Vodafone begins its rural roll out
Vodafone has begun its roll out of the Rural Broadband Initiative to over 20,000 businesses and households in parts of Canterbury, Rodney and Waikato. RAW DATA: Pricing.
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Vodafone has begun its roll out of the Rural Broadband Initiative to over 20,000 businesses and households in parts of Canterbury, Rodney and Waikato.
The Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) is a $285 million government initiative to improve rural broadband. Telecom and Vodafone submitted a joint proposal last year, a contract that provides for 86% of rural houses and businesses having access to broadband peak speeds of at least 5Mbps, compared with 20% currently, the office for the Minister for ICT Steven Joyce said.
Vodafone was responsible for delivering wireless broadband services to 80% of the rural community from fibre-fed mobile sites, the Chorus website said.
Roll out had begun on Monday, Vodafone said, with the service available for 20,000 addresses for customers who signed up for the product.
Vodafone spokeswoman Michelle Baguley said 36 sites were complete as of today, predominantly in the Canterbury, Rodney and Waikator districts, with more to come.
Vodafone said a further 54 sites would be completed by June 2012.
This product involves wireless broadband via a high performance modem, Vodafone said, which also added a WiFi network into the home.
The modem would be installed by a Vodafone arranged technician, the telco said, with installation fees ranging from $448 for a standard, 24 month term to $598 for a premium, 24 month term where a special installation was required for homes that did not meet standard requirements, or were made of glass or brick.
Vodafone said the service was comparable with urban pricing, with one plan costing $80 per month for 5GB, and the second $90 for 10GB.
Phone calls could be made through the service by plugging a landline into the modem, Vodafone said, with customers able to port the number to the new service.
“Today’s announcement is the first stage of the five year RBI plan, which will see Vodafone upgrade 380 existing cell towers and build a further 154 new towers in rural areas.”
Previously, a trio of schools were the first to get the rural broadband hook up to Chorus' fibre network in June.
RAW DATA:
Alex Walls
Wed, 09 Nov 2011
Wed, 09 Nov 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
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Vodafone begins its rural roll out
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