{"id":944,"date":"2019-07-07T20:31:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T08:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/?p=944"},"modified":"2019-08-08T08:58:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T20:58:03","slug":"a-mission-getting-broadband-to-the-haupiri-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/?p=944","title":{"rendered":"A Mission Getting Broadband To The Haupiri Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zelan<\/a> – A WISP Profile by Ernie Newman<\/p>\n

Dawn\u2019s barely broken as Mark Kersten drives me through the Buller Gorge. Across the river an impossibly long empty coal train rumbles northeast towards Inangahua. The scenery is wild and spectacular. There\u2019s almost no traffic.<\/p>\n

I count down the distance to Reefton where Mark assures me the morning\u2019s caffeine drought will be broken. So it proves, with a couple of generous sausage rolls thrown in.<\/p>\n

The early start was essential. Zelan, Mark\u2019s WISP, covers a large footprint \u2013 a triangle bounded by Westport, Reefton and Greymouth with spurs to Hokitika and Karamea. It will take us most of the day to get around just some of that.<\/p>\n

Mark Kersten was a dairy farmer on the Culverdon-Reefton Road in 2001 when he took the unlikely step into wireless communications. Typical of WISPs he first organised a connection as a way to get his farm online. Friends and neighbours got hooked in, he took on some isolated customers from a Nelson-based WISP, and he suddenly had a business. At the outset he had access only to 3 ADSL connections from Snap Internet, but the growth quickly justified way more sophisticated backhaul.<\/p>\n

Getting access to radio sites on the West Coast has unique challenges. The population density is the lowest in the country and declining, meaning the ratio of sites required to paying customers is very high. The topography is unkind. A huge proportion of the hilltops are part of the conservation estate administered by DoC who, compared to local farmers, have often been seen as voraciously greedy and challenging landlords when it comes to allowing a tower on their land.<\/p>\n

Mark quickly realised that to get a viable business functioning his first step was to get access to several crucial high sites. These were already occupied by the local radio station, Coast FM, and because FM radio requires mains power they already had that luxury installed.<\/p>\n

So he bought Coast FM. Just like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe station\u2019s not profitable,\u201d he tells me, \u201cbut the losses are manageable, and the sites are invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I learn this history we are approaching the Haupiri-Amuri Road, a dairy area nestled under the Southern Alps. This was once the main route for people and stock between Canterbury and the West Coast before the construction of the route through Arthurs Pass. We roll up for our 9.30am appointment with Murray and Gaye Coates, with daughter Emma, to be greeted with stunning hospitality and an incredible story about persistence in getting, losing, and re-getting connectivity.<\/p>\n

Broadband – now you see it, now you don\u2019t<\/h2>\n

Early on, government funding was given to the Gloriavale Christian Community through their subsidiary Haupiri Net to develop broadband that would service themselves, their businesses and the surrounding district.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Coates family \u2013 Murray, Emma, and Gaye, with Zelan\u2019s Mark Kersten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most households adopted it with enthusiasm. The Coates family were among them. They\u2019re technology savvy and very engaged in current and future uses of technology on the farm.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the history of connectivity in the Haupiri Valley is complex and several years later, for whatever reason, the broadband disappeared.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve listened to many farmers complain about not getting broadband, but this is the first time I\u2019ve dealt with one who has had it, embraced it fully, then had it taken away! The frustration is massive.<\/p>\n

Worse, with the local school fibred through the Rural Schools Project the Haupiri residents were down to a decrepit landline system with a radio link incapable of use for any kind of data traffic.<\/p>\n

The Coates\u2019 – Gaye especially \u2013 embarked on a lengthy political campaign to restore a service that had become essential. \u201cFor a year she worked almost full time trying to get the broadband back,\u201d Murray recalls.<\/p>\n

They asked numerous government agencies \u2013 \u201cis there a way we can pay to hook into the taxpayer-funded line into Gloriavale School?\u201d Local MP Damien O\u2019Connor and then Communications Minister Amy Adams were involved, but nobody offered a solution.<\/p>\n

They approached Chorus with a view to sharing the cost of some infrastructure. The cost was prohibitive – $3000 a month to hook the farm infrastructure to theirs. They looked at fibre to Kopara Village with wireless the rest of the way, but the costing came out in 6 digits. Fibre over power poles was impracticable at that time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Coates\u2019s were regularly driving an hour each way to do their basic online bookwork in the Greymouth public library.<\/p>\n

