Hey All,

Moved to New Zealand 6 months ago with my family, settling in well but now ready to buy our own house.
Currently we're renting a rural place between Riverhead & Coatesville and we've got broadband ok from telecom.

Looking to buy a house, we were putting in a bid for a place in Riverhead itself, albeit on the edge of town and was really surprised to find out that there is no broadband available to the property. I phoned Telecom and they ran a line test and told me that the exchange doesn't support broadband and isn't due to be upgraded till January 2012.

Trawling around the telecom site I found a link to check for availability - it told me that the upgrade in 2012 is for ADSL2 but I should be able to get ADSL!?!? Conflicting info.

I'm not buying a house that has no broadband. But I find it very hard to believe that I can't get a service in the town, when i get a service living several kms outside of the town.

Saw a map of the telecom fibre - and it goes through Riverhead, can't be more that 300m from the house.

Now I'm worried that no houses in Riverhead has bb - Telecom couldn't tell me - just said to come back with the phone number and they'll check for me. I'm also looking at properties from Riverhead through to Kumeu, again I'm concerned about bb availability. I don't want to waste time looking at houses that will be of no use to me.

Can I find out where the exchange is, what type it is etc?
Any advice on the right questions to ask Telcom, to get other options/choices - if there are any.
Any other options I should be considering. I've not found a wireless isp in the area, wireless speeds & latency wouldn't be enough for me (power bb user and online gamer).

All suggestions & advice gratefully accepted.

cheers
Phil