More than 1,700 schools are now able to connect to fibre, well ahead of the 1,097 expected at the year two mark, according to a new report released yesterday.

More than 2,450 schools are expected to be able to connect to fibre by the end of 2015.

In addition, 33 of the most remote rural schools in New Zealand now have access to broadband capable of peak speeds of at least 10 megabits per second, which is about four times faster than previous services.

The report on the ultra-fast broadband and rural broadband programmes, released by communications and information technology minister Amy Adams, shows the targets in year two for both initiatives have been exceeded.

Fibre was rolled out to more than 129,000 end users in 28 towns and cities across New Zealand during the last three months of the financial year.

This brings the total number of end users that can now connect to the government’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network to more than 300,000.

In addition, more than 149,000 homes and businesses in rural areas now have access to faster broadband under the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI).

The Government’s year two report shows that about 20% of the UFB build has been completed, with uptake at about 3%.

To check out the UFB and RBI report, click here