Some communities getting UFB quicker

ULTRAFAST broadband is coming sooner than expected to the Central Otago district.

It will reach Cromwell as early as September, a year ahead of schedule, and the rest of the district in the next four years.

A report to the Central Otago District Council by the council’s economic development manager, Warwick Hawker, confirmed a new schedule for the ultrafast broadband (UFB) project.

Cromwell will be hooked up this September, followed by Alexandra in July 2020.

The rollout would be complete by the end of 2022.

The programme is part of the two government initiatives — the Rural Broadband Initiative 2 and the Mobile Black Spot fund.

The rural broadband initiative would deliver faster broadband to regions where users could not get download speeds of 20 megabits per second or faster.

The mobile black spot fund provides rural mobile coverage along about 1000km of state highway and in over 100 tourism locations.

In Central Otago, mobile coverage would be added in the Lindis Pass by 2019 and Moa Creek in 2020.

The new report puts Roxburgh and the Teviot Valley last for Central Otago, not receiving UFB until November 2022.

Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said while he was pleased the district would get UFB sooner than expected, four years was still a long time to wait for some communities.

‘‘The fact it’s going to be sooner is good but it’s still a while to wait for the likes of Roxburgh.’’

Mr Cadogan said to help the communities further down the UFB schedule, the council had relationships with independent wireless internet service providers to provide highspeed internet via satellite dishes with a direct line of sight to transmission towers.

Teviot Valley councillor Stephen Jeffery, who has cam paigned for faster broadband in the Teviot Valley, said the Government’s timeline for the scheme ‘‘just keeps moving’’ and even though the most recent timeline had come a ‘‘bit closer’’, it was still not ideal.

‘‘We don’t accept we’ll have to wait until 2022 . . . we want a plan in place before that.’’

Already the community was using fibrespeed internet from schools in Roxburgh and Millers Flat, which was beamed around the valley using repeaters.

Councillors will discuss the report at a public meeting tomorrow.