Hon STUART NASH (Minister for Economic and Regional Development) on behalf of the Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications: I am pleased to say the Government is making significant progress on improving connectivity for all New Zealanders. As part of the continuing ultra-fast broadband fibre roll-out, nearly 1.8 million homes and businesses have fibre available to them, across 327 cities and towns, with 66 percent uptake so far. Five hundred and sixteen marae are now connected to the internet as part of the marae connectivity initiative, over 68,000 rural homes and businesses have access to improved wireless broadband services, 902 kilometres of State highway now have mobile phone coverage under the mobile black spot initiative, and 72 tourist sites have coverage they did not have before. These initiatives are already providing better coverage around all regions of the country, but we must be realistic. There is still much more to be done, including nearly $48 million in rural capability upgrades to improve coverage to rural areas where congestion is currently an issue.