WISPs – or Wireless Internet Service Providers – are the key to broadband in rural New Zealand.
They provide Internet connectivity by fixed wireless, mostly in regional or rural areas where mainstream telecommunications companies don’t bother going. WISPs connect to a fibre optic link at a central point (this is known as “backhaul”), install a series of fixed wireless receivers and transmitters on hilltops or high buildings, and bounce the wireless signal across a series of these sites to a cluster of end users in a rural area. Read more.