Affordable Broadband For Rural Communities

News release
July 23, 2008

Orcon Launches Affordable Broadband For Rural Communities

Benefits of high-speed internet now from just $54.95 a month

Famers and rural communities can now ditch painful dial-up internet connections and get Orcon’s next-generation broadband beamed directly to the home.

From today Orcon is expanding its high-speed internet services into rural areas and offering a wireless service from just $54.95 a month.

More than 70,000 homes in New Zealand are not able to access the traditional DSL broadband service offered in cities and towns. The 21st Century solution for those isolated houses is Orcon’s Rural Broadband service – a system that sees data transmitted wirelessly.

Households need to pay an upfront installation cost of $449, and then monthly costs similar to those in metropolitan areas.

Orcon CEO Scott Bartlett says Kiwis know the benefits of broadband are massive – especially for those in isolated areas.

“Orcon Rural Broadand not only opens up communication lines through software like Skype, it also allows people to shop for bargains, bank online, students to study, and small businesses and farmers to take advantage of the benefits of being connected to the rest of the world.

“With a bit of smart online shopping, rural customers will quickly be able to recover the installation fee – especially with today’s fuel prices. What’s more, they will no longer face the insufferable dial-up load-times.”

Orcon’s parent company Kordia™ developed and installed the Extend wireless infrastructure upon which Orcon’s Rural Broadband product is based five years ago and, until this year, was retailing the product through Telecom and other internet service providers. In the past few months, Telecom’s Extend customers have been migrated to Orcon, and Orcon has developed a range of new plans suited to varying needs.

Bartlett says: “Orcon Rural Broadband is an extremely powerful product that provides a great solution to those too isolated to be on a fixed line broadband service. Orcon already offers a next-generation service throughout New Zealand towns and cities and I am really excited that we can now offer broadband to rural customers.”

Orcon’s Base Plan:
Rural Broadband Purple
$54.95 (with Orcon Tolls)
256Kbps download/128Kbps upload speeds (upgradable to 1Mbps/512Mbps)
Includes 1GB of data (upgradeable)

Bartlett says that there are still some areas of New Zealand will not be able to get the Rural Broadband service, and in these cases, Orcon is able to deliver broadband via satellite.

ends

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