Plans to lay better wiring for Kawau

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nedkelly

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#103330 4-Jun-2012 19:35

Does anyone know if Chorus plan to run a better cable to Kawau Island?
Was over there in the weekend seeing relatives and nearly all internet over there is dial up.
And they have all been told the wiring is not good enough for broadband.

ChorusVan

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Chorus

#635804 5-Jun-2012 08:30

While Chorus is continually extending the reach of fixed line broadband, the significant additional investment costs involved in deploying new broadband infrastructure to some harder-to-reach areas makes the economics very challenging.

Kawau Island's fixed line service is currently connect via Digital Microwave Radio (DMR), to increase network capacity and enable high speed broadband, Chorus would need to deploy a fibre optic cable to the island to connect local residents.

You may be aware that the Government has recognised this challenge and has developed the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) to help enable urban like broadband services to be accessible to rural residents.

Under the RBI, Chorus is responsible for connecting rural schools to ultra-fast broadband and improving fixed-line network capacity in some areas, while Vodafone (the Government's other partner in the programme) has the primary responsibility for enabling broadband services to 80% of rural households by deploying wireless broadband coverage.

Check with Vodafone on whether their community broadband coverage plans include the area where your relatives live. They also have an indicative mapping tool oniline, but it looks like the topography may make availablilty limited to some areas of the island: http://www.vodafone.co.nz/about/media-centre/rural-broadband-initiative/coverage/

Zeon

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#635810 5-Jun-2012 08:52

If the residents were game for it they could installed their own fixed wireless backhaul to the mainland and distribute internet around the island via fixed wireless.

It looks like SNells beach has fibre and VDSL2 so you could use either of those for internet connectivity.

How many residents would chip in do you think?

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nedkelly

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#635817 5-Jun-2012 09:01

Im not sure, and the residents are quite spread out over the island and it would be interesting with the terrain

nedkelly

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#636415 5-Jun-2012 22:28

Hmm what is the capacity of the DMR link?

Zeon

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#636427 5-Jun-2012 23:09

nedkelly: Hmm what is the capacity of the DMR link?

TBH Unless you will be covered by the RBA I highly doubt you will see any upgrades in that for a long time. Imagine how much it would cost for Chorus to upgrade all this system just to provide a few ADSL connections? I think your gonna have to hope you get RBA or do this one yourself :)

How many of the buildings have line of site to the mainland or could setup a repeater station which does? Could be you setup a few repeater stations around the island on high points so people can get them. These can be solar powered.

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nedkelly

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#636433 5-Jun-2012 23:35

There are quite a few buildings that see the mainland but nothing really high up, and the terrain makes it a requirement to get quite high.

ChorusVan

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Chorus

#636464 6-Jun-2012 08:05

As mentioned earlier, we do not currently have plans to enhance fixed-line services currently available on Kawau Island due to the significant investment costs involved. But we do review our plans each year, which are influenced by the level of customer demand, population growth, subdivision development, and technological upgrades.

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webwat

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#636975 6-Jun-2012 21:29

Could you get a repeater onto some offshore islands, as well as each side of the harbour? I imagine you would want any repeaters facing towards the hillsides that are most densely populated.

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raytaylor

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#637069 7-Jun-2012 01:55

Too many trees. I would think the best way to do it would be for someone who is a chorus wholesaler to get access to the exchange or cabinet on the island, and install a dslam with a DMR link back to the mainland.

Going by a radio link to each individual house would be too hard because of the trees.
Although i think it could be economically viable if enough residents in and around schoolhouse bay were interested in it. Costs would probably be around $15,000

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gareth41

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#1204316 27-Dec-2014 00:50

An update to broadband at kawau. Ive just been involved with installing a ubiquiti link recently to the boat club and its all working well. There is also a second ubiquiti link to the southern end of the island and then repeated from the top of a tall pine tree on a high hill, this somewhat overcomes the terrain problem. There are now lots of very happy residents here. Both links are fed from a single dedicated vdsl line from an elevated property at snells beach, two ubiquiti dishes on the roof pointing at the southern end and centre of the island. The link to the boat club is going to be bounced off and to the top of another high hill further up the estuary to feed more properties.

nikocroskery

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#1988932 5-Apr-2018 17:44

Does anyone have an update on this 4 years later? I'm in Moana Cove (north end of the Island) and would love to get some good internet!

Linux

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#1988936 5-Apr-2018 17:51

@nikocroskery Check out this thread and latest UFB2 updates if not in this list then I can't see much happening

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=222827&page_no=10

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Jase2985

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#1988938 5-Apr-2018 17:56

i would say you will be limited to Wireless RBI options from spark or vodafone

gareth41

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#1988942 5-Apr-2018 18:09

nikocroskery:

Does anyone have an update on this 4 years later? I'm in Moana Cove (north end of the Island) and would love to get some good internet!

I'll put you in contact with some people I know on the island who i've done some work for setting up ubiquiti links. There was another link I put in a couple years ago in North Cove, this one was fed with another dedicated VDSL line from up the top of Brick Bay Drive, Sandspit. Or if you have access to a property somewhere around Snells/Sandspit with fixed line broadband and line of sight to you on Kawau, I can help you setup a link. The other option as mentioned is to look at RBI, see if you can get Sparks wireless broadband where you are, although if you're after an unlimited plan for heavy use then you're probably better off getting a fixed line connection and setting up a link.