Tararua group celebrating
A community-led Tararua group is is celebrating its game-changing success lobbying the Government for greater connectivity, with the completion of nearly a dozen new cell towers in the district.
Crown Infrastructure Partners and the Rural Connectivity Group originally allocated Tararua just one new cell tower in phase two of the government’s Rural Broadband Initiative.
But four years of Connect Tararua’s dogged lobbying and research, convinced the government it had underestimated how bad the black spots and areas of poor reception were in the district – securing $13.2 million funding and another nine towers to address the problem.
Yesterday, Connect Tararua, members of the Tararua District Council and government representatives gathered at a Kumeroa farm, near Woodville, that hosted one of the new towers as the last three went online.
It all started with a handful of Kumeroa residents fed up with the shocking to non-existent cellphone reception in their community, and decided to get proactive.
They formed Connect Kumeroa in 2017, to identify the best sites for new cell towers and determine what infrastructure, such as power, would be necessary to make the signal strong enough to carry over the hilly region.
Kumeroa’s problems were not unique, and the council soon came onboard, transforming the group into the district-wide governance group Connect Tararua.
Connect Tararua volunteers spent hundreds of hours driving down every road in the district, and recording howmany bars of reception they were getting at regular intervals.
Tararua District mayor Tracey Collis said Connect Tararua started when she was only three months into the job, and she had marvelled as it grew into a powerhouse governance group that achieved great things. ‘‘[The district feels] a heartfelt gratefulness for the people on the ground who made this happen... [and] their skills, experience dedication and hours of commitment.’’
Despite the significant improvement in coverage, the work wasn’t done yet, she said.