Auckland and Taupo, New Zealand, Get First Phase of Metro Wi-Fi

The service, called Kordia Metro Wi-Fi, is now available in the Auckland suburbs of Parnell, Ponsonby, Remuera and Karangahape Road and will be available in the Taupo CBD later this month. Kordia's aggressive roll-out strategy will see the service shortly expanding to nearly 20 cities throughout New Zealand.

The metro Wi-Fi network is unbundled and can operate multiple SSIDs. This allows Kordia to wholesale access to a number of ISPs to on-sell to their customers.

"In partnership with forward-thinking ISPs like Orcon, Tomizone, FIVO, Bunker Media and KiwiWireless, Kordia will be pushing the metro Wi-Fi service out to New Zealand's savviest end-users from today," said Kordia CEO, Geoff Hunt.

"Kordia has combined an innovative, open-access business model with a pragmatic and targeted deployment plan to deliver cost-effective mobile broadband access for business travelers, tourists and cities throughout New Zealand," said Martyn Levy, RoamAD's CEO.

As Kordia's Metro Wi-Fi network is supported by RoamAD's optimized wireless networking platform, it is optimized to support mobile broadband data as well as mobile VoIP/VoWiFi.

"Convergence means that New Zealanders want widespread, portable access to the Internet, their email, voice data and more. Kordia Metro Wi-Fi will deliver all that using a low-cost, high-value â??user-pays' business model that works," added Hunt.

Kordia expects strong take-up over the next three years, with a vision for targeted Metro Wi-Fi coverage in every New Zealand city by 2010.