The rollout of ultrafast broadband is still on course to start in Queenstown sometime between July this year and June 2013.
An exact start date had not been confirmed, but it was likely to be in the last quarter of this year, a spokesman for the Ministry for Communications and Information Technology told the Queenstown Times, when asked, this week.
The Government's $1.5 billion ultrafast broadband initiative began in Invercargill on Friday and Hawera on Monday, which took deployment up to 20 New Zealand towns and cities.
The ultrafast broadband build in Invercargill by Chorus will cover more than 18,000 premises.
The aim was to make more than 5000 premises, including four schools, able to be connected to fibre by July next year.
Work in Hawera will reach more than 3500 homes, schools, health centres and businesses over the next three years.
Chorus announced in March the telecommunications infrastructure company will start building the UFB network in Queenstown, Invercargill, Oamaru, Timaru, Nelson and Whakatane in the second year of its national roll-out, as well as continue to extend its fibre network further in areas where work had already started.
Chorus said it would have delivered fibre past 149,000 premises, including downtown Queenstown, by June 2013.
