10 Mar 2015

Tribes sells broadband business

6:59 am on 10 March 2015

The northern tribe Ngatiwai is quitting the broadband business.

NgatiwaiNET is selling its high-speed wireless service to the Uber Group.

The iwi's trust board said it was pulling out because the internet was not part of its core business.

"NgatiwaiNET was established 10 years ago and has operated successfully for a number of years, but it has become increasingly clear that it is not part of Ngatiwai's core business," said Ngatiwai Trust Board Chief Executive Jim Smillie.

In a statement, the tribe said it wanted to free up resources for other priorities.

Uber was warning there would be some break in service when it upgraded and replaced some of the NgatiwaiNET equipment after change of ownership kicked in on the first of April.

Uber is a Northland internet service provider, which specialises in providing wireless broadband services to rural areas.