Teenager bringing high-speed internet to Upper Hutt
A company run by a 16-year-old which has brought high-speed internet access to hundreds of households in the Hutt Valley that have been “forgotten" by the big telcos is expanding its services to other parts of the country in a bid to help more residents in isolated areas get connected.
Alex Stewart came up with the idea for his business, WombatNET, when he was 13 and staying at the remote settlement of Turakina Beach, near Whanganui. Older people would often ask the tech-savvy teenager for help with their digital devices, and he soon realised how many people in the area were grappling with the same problem – unreliable and slow internet access.
After doing some research, he discovered that while it was relatively straightforward to connect properties to the fixed wireless broadband network using radio waves transmitted by towers, large internet providers often seemed reluctant to do so because it could be more expensive than using cables. So Stewart decided to meet the need himself.
In early 2020, WombatNET put up its first tower on private land just outside Upper Hutt. Since then, the company has built another 10 around Mangaroa and Whitemans Valley.
With demand for the service growing quickly through online and social media marketing and word of mouth, and as more people began to work from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Stewart was struggling to juggle running a start-up with his school work.
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Poll: Are you as excited as we are for Te Matapihi’s grand reopening?
Wellington’s Te Awe Library on Brandon St will be closing its doors for good at 5 pm on March 1. It’s been the city’s largest temporary library, and now it’s making way for the exciting return of Te Matapihi Central Library!
We want to know: Are you as excited as we are for Te Matapihi’s grand reopening?
Want all the details? The Post has everything you need to know.
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46% Yes
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54% No
Tap Fusion opens Wellington Fringe Festival
New Zealand’s home-grown Tap Dance show, Tap Fusion, will be opening the Wellington Fringe Festival at the Hannah Theatre this weekend. The show is a unique collaboration of New Zealand’s top Tap dancers performing alongside artists of Street Dance, Swing Dance and live musicians. This will be the first time a Tap show has been seen at the Fringe Festival.
Tap Fusion is the work of former New Zealand Dance Champion brothers Brandon and Cameron Carter-Chan. They say the show is designed to expose the diversity of New Zealand artists through Tap Dance by inspiring, uplifting, and promoting the idea of creative collaboration, encouraging people to work with artists outside their social circle, and to increase opportunity and strengthen the arts community as a whole.
Tap Fusion is on at The Hannah Theatre, 12 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington on 13th & 14th February.
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