Black spots remain in North Canterbury

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Northern Outlook

By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter

Faster broadband is being distributed to more rural North Canterbury communities, but black spots remain.

A Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) spokesperson said the group had been contracted to build 56 cell sites across Canterbury, with 42 cell sites now live and another 14 planned for this year.

She said 12 rural North Canterbury communities have been connected as part of phase two of the government’s Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2).

But gaps remained at Oxford, Glentui and Clarkville.

A further five Hurunui communities - Marble Point, Molesworth Station, Poplars Station in the Lewis Pass, Poplars Ridge and Port Robinson - were expected to be connected with cell sites this year as part of an RBI2 expansion programme, if the funding can be secured from Crown Infrastructure Partners.

Seven cell sites have been connected in Hurunui communities over the last three years including Domett, Inland Road, Lyford, Lyford South, Mt Grey, Pyramid Valley and Teviotdale.

In Kaikōura new cell sites were providing coverage to Mangamaunu Beach and the highway as well as the rural area west of the township.
New connections at Okuku, The Pines Beach and Eyrewell were live last year in the Waimakariri district.

‘‘This is a significant investment under the government’s RBI2 and Mobile Black Spot Fund programme in Canterbury providing 4G wireless broadband and 4G voice, data and text services from Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees,’’ the RCG spokesperson said.

‘‘These cell sites will provide connectivity to around 4280 rural households and businesses, improve connectivity on the roads and connectivity at popular visitor destinations.’’

Amuri.Net was connecting ultrafast fibre broadband to residents in the Ohoka/Mandeville area under an initiative announced last year by Digital Economy and Communications Minister David Clark, during a visit to the district.

In December the government announced it was on track to see 99.8% of New Zealanders receiving improved broadband speeds by the end of this year.

In the Lifting Connectivity in Aotearoa report, the Government stated its long-term goal was for every rural and remote New Zealander to be connected to high speed broadband by 2032.

More than $2.5 billion has been invested in improving digital connectivity to date from government and private sector contributions.

Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesperson Richard McIntyre said the report was ‘‘ambitious, but admirable’’.

‘‘The report lifts the discussion from having to justify whether something should be done to one of ‘let’s get on and do it’.

‘‘While it’s going to take a lot more investment on top of the money already announced, we applaud the commitments made to longer term rural connectivity solutions.’’

A Spark spokesperson said the company was continuing to work closely with the RCG on the planned projects.

‘‘Spark upgraded one of the two Kaikōura sites prior to Christmas with 5G technology and we will be continuing with 5G expansions on the existing Spark sites in the area over the coming months.’’

*Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air