As our CEO Mark Aue reiterated at last month's Connecting Aotearoa 2025 Summit, "we all have a role to play in delivering digital equity and ensuring every New Zealander has the opportunity to connect and thrive.”

To help industry participants do our part, we are trialling a Digital Equity Proof of Concept (PoC). This PoC has now been running for nearly four months. Insights gathered during the initial stages of the PoC suggest that broadening the eligibility criteria could provide Chorus and participating RSPs with valuable additional learnings to help shape a future digital equity product. 

Updated eligibility criteria

We’ve identified that including families of schools with a Ministry of Education (MOE) Equity Index (EIQ) Score of 490+ will be beneficial. The current criterion for participating properties remains, and in addition the scope of the PoC is being expanded to cover households if they meet the following criteria:

1. Have at least one school-aged child attending a school with an MOE EQI index greater than 490; and
2. Have a Chorus Optical Network Terminal (ONT) installed that has been inactive for at least three (3) months. 

PoC term extension  

To support this expanded scope, we will be extending the term of the PoC to 30 September 2025. This will allow more time to evaluate and validate the learnings, to help us shape and develop an enduring digital equity product for eligible households.  

RSP participation

A reminder that the PoC is open to all RSPs. If you’re interested in participating, or if you have further questions, please contact your Chorus Customer Engagement team or Kris Dempster-Rivett.