Clova Connect
Clova Connect is a wireless project in the Marlborough Sounds providing broadband internet to otherwise inaccessible areas of the community. An idea conceived by Tony Girling, the project took about a year from dream to deployment and now covers a dozen or so households.
The Marlborough Sounds area has always had very limited internet and phone connectivity due low population and difficult terrain. Dial-up works for many but is very unreliable, and broadband into the area is traditionally limited in coverage or very expensive. The only two available options had been The Pacific.net, a Nelson-based WISP with limited Marlborough Sounds coverage, or satellite which carries a very high cost and high latency (typically about 1 second) making it ineffective for voice and gaming.
The project has proven very successful and is set to expand very soon into other areas of the Marlborough Sounds. It is not part or or run by the Marlborough Wireless Project, but I have been heavily involved in its development right from the beginning.
For more information on various aspects of the project please visit the following pages: