Spark rolls out rural wireless broadband service

Over the last two months, people from across the country have been part of a trial to help Spark to make final tweaks to its service. The service will initially use Spark’s 4G mobile network over the 700MHz spectrum.

 “Living in rural New Zealand, you get used to slow Internet speeds and it kind of becomes the lay of the land which is pretty frustrating as we’re already strapped for time,” says dairy farmer Tony Walters, one of the customers involved in the trial.

“Being able to access the Internet faster allows our farm to make better use of the latest apps and online farming tools to do things like store, record and analyse on-farm data.”

Spark Home, Mobile and Business chief executive, Jason Paris says, access to an affordable, reliable and fast Internet connection is becoming as vital to businesses and residents as utilities like power and water.

“New Zealanders have told us some of their biggest frustrations with other wireless broadband products has been the unreliable Internet speeds and hefty installation costs. To address this head-on we’ve identified the locations across New Zealand where we know rural wireless broadband has the best chance of delivering reliable and super-fast speeds using the 4G network without the hassle and high-cost of installing an aerial antenna,” says Paris.

Spark has also launched an online address checker on its website so customers can check whether the service will be available to them.

Paris says initially, the broadband service will be available to customers in areas with access to 4G using the 700MHz spectrum, but this number will increase overtime.

“As we rapidly expand the 4G network to rural New Zealand over the next few years we expect the number of customers that can access the service to increase at that same pace.”

To check eligibility for Spark’s Rural Wireless Broadband service can go to www.spark.co.nz/rural