Published 07/07/2017

Chorus has today announced it has finished building the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network in Levin, meaning more than 8000 households, businesses, schools and health facilities now have access to fibre.

Chorus today joined Communications Minister Simon Bridges for an event to celebrate the completion of the project, as well as marking the imminent start of the UFB2 build in Otaki.

'UFB has the potential to transform New Zealand's economy, our communities, and the way we connect to the rest of the world, so we are really looking forward to seeing how the Levin community can take advantage of having world-class connectivity right on their door step,' says Chorus CEO Kate McKenzie.

'New Zealanders are downloading, streaming TV and gaming at a huge rate.

'As Chorus crosses the country laying fibre, more Kiwis can, and are, taking advantage of our faster, more reliable broadband connections.'

Levin residents are already large consumers of fibre broadband, with the average household using nearly 200GB last month.

The impact on businesses and the economy has also started to gain a momentum that can be felt in many communities, including in Levin.

The Electra Group is one such business benefiting from UFB.

In addition to being a lines company, Levin-based Electra Group group is the country's biggest meter-reading company, the second largest installer of mobile telephone networks and a growing player in the security alarm and aged care monitoring and response business, via its company Securely.

CEO Neil Simmonds says it was difficult to run as one company when there were communication barriers. The company had constant challenges trying to make decisions because its telecommunications systems were not up to having easy conversations on a day-to-day basis.

That all changed when the company connected to fibre.

Now video and web conferencing are a normal part of running the business, and the ability for staff across the business to access information and communicate with each other has increased dramatically.

'Fibre has been fantastic. Having fibre has helped us leapfrog ahead from where Electra was just three years ago. It's like we've been able to suddenly skip two generations and bring in the latest technology.

'It's cheaper, it's faster, it's better, it's more resilient, and it opens opportunities going forward. There's no down side.'

ENDS

Note to reporters:

To highlight how Electra Group is benefitting from UFB, Chorus has produced a video case study. It can be viewed and downloaded at https://vimeo.com/224409309

For more information:

Nathan Beaumont

Stakeholder Communications Manager

021 243 8412

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Chorus Limited published this content on 07 July 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 07 July 2017 03:35:09 UTC.

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