New Zealand’s 4G mobile network now reaches residents living and working in 90% of the country, with the nation’s largest telco Spark hailing the milestone as the first step towards the next evolution of mobile technology – 4.5G.
Spark says its 4G network currently covers over 93% of the places New Zealanders “work, live, and play” and gives people better and faster access to mobile services, helping them to stay connected with family, friends, and colleagues.
Spark general manager of networks, Colin Brown says the company’s 4G network also gives users more options for internet connections with Spark Wireless Broadband.
The telco welcomed the announcement on Thursday by Communications Minister Simon Bridges that the 4G rollout was ahead of schedule and now delivered access to 90% of New Zealanders.
{loadposition peter}Brown says the company is committed to delivering high-quality mobile services to as many New Zealanders as possible, and while the 4G rollout is continuing, the company is also turning its attention to the next generation of mobile services.
“We are proud to do our bit to get more 4G to more people. In particular, our 700MHz deployments are bringing more connectivity to people in rural areas, and our 2300MHz spectrum has already been deployed to 44 sites to give people all over New Zealand more capacity for mobile data and more options for wireless broadband.
“But we’re always looking forward too. We are the first and only provider in New Zealand to give people a taste of the future with 4.5G, which provides more capacity and faster mobile speeds, with speeds of over 1Gbps possible as devices catch up to the network in the future.”
Brown said 4.5G is now operating on two sites – one in central Christchurch and the other in Silverdale – and Spark would be rolling it out to more people in more areas soon.