Rural Broadband
Do more from here
Residential rural broadband for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Check if you’re in coverage for fast, reliable wireless broadband.
Don't be held back because of where you live.
Partner with us to make the most of rural living.
54 Sec
Average Call Wait Time
(last 30 days)
48 Mbps
Average Download Speed
(last 30 days – measured at time of install)
99.999%
Average Tower Uptime
(last 30 days – all towers)
How does Lightwire work?
It’s not 4G, 5G, Fibre, or Satellite, it’s Lightwire fixed wireless rural broadband. Towers throughout the Waikato and Bay of Plenty beam internet directly to your house. The result? Fast internet with low latency (lag) allowing you to work from home, stream Netflix, and game with ease.
We care as much as you do.
Here’s why Lightwire makes a great partner for your rural internet and voice needs…
You won’t wait
With an average call wait time below 2 mins, when you need us, you’ll get hold of our local support team quickly.
Optimised network
Network capacity is carefully managed to ensure peak time speeds don’t hold you back.
Your own portal
Access everything related to your services from one place. Check your data usage, change your plan, pay your bills, refer a friend, and much more.
Visit within 14 days
An installer will visit your property within 14 business days of your order being accepted.
Free install
A Lightwire installer will come to your house, install a dish on your roof, place a Wi-Fi router and run tests to ensure you are good to go. This is $990 worth of value, and it’s free on a 12-month term.
No Risk
Wireless broadband doesn’t work everywhere. If we can’t get you online then we won’t charge you a cent.
Flexible rural broadband plans
All Lightwire Rural Fixed Wireless Broadband plans are flexible, meaning you can change your plan at any time. Unlimited data from midnight to 8AM is included in every plan.
- Step 1: Pick a plan
- Step 2: Fill out your details
- Step 3: We'll confirm your coverage
- Step 4: Be online in 14 days*
- Step 1: Pick a plan
- Step 2: Fill out your details
- Step 3: We'll confirm your coverage
- Step 4: Be live in 14 days*
300GB
Casual browsing and movie or music streaming. Unlimited off-peak data.-
Free install on 12 month term
-
$0.50 p/GB additional usage
-
Free WiFi modem included
-
Unlimited off-peak data
-
Switch between plans
-
Speed guarantee
Unlimited
No slowdowns, no hidden charges just genuine unlimited internet-
Free install on 12 month term
-
Free WiFi modem included
-
No soft or hard data caps
-
Switch between plans
-
Speed guarantee
-
Install priority
150GB
Entry plan to enjoy the best of Lightwire.Unlimited off-peak data.
-
Free install on 12 month term
-
$0.50 p/GB additional usage
-
Free WiFi modem included
-
Unlimited off-peak data
-
Switch between plans
-
Speed guarantee
Not sure how much data you need?
Don’t know how much data you need? That’s okay, you can change your plan after you sign up without penalty via your customer portal. Move to a higher or lower data plan at any time with the click of a button.
Learn more about Lightwire’s rural broadband plans here.
You’re guaranteed…
Speed
All you want to do is after a hard day of work is relax, browse the internet, and watch your favourite Netflix series without interruption.
Lightwire’s rural broadband comes with guaranteed download speeds, meaning you never have to settle for the buffer ever again.
fast install
One of the reasons rural households pick Lightwire is because they don’t want to wait for internet. Getting rural internet installed at your place shouldn’t be different.
An installer will visit your property within 14 business days of your order being accepted.
Easily Switch Plans
Your data usage can vary, so we make sure you can switch plans, up or down, as many times as you want. Downgrades will take effect from the 1st day of the next month, upgrades will take effect immediately so that you don’t get hit with excess data charges.
8,000+ Rural Households already do more from here
Half of our customers rate their experience with Lightwire as 10 out of 10. In our most recent survey, 2,269 respondents gave us an average rating of 8.7.
Every month, 25% of our new customers join us as the result of a friend or relative referring them.
Rural living shouldn’t be about compromises.
Join over 8,000 rural households across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty that have already chosen to connect smarter with Lightwire.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your speed will depend on a number of factors, including distance from our nearest tower, the capacity on that tower and how you are connecting to your Lightwire connection from within your house.
When we talk about speed, we are talking about the speed you can get from your Lightwire supplied router back to the speed test server on our network. This is different from the speed you can get over WiFi as the distance from your router or number of other devices connected to the same network affect the speed.
With the above detail taken into account, we see average download speeds of 53.5Mbps across the network, and guarantee a download speed of 10Mbps during peak periods (3pm to 10pm).
This means that if you aren’t getting 10Mbps or better, we will treat this as a speed fault and get it sorted for you.
Lightwire is unique among rural broadband providers in that we go past talking about potential speeds or average speeds – we commit to guaranteed minimum download speeds.
During off-peak periods we commit to providing at least 20Mbps download speeds, and during on-peak times we commit to at least 10Mbps download speeds.
Want to know what guaranteed download speeds mean for you? Read it here.
In designing our plans, we have tried to find a balance between ensuring our costs are covered and keeping your costs as low as possible.
When it comes to installation, we need to install a dish on your roof that will point at a tower on a nearby hill, and install a WiFi router. All of this is done by a Lightwire engineer.
If you sign a 12-month term, we do all of this for free.
On a 6-month term, we can’t be sure that we will have you with us long enough to earn a return on the cost of the install, so we pass on $490 of the cost as a one-off installation charge.
Lightwire gives you unparalleled flexibility. Regardless of which plan you sign up to, you can upgrade or downgrade that plan at any time without penalty. This is done via your customer portal.
Upgrades take effect immediately, and plan downgrades take effect at the start of the following month.
Unfortunately, even with the use of sophisticated software, we can never be 100% sure that we can connect a service at an address until our installer has attended site and made an attempt.
To get you connected we need a clear line of sight between somewhere on your property and one of our towers, and that tower needs to be close enough for the speeds to be acceptable.
When you sign up, we know how close you are to a tower, so we are pretty sure that you can connect. Once you lodge an order, our team manually checks whether any hills will get in the way or whether we have seen a failed install at the same (or nearby) address previously. If that all looks good, your order goes to an installer.
The last issue we usually see is that of trees. We can’t see these using our software, so it is always the last hurdle to clear.
If distance, hills and/or trees aren’t an issue, you are almost certainly able to connect. The best option is to start by lodging an order, there is no cost to you if we can’t get you connected.
Need help deciding?
give us a call
On average you’ll get a wireless broadband specialist on the phone in less than 2 minutes.
email us
Your internet speeds and service uptime are our top priority.
What’s more, online sign-up for rural broadband is easy.
You’ve made a great decision to live rurally. Make another.
