December 10, 2012
Extra effort needed to get Māori online
A member of the government-appointed committee charged with encouraging Māori to take up high speed broadband internet access says extra effort will be needed to get many remote Māori communities connected.
Haami Piripi says after 18 months of study and lobbying, Ngā Pū Waea is starting several pilot projects to run alongside the government-funded broadband roll out.
He says there are challenges reaching Māori communities in areas like Northland and the East Coast.
"We're often very isolated. We're often in areas that are quite hilly and this makes it difficult for (wifi) reception and for cable to be dug there and one of the things we have tried to do is get a very good mix of the hard wire backbone with some microwave so we make sure we get people on using both forms of technology," Mr Piripi says.
The pilots include linking up the big Māori land incorporations in Whanganui to improve pasture management, and using broadband to compliment the throat swabbing campaign in Far North schools aimed at stopping rheumatic fever.
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