Both North and South Catlins, and Waihau Bay in the East Cape were the successful communities selected to have cell sites built this year. Due to the incredible standard and quality of these applications Vodafone will build three sites in 2012 (our scheme allows for two each year).
In 2011 Vodafone called for applications from small rural communities not covered by Vodafone’s network and outside the scope of the Rural Broadband Initiative, to apply for improved mobile coverage in their local area.
We will call for applications each year and are committed to building at least two sites in the following year, split between the North and South Islands.
This has been developed specifically for the small communities or those living in rural isolation who currently have no cell phone coverage.
Communities with no existing mobile coverage who wish to benefit from this scheme must be able to demonstrate as many of the following criteria as possible to qualify for consideration:
Vodafone will ask for applications again late in 2012 (dates to be announced shortly) and the resulting cell sites will be built within the following 12 months. We will call for applications again in 2013 and each year thereafter.
Decisions will be based on the community’s ability to meet the required criteria and the positive impact the site will have on the local community, as assessed by Vodafone’s community cellsite project team.
If you have any additional queries you can contact us by email to community.relations.nz@vodafone.com or by phone on 0800 101710.
