User Groups

In terms of ongoing governance relating to management, co-ordination and ongoing operations to determine how best the Urban Fibre Network and NEAL best serve the interests of Central Government, local authorities, and North Shore Schools; there will be two established user groups.

NEAL Group: representation from connected NEAL schools:
- Provide a supportive and collaborative educational user group for schools using the NEAL network.
- Support, advise and demonstrate innovative use of ICT resourcing, and educate members on the advantages of high-speed networking.
- Represent connected NEAL schools (& their ICT needs) with key groups such as MoE, NSCC, suppliers / service providers.
- Proactively work to facilitate aggregated services and purchasing for connected NEAL schools.
- Will act as a representative body to represent participating schools on the UFN user group.
Please contact Jason MacDonald for enquiries, including advice, support & guidance for connected schools.
UFN user group: representation from North Shore City Council, Vector Communications and the NEAL user group:
- Responsible for the management and strategic direction of the Urban Fibre Network.
- Share knowledge and ideas on how to best leverage the NEAL service as an incubator for further community broadband initiatives.
- Work to ensure all services are interoperable and the best available in the market place.
- To drive the model for ongoing participation between schools, local government, Service Providers and Vector Communications to ensure schools maximise their benefit from being connected to NEAL.
Please contact Roger Matthews for consents or council / municipal building connection enquiries.

For schools not currently targeted for connection to NEAL, you can submit an Expression of Interest form to Vector Communications and the North Shore City Council. Whilst funding is not currently available to extend NEAL, we will collate the interest we receive from non-connected schools for any future funding opportunities.