Inside the Kiwi UFB experience - Skyline Enterprises

The Ultra-Fast Broadband Initiative is a New Zealand Government programme that aims to bring high-speed fibre to 75% of NZ homes and businesses over 10 years.

The company that manages the $1.5 billion project is Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH), a Crown-owned company.

CFH has also partnered up with Northpower, Waikato Networks, Enable Services and Chorus to help implement the initiative.

At this stage, around 19 of New Zealand's towns and cities have access to UFB, providing Kiwi businesses with the opportunity to further improve day to day operations. Established in 1966, Skyline Enterprises is one of these businesses.

While it started out local, the company is now a multinational tourism operator in New Zealand, Calgary and Singapore. And, with over 800,000 visitors to Skyline Queenstown alone every year, an efficient network is imperative for its success.

Jonathan Clark, architecture and infrastructure at Skyline Enterprises, says Fibre has been fantastic for the company.

"It's allowed us to build a single managed wide area network for the business, that allows all the different aspects of our business to communicate together," he says.

Wayne Rose, assistant general manager of Skyline Queenstown, says they need to use the broadband connection for various aspects of the business.

Usage includes ticket sales, scanning through gates, the luge photography system and the company's high speed Wi-Fi connection that's on offer for guests.

"Since we got fibre we've seen a huge spike in photo sales because the team and the guests are able to interact so much faster," he says.

Rose also highlights the fact that since implementing UFB, Skype meetings have become seamless.

"We used to have huge delays with people repeating what they were saying," he says.

"Fundamentally, I guess it's changed the way we operate. We're now able to provide a fast, effective and efficient service to our guests as they come through the complex.

See the video here.