Oamaru is to celebrate becoming the first town in the South Island to have a complete ultra-fast broadband network, and the first in New Zealand completed by contract installer Chorus.
The first urban centre with a completed network was Whangarei, with a potential 21,000 customers, done earlier this year by Northpower Fibre.
The Oamaru completion is being celebrated on December 15 with Communications Minister Amy Adams, Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean and invited guests at the Aoraki Polytechnic Campus.
Chorus communications manager Nathan Beaumont said Chorus was ''very excited'' about completing the Oamaru network.
''The completion of the project in Oamaru means about 6200 households, businesses, schools and health centres are now able to access fibre,'' he said.
The celebration would give people a real-life example of the potential of ultra-fast broadband. The polytech had recently hooked up to ultra-fast broadband and were seeing the benefits.
''From Chorus' point of view, it's particularly exciting to bring this infrastructure and its associated potential economic and social benefits to Oamaru.
''With the deployment of fibre in Oamaru now finished, Chorus is taking the next step of working with the local council, communities and the industry to build excitement around the benefits fibre can deliver for residents and businesses.''
The company was looking forward to seeing how Oamaru made the most of the opportunity the network offered, he said.
