Spark has launched a wireless broadband service for New Zealanders living in cities and towns, designed to ease the frustration of slow or unreliable copper broadband.
According to the telco, Home Wireless Broadband will progressively be made available in urban areas across the country, targeted specifically for customers who are low to moderate broadband data users and have poor or no access to reliable broadband services.
Spark Home, Mobile and Business CEO, Jason Paris says the service will be a welcome solution for many broadband customers.
“The reality of older copper network technology, which most New Zealanders still rely on for their broadband, is that customers who live a long way from important network equipment or who are connected by deteriorating copper lines will always struggle to get decent broadband,” he says.
“While fibre broadband is the preferred solution for customers living in areas where UFB has been rolled out and who use a lot of broadband data each month (such as those on Unlimited plans), our wireless broadband services represent a great new choice for low to moderate data users, giving them fast, reliable and affordable broadband.”
Paris says that using Spark’s 4G cellular network customers will be able to get internet speeds similar to those achieved on a 4G mobile device and generally much faster than ADSL.
Home Wireless Broadband is the next step for Spark New Zealand following the launch of other wireless broadband services.
“More than 3000 customers are now using our 4G mobile technology to get fast and reliable broadband services instead of using the traditional copper line network,” Paris adds.
Today’s launch follows a successful pilot of the service with selected customers and Spark staff in recent weeks which has allowed the company to fine-tune the customer experience before making the service more widely available.
“Home Wireless Broadband is easy to set up and doesn’t require any technicians to install the service - customers living in a wireless broadband coverage area will simply need to activate the connection, plug in the modem and they’re ready to go,” Paris adds.
“The new service also replaces the customer’s existing landline connection, as a normal home phone can be plugged into the wireless broadband modem and calls can be made as per usual.”
Paris says low to moderate data users and customers fed up with slow or unreliable copper broadband speeds can check if they live in a wireless broadband coverage area now by going to Spark website.
If they live in an eligible area, they can order the service online or call the wireless broadband team.
More than 3000 customers are now using Spark’s Rural Wireless Broadband service since it was launched in the middle of last year, giving rural customers a faster and more reliable internet connection to use the latest applications, software and technologies available.