More Kiwis in Hamilton and Tauranga making the switch

3 May 2019

More Kiwis in Hamilton and Tauranga making the switch to fibre

Three out of five households across Hamilton and Tauranga are now enjoying the benefits of fibre, the latest ultra-fast broadband (UFB) progress reports show.

“In just nine years, we have connected over 120,000 customers to our fibre network,” says Geoff Lawrie, Ultrafast Fibre’s Interim Chief Executive Officer.

“This is a major milestone for Waikato and the Bay of Plenty, with connection pace now ahead of the other three main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.”

Hamilton hit the 60 per cent uptake mark at the end of February, with Tauranga following earlier this month.

Member of Parliament for Hamilton East, Hon David Bennett, congratulated Ultrafast Fibre on the news.

“Congratulations to Ultrafast Fibre who have outperformed all expectations and are providing the technology for Central North Island innovation and growth,” Mr Bennett says.

Jamie Strange, Labour MP based in Hamilton is also encouraged. “Ultra-fast broadband is an important part of many households, and the latest UFB progress report, along with the 60 per cent uptake mark is a testament to the significant work Ultrafast Fibre does, particularly in the Waikato region.”

“I recently met with the leadership of Ultrafast Fibre and was impressed with their commitment to ensuring our communities are connected, can access digital services and do business efficiently,” Mr Strange says.

Underpinning the drivers for UFB’s success, the Commerce Commission reported a 47 per cent increase in monthly data use from 2017 to 2018. To keep up with the increasing demand for online content, Ultrafast Fibre is encouraging the remaining 26,000 residential households in Hamilton and 24,000 in Tauranga to get connected.

“With internet use increasing yearly, users still expect reliability, consistency of performance, as well as speed from their broadband,” Mr Lawrie says.

“We are seeing significant increases in video and gaming content being accessed online, and often from multiple devices at the same time, which is best delivered on an ultra-fast fibre connection. We encourage everyone not yet connected, to contact us and sign up to experience what it means to truly ‘go faster’,” Mr Lawrie says.

More information on how to connect is available here.

Ultrafast Fibre built, owns and operates a 3,000km fibre network in the urban areas of Hamilton, Tauranga, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Tokoroa, Hawera, Cambridge and Te Awamutu. This network is available to more than 210,000 homes, schools and businesses.

In addition, under network expansion, work is well underway on providing fibre for 27 more North Island towns and urban fringe areas including Ngāruawāhia, Huntly, Kihikihi, Raglan, Eltham, Inglewood, Stratford, Waitara, Putāruru, Te Puke, Ōmokoroa, Katikati and Tamahere/Matangi. The UFF network represents about 13 per cent of the entire national UFB build.

Ultrafast Fibre Limited is locally owned by Waikato Networks Limited (WNL), a subsidiary of WEL Networks Limited (85 percent shareholding) and its partner Waipa Networks Limited (15 percent shareholding).

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