2degrees has extended its 4G footprint today flicking the switch on in central Wellington and the greater Auckland region.
According to the company, over half of Wellington City is now covered by its 4G network and more than two-thirds of Auckland. By late September, the company's LTE network will be extended to cover three-quarters of the Auckland region.
2degrees launched its 4G network in parts of central Auckland in June and has added West Auckland and the North Shore to the coverage area.
The company plans to launch 4G in Christchurch at the end of September and Hamilton in October.
2degrees’ CTO Mike Davies says the rollout is well ahead of schedule.
“We have a unique advantage of having the latest network technology, thus the addition of 4G is relatively straightforward. The first stage of our rollout is on track to being achieved well within the timeframes we set and we are now planning the rollout to other regions in the coming year,” he says.
"Whilst data usage on our network has continued to double each year, we have seen a significant increase since we launched 4G in June with 4G customers using 70 per cent more data on an average day compared to those using 3G,” he adds.
2degrees is also currently trialling WiFi in Wellington and 4G on 700MHz in central Auckland.
Dubbed the next generation network, 4G can theoretically deliver data speeds of up to 150Mbps.