We announced late 2022 and early 2023 that we had been awarded funding under the Government’s Rural Connectivity Upgrade (RCU) programme. This funding will upgrade the broadband service of 73 rural cabinets to VDSL high speed copper broadband. The upgrade will benefit the 3,354 customers served by these cabinets. Work is underway with completion due by the end of this year.  

Some cabinets are in areas that previously had no broadband services while others replace older ADSL cabinets. All new cabinets have fibre backhaul to the Chorus network and connections served by the cabinets will receive an improvement in access speed and stability, with the change from ADSL to VDSL. Actual individual improvement will depend on the customer’s distance from the cabinet and may require a change in the customer’s modem.

23 of the cabinets will also have GPON capability and associated fibre to the premises local network to provide 439 customers with fibre services. Note these are in addition to the 10,000 mentioned in the fibre network extension update.

Future dates are indicative with timing subject to resource availability and in the case of some site’s local authority and/or iwi approval. As each cabinet upgrade is completed our coverage maps and order portals will be updated to show increased VDSL and/or fibre coverage.  

Cabinets to be upgraded, note if the cabinet has associated fibre build separate dates are will show for fibre (Fi) and copper build (Cu): 

Contact

If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact your account team.