Hon Paul Goldsmith
Minister for Media and Communications

The Government has marked a major milestone for rural connectivity at the official opening of the 500th RCG mobile tower in Anawhata today, Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

“Rural, rugged and remote, like many of the 500 towers delivered, RCG worked alongside community stakeholders to deliver better connectivity for Anawhata and the wider community.

“These towers have enabled access to enhanced broadband to over 34,000 homes and mobile phone services to support safety to nearly 1,500kms of state highways and many tourism locations.

“The community was severely impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle and so this new site provides extra resilience to communicate in the case of other weather events.

“This Government is committed to delivering better public services and this kind of infrastructure is critical for those that live and operate businesses within our rural communities.

“The tower site has 30 solar panels and a back-up power generator, helping people stay connected for longer in the event of outages.

“The Rural Connectivity Group are to be congratulated for their work and serve as great example of the good that comes from government partnering with the private sector to improve the lives of New Zealanders.”

The entire Rural Broadband and Mobile Black spots programme, including commercial and Wireless Internet Service Provider coverage has delivered essential broadband and mobile services to rural homes and businesses across all regions of New Zealand.

1,481km of State Highway have gained mobile coverage increasing safety on some of New Zealand’s most dangerous roads. 159 tourism spots now have mobile coverage.

84,300 rural homes and businesses now have access to new or improved broadband across the Rural Broadband programme.

Note:

• The Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) is a joint entity among New Zealand’s three Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Spark, One NZ and 2degrees to acquire site locations, build, operate and maintain the rural wireless network built under the Rural Broadband Initiative Phase 2 (RBI2) and the Mobile Black Spot Fund (MBSF).
• Established in 2017 under the last National Government, RCG has improved tens of thousands of rural lives with the rollout of these mobile towers.

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