Lines company Vector is building a fibre-optic data network spanning the North Shore City, from Browns Bay to Devonport and from Birkdale to Takapuna. The network, launched on January 17 at Albany School, entails a 38 kilometre fibre roll out on the Shore, to be completed in July.

Ericsson is the equipment supplier for Vector, and funding of $4.6 million was awarded to the joint North Shore City Council and Vector bid as part of the Government's digital strategy.

By July 7, 45 schools, six libraries, and other council facilities will have access to high quality broadband services providing speeds of up to 1 Gigabit/second (or 1,000 Megabits/second). A number of North Shore businesses will also be able to take advantage of the open access broadband network. At this stage, the requirements for connecting to the Vector/NSCC network are not know.

All in all, more than 30,000 students in North Shore City will have the opportunity to connect together, share educational resources, and develop applications to enhance their development and their opportunities.

The NZ Government's $24 million Broadband Challenge Fund is to provide seed funding to improve the availability and quality of broadband Internet access. It aims to establish a series of urban fibre networks by 2009, and to develop broadband Internet access solutions for rural and poorly served communities.