The upgraded wireless broadband tower at Hurleyville, south of Hāwera, now has more capacity and can reach more homes, farms and businesses than before. Photo / Supplied
The upgraded wireless broadband tower at Hurleyville, south of Hāwera, now has more capacity and can reach more homes, farms and businesses than before. Photo / Supplied
Taranaki rural communities are staying connected thanks to a number of broadband tower upgrades.
The upgrades are being done in association with Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP) as part of the Government’s rural capacity upgrade programme.
The new technology being installed allows greater capacity, longer lifespan, and in some cases, greaterreach to cover more people from their existing sites.
Matt Harrison, Primo’s managing director, says the upgrades are happening at sites across Taranaki, from Mt Messenger in the north, to the area around Hurleyville and down to Pātea.
“With the latest fixed wireless broadband technology, we can get around some obstacles which stopped us from reaching some rural homes in the past. At the same time, adding fibre to some sites, coupled with the new access point technology, means we’ve really lifted our capacity which is great for existing customers and will future-proof services for new customers.”
While the upgrade work has meant some disruption to customers, he says the pay-off is a much better network for everyone.
“We’ve been working with CIP for a while now on improving rural broadband coverage. We’re helping reach the Government’s target of boosting broadband services across all their connectivity initiatives to ensure that 99.8 per cent will have improved broadband services by 2024. We’re one of 13 private companies doing this, and as a pioneer in rural internet, it’s been our dream to connect the unconnected of Taranaki.”
Primo will be contacting rural people in the New Year about getting connected and making use of the enhanced network.
