Wairoa is connected with the first of the fibre rollout now live.

Improving Wairoa’s connectivity began earlier this year with the first completed Fibre Flexibility Point (FFP) now good to go and six local households signed up to the ultra-fast broadband.

Chorus senior delivery specialist Tony Hall explained the Wairoa township is broken into a total of 11 Fibre Flexibility Point areas.

The first area to go live is FFP16 which covers a central southern side residential area in the vicinity bounded by Lahore Street, Clyde Road, Lucknow Street and Kabul Street.

FFP13, which is back from the Lahore Street area towards the hospital site, is due to be commissioned in the next few weeks and FFP 15, from Victoria Avenue towards State Highway 2, is due to be released by September 30.

Residents wanting to know when fibre will be rolled out in their area just need to log into www.chorus.co.nz and type in their address and their status will be displayed.

Mr Hall said contractors are on track to meet the targeted total completion roll out date of February 2019.

“To ensure people have access to fibre as soon as possible we inform residents as soon as the fibre in their area is good to go via a letter drop.”

He said Wairoa residents will experience speeds of five to 10 times faster with fibre.

“Benefits include a better response across multiple devices, improved streaming and less congestion at times of high usage.

“Council has been very proactive in welcoming the roll out. We have worked with a young energised group of people who can see the benefits and have brought the community on board.”

Mr Hall explained the government’s original UFB1 targeted main centres with the current roll out of UFB2 aimed to extend the fibre footprint to smaller areas like Wairoa.

The next stage is UFB2 Plus which has a tentative start date of October 2019 and will cover the Frasertown village.

Getting fibre is free for residential customers, providing their home is not further than 200 metres from the road.

“It is just a matter of talking with your current, or other internet providers, and finding the deal that suits you.

“The cost of fibre can be the same or cheaper than ADSL or VDSL, but with much faster speeds.

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little, who lobbied central government to bring Wairoa’s roll out forward, can’t wait to have the township enjoying the same level of connectivity and broadband speeds as big cities.

“We know Wairoa is one of the most disconnected communities in the country and having fibre through town will certainly allow us to compete and do business better with this new infrastructure.

“Industry now depends more on being connected – we can participate in the new economy better and people will be able to do so much more by being connected.

 “This will certainly go some way to addressing the tyranny of isolation that we have faced here in Wairoa.

 “I’m really excited by the opportunities that this rollout means for Wairoa and we will continue to lobby government to ensure that the entire district is connected.  The Rural Broadband Initiative is the next phase that we have to ensure that we are front and centre and that we get prioritised.”

31 October 2018

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