Originally published by Maori television

Rural areas underserved by existing telecommunications providers are set to benefit from a new Māori-led initiative.

The initiative is driven by a recently announced partnership between Tū Atea, which manages Māori-owned spectrum assets, and Mavenir, a leading US telecommunications software provider, to enable faster internet and improved mobile services thanks to advanced 4G and 5G technologies.

The partnership will focus on building private 4G and 5G small cell networks (localized networks suitable for businesses or organizations), ideal for primary production, manufacturing and critical infrastructure for example.

It will also promote infrastructure sharing through neutral hosting, allowing New Zealand network operators such as Spark, One NZ and 2degrees to extend their coverage to underserved communities.