Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams has today released the latest quarterly report on the Government’s ultra-fast broadband and rural broadband programmes.

An additional 21,000 end users gained access to fibre over the three months to 30 September 2013.

This means more than 320,000 end users are now able to connect to the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network in 26 towns and cities across New Zealand.

In addition, under the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI), more 137,000 rural homes and businesses now have access to fast wireless broadband, and about 56,000 rural homes and businesses have access to improved copper broadband services.

Fifteen new towers were installed and 33 were upgraded by Vodafone under the RBI.

The report also shows that almost 1900 schools are now able to connect to fibre.

In addition, 38 of the most remote rural schools in New Zealand now have access to broadband capable of peak speeds of at least 10 megabits per second. This is about four times faster than previous services.

All up, more than 75 per cent of the overall programme target for schools able to connect to faster broadband has now been reached.

Over the last quarter, the number of customers signing up to a service under the UFB programme has jumped by about 42 per cent, taking the total number to more than 14,000.

This is in line with government expectations and overseas experiences at this early stage of deployment.