1 May 2014

Marae wired for ultrafast world

8:02 am on 1 May 2014

A pilot project to connect the Awataha, Orakei, and Otangareito marae with ultra-fast broadband is gathering pace.

Nga Pu Waea chair Antony Royal.

Nga Pu Waea chair Antony Royal. Photo: RNZ

Crown-backed Maori broadband group, Nga Pu Waea, has started work on connecting two marae in Auckland and one in Whangarei .

The organisation says once they're hooked up, communities using the marae can experiment with linking with whanau living overseas.

Nga Pu Waea chair Antony Royal says a lot of money is being spent on high-speed internet, and they want to take advantage of it.

He says while the Government is putting the infrastructure in place throughout the country, his organisation is particularly worried that whanau might not be able to afford to get broadband at home.

Mr Royal says Nga Pu Waea hopes to have ultra-fast broadband installed at one of the three pilot marae very soon.