Then the miracle occurred. With the help of MBIE official Robert Clarke they found Mark Kersten and Zelan. In a short time they had their wireless connection. The quality is excellent. They even have voice services across the Zelan network, although this is on a \u201cbest efforts\u201d basis and the quality sometimes falls off at peak times.<\/p>\n

So the Coates farm is now back at full speed using Internet-based on-farm systems. They\u2019re using precision application of fertiliser, reducing wastage and environmental damage with the potential to report direct to the regional council. Their herd management system and technology in the milking shed requires them regularly to connect via Internet to Israel and Australia for support. Murray\u2019s keen now on further automation including an Israeli application that monitors mating cow by cow and gives the farm workers a lot more leisure time in the mating season, which will require solar repeaters across the farm connecting to the Internet of Things.<\/p>\n

Back on the road<\/h2>\n

We could have spent the rest of the day with the hospitable Coates family learning about their farm. But we retrace our steps towards Greymouth, detouring at Stillwater for a dizzying climb up an impressively asphalted road to the summit of Sewell Peak.<\/p>\n

\"A
A fleeting glimpse of the Tasman from Sewell Peak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The site Zelan shares with Coast Radio and others is robustly engineered to withstand huge winds coming straight off the Tasman \u2013 fierce enough to strip the galvanising off the metal components. There are close to 20 dishes, one bringing the signal in from Greymouth and the rest disseminating it all over Westland. Straight below Greymouth, appears briefly through gaps in the swirling cloud.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Sewell Peak site with Coast Radio and Zelan co-located<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I lean back into the gale to take photos, aware that if it suddenly stops I\u2019m likely to do an 830 metre backflip all the way to the ocean.<\/p>\n

Then we head back down the 5km access road towards Stillwater, turn north, and head back towards Westport via the wild and stunning coastline, including spectacular Punakaiki where a zillion tourists are admiring the pancake rocks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Zelan has successfully tendered to install rural broadband to 380 new end users \u2013 many of them along this coast. That will about double the size of the business. Mark points out to me the places where he is contractually required to connect, and an even greater number that seem to have escaped the tender process but clearly have a need. Its going to be a challenge with homes jammed between a sheer mountain range to the east and the coastline to the west. \u201cThe best places to put sites would be on rocks out to sea but I don\u2019t think DoC would allow that,\u201d he jokes wryly. \u201cI\u2019ve had to budget a huge amount for helicopters!\u201d But I take his point about the challenge.<\/p>\n

As we near Westport I realise the day is not quite over. Mark has saved the most spectacular climb until last \u2013 a drive to another key site on the summit of 1040m Mount Rochfort.<\/p>\n

\"Climbing
Climbing rugged Mt Rochfort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The climb up the gravel road seems endless \u2013 at one point it rises 400m in 5 kilometres. But Westlanders are known to be hardy \u2013 we overtake a local policewoman on her daily run to the summit. There we find another super-sturdy tower, again complete with mains power, solid and secure battery backup, and coverage across a vast but lightly populated area.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Mount Rochfort site \u2013 with the luxury of mains power but ample battery backup as well<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So Zelan stands alone among WISPs. A couple of key sites so crucial that getting access involved buying a radio station. The added advantage of mains power on these. Around 50 end users on each. Everywhere else a very high ratio of repeaters to serve scattered customers making the economics challenging.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But in the end, key users like the Coates family are the winners.<\/p>\n

Zelan has been a low-profile WISP. It was one of the last to join WISPA. But its role on the rugged Coast is critical. With a substantial RBI2 contract ahead and the credibility that gives, you\u2019d expect it to be around as a key element of the Coast infrastructure for many years ahead.<\/p>\n

Zelan<\/a><\/h2>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zelan – A WISP Profile by Ernie Newman Dawn\u2019s barely broken as Mark Kersten drives me through the Buller Gorge. Across the river an impossibly long empty coal train rumbles northeast towards Inangahua. The scenery is wild and spectacular. There\u2019s almost no traffic. I count down the distance to Reefton where Mark assures me the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Mission Getting Broadband To The Haupiri Valley”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-profiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":958,"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions\/958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wispa.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}