New Zealand Telco Industry Welcomes Schools Support Package

The New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF) welcomes the student support package, announced by the Minister of Education Chris Hipkins today. As part of this initiative the telecommunications industry is assisting with connecting households with school-aged students that don’t currently have a broadband service.

TCF CEO Geoff Thorn says the industry has been working with the Ministry of Education on its part of the initiative since the Alert Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown was announced. This has involved identifying eligible households that don’t currently have internet access.

“As an industry we are pleased to be able to work with the Ministry of Education on this initiative. This is a significant undertaking, and while it will take some time to reach all those in need, the industry is committed to doing everything it can to connect households that have been identified,” he says.

Thorn says eligible households will receive either a fixed line or fixed wireless connection, depending on whether their homes currently have existing telecommunications infrastructure (for example, a fibre or copper connection that is not currently activated).

“We are confident that New Zealand’s telecommunication networks will have the capacity to handle the expected surge in demand – both from students returning to school via online learning, as well as the increase in connections through this important new connectivity initiative.”

“Our industry is proud to provide the network support required to deliver the curriculum online for a large majority of school-aged students at home in New Zealand during the Alert Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown. This has only been possible because of the significant and ongoing investment in the telecommunications infrastructure over the past decade,” Thorn says.

Note to Editors

The NZ Telecommunications Forum is committed to proactively providing New Zealand media with accurate information about New Zealand’s telecommunications networks during the Covid-19 national lockdown. Please contact TCF representative Sarah Putt with any questions related to telecommunications infrastructure and we will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible to your query.

About the TCF

The NZ Telecommunications Forum (TCF) was established in 2002. It plays a vital role in the telecommunications industry in New Zealand, collaboratively developing key industry standards and codes of practice that underpin the country’s digital economy. Our objective is to actively foster cooperation among the telecommunications industry’s participants, to enable the efficient provision of regulated and non-regulated telecommunications services.

TCF Members include: 2degrees, AWACS, Chorus, DTS, Enable Networks, Kordia, Northpower Fibre, NOW, Spark, Symbio Networks, Trustpower, Ultrafast Fibre, UnisonFibre, Vector Communications, Vocus Communications and Vodafone.

For more information visit: http://www.tcf.org.nz

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