Mystery Creek gets 4G in time for Fieldays

Mystery Creek is the first rural location to receive a commercially-available 4G service in the country.

Vodafone  upgraded its cell tower  at the event centre last week  to provide the 4G service just in time for Fieldays.

Vodafone Head of Rural Marketing Darren Hopper said the cell tower at the Mystery Creek  has  the capability to support the 4G network.  This has allowed them to roll out the service at the site.

“This is special location. We are able to provide the service here because of the special cell tower that runs on a higher spectrum,” he said.

Hopper said they are currently upgrading key sites in cities and towns. The 4G service is available in cities like Auckland for 4G-capable devices .

“We are currently the only network that is providing 4G. I am not sure if other competitors are looking at bringing it out in the future,” Hopper said.

“The rest of rural New Zealand probably won’t receive the 4G network until next year,” he said.

Hopper said when analogue TV is phased out in New Zealand by the end of this year, the government will then auction that frequency off.

“What happens is we need the spectrum from that frequency to roll out the 4G service to the rest of New Zealand. So the auction will allow us, and our competitors to purchase that spectrum and roll out 4G to the rest of the country.”

The 4G network provides faster broadband service,” which means you can download movies in a couple of minutes instead of hours,” he said.

The other main project Vodafone is working on is the Rural Broadband Initiative( RBI)

“The RBI is our main programme. That runs on the 3G network , and is part of the government’s scheme to roll out faster service to more parts of the country.

“They (government) plan to spend about 300 million on it over the next five years,” Hopper said.

The RBI has brought in a new market of farmers.

“New-age farmers now have the technology to remote operate systems on their farms. So they don’t have to worry about being there all the time. And this gives them a better work- family life balance,” Hopper said

The 4G service is available to customers to try out , and conduct speed comparison tests at the Vodafone site near the main pavillion.