Wireless Nation inks farming deal

Broadband ISP Wireless Nation has inked a deal with PGG Wrightson which will enable the agricultural company's 90,000 account holders to receive special offers on rural broadband and VoIP and to pay for broadband via their PGG monthly trade accounts.

The deal sees Wireless Nation's rural internet solutions promoted through PGG Wrightson's retail stores and on-farm technical representatives, with Wireless Nation expecting an influx of customers through the deal.

Tom Linn, Wireless Nation founder and technical director, says a fast and reliable internet connection is becoming critical for many farmers.

That's a view shared by Shannon Galloway, PGG Wrightson general manager of marketing, who says the company is seeing 'incredible demand' from farmers requiring fast, reliable internet to run their business. "So it's fabulous to be able to offer this service to our customers.

Wireless Nation offers RBI (rural broadband initiative) fixed wireless along with a satellite broadband network and VoIP phone services via the internet.

The ISP recently doubled its satellite network speeds, which now feature download speeds of up to 10Mbps.

"This is much quicker than competing satellite networks and is also comparable to standard city broadband," Wireless Nation says.

Terence Galuszka, a Wainuioru PGG Wrightson member who currently uses Wireless Nation's satellite broadband, says the satellite connection is 'very good, latency is low which has enabled our business to use certain desktop applications we haven't been able to before'.

Galuszka says the PGG Wrightson deal has helped with an extra data and the carry over data being 'a life saver'.