Govt beats targets as 300,000 Kiwis access UFB

Targets for both the government’s ultra-fast broadband and rural broadband programmes have both been exceeded, according to a year two report released yesterday.

Revealed by Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams, the report shows that fibre was rolled out to more than 129,000 end users in 28 towns and cities across New Zealand during the last three months of the financial year.

As a result of the initiative, the total number of end users that can now connect to the government’s UFB network stands at more than 300,000, with over 149,000 homes and businesses in rural areas now accessing faster broadband under the RBI.

Adams claims nine new towers were installed and twelve were upgraded by Vodafone over the past three months under the RBI, while Chorus upgraded 91 roadside cabinets with fibre during the same period.

Showing that around 20% of the UFB build has been completed so far, the uptake so far among Kiwis stands at about 3%.

Over the last quarter, the number of customers signing up to a service under the UFB programme has jumped by about 95%, taking the total number to nearly 10,000.

Adams says this is in-line with projections and consistent with overseas experience and the introduction of other new technologies in New Zealand.

“One of the rewarding things about our UFB programme has been the high levels of international praise for how our roll-out is progressing, particularly compared to some of the other international programmes,” she says.

By comparison, in Singapore uptake was about 2% when 20% of the network was built and in the UK, uptake was about 3% when 24% of the network was built.

To check out how many Kiwi schools can now access UFB, click here