Lindsay Knight at work on the Hikurangi ultra fast broadband fibre project.
Households wanting to plug into Northpower's ultra-fast broadband roll out in Hikurangi, Waipu and One Tree Point are encouraged to pre-register now.
Construction on the Hikurangi UFB network began in April and when completed in September this year will pass over 650 premises and almost 2000 residents in the former coal-mining and dairy factory town about 16 kilometres north of Whangarei.
The project is part of UFB2, a $310 million government-funded nationwide expansion of UFB fibre - to more than 151 additional towns, on top of the 33 cities already getting the service.
Northpower is spending $30m on a four year project to build UFB networks in 14 Whangarei and Kaipara towns as part of UFB2, and comes about three years after Northpower Fibre completed New Zealand's first ultra-fast broadband network in Whangarei.
The remaining seven Northland towns in UFB2 would be connected by Chorus within six years, and included Ahipara, Kaitaia, Morewa/Kawakawa, Russell, Kaikohe, Kerikeri, Paihia and Taipa Bay/Mangonui.
Northpower Fibre chief executive Darren Mason said that by pre-registering to be connected when the various UFB networks are built in the towns it will be far more efficient to complete the fibre connections from Northpower power poles to homes/businesses as the overhead lines go past buildings.
The UFB network builds are staggered with Waipu next on the list. Work was set to begin this month followed by One Tree Point in July. Dargaville West will be under way in January 2018, Ruakaka in March 2018 and Mangawhai Village in September 2018. Dargaville East will begin to receive fibre from February 2019, followed by Mangawhai Heads South in March 2019 and Mangawhai Heads North in August 2019.
The Kaiwaka UFB network build will begin in April 2020, Maungaturoto in June 2020, Waikaraka in September 2020 and Ruawai in November 2020. The entire Whangarei Kaipara project will be complete when UFB arrives in Paparoa in May 2021.
Residents in these communities are also welcome to pre-register their interest, Mr Mason said.
"We rely on digital technology for so much of our business activity like webinars for staff training, so having significantly faster and more reliable broadband will be a huge improvement for our business. Having fibre come to Hikurangi is going to be a real boost for the town," said Shayn Rouse, chairman of the Hikurangi Business Association.
Northpower Board of Directors chairman Nikki Davies-Colley said Northpower sees the expansion as a significant boost to the region. It will give these towns access to world-class broadband and UFB network superior to many major cities overseas.
"These UFB2 builds are about bringing opportunity to the North and breaking the digital divide as fast as we can.
"We are maximising our electricity and fibre networks to help enable our community. We have been involved in building fibre networks since 2007 and have consistently seen how much it has benefited our community.
"We already have an overhead fibre line from Whangarei to our substation at Hikurangi, so that makes the build faster. Also the actual network build within the township is 98 per cent overhead.
"The build in Hikurangi will be completed later this year, providing an additional 1830 people across more than 550 premises with access to fibre. The Government has invested around $600,000 to deliver UFB to Hikurangi," she said.
Ms Davies-Colley said 31 staff [22 of which are full-time field staff] are involved in the Hikurangi UFB2 network build.
"We are using only using Northpower line crews to do the aerial fibre installation and Northpower fibre jointers alongside them. Local contractors are doing the undergrounding.
"At the peak of the UFB2 build, we expect our total staff number will be around 100 [71 of which are full-time field staff] - although this could increase - which is great for the local economy," she said.
People can check out if they are in the build areas and pre-register at northpowerfibre.co.nz/coverage.