Fromms - Mākara Community Internet Network

06/09/2026

Flood risk tonight! This is a good opportunity to inform the community that we have launched a new we**am for the south end of the Takarau Gorge so residents can check the river level and see if the road is flooded / closed. During daylight hours of course! This has been kindly agreed with the property owners and fully sponsored by FROMMS. This livestream can be viewed at:
gorgecam.valleywireless.nz

09/04/2026

Update on Cyclone Vaianu this weekend. Whereas it currently looks like Wellington will be spared the brunt of the storm, we are still likely to get strong winds and power outages. FROMMS has contingencies in place but obviously we can't predict how the strong winds will affect the internet service. Stay safe out there!

15/02/2026

Power is currently down for the whole Mākara region. FROMMS is still operating however the power to the school is out so running on battery backup.

14/02/2026

SEVERE WEATHER ALERT for today and Monday. Whereas FROMMS has good redundancy measures now due to a recent overhaul of equipment, we are still reliant on our exposed hilltop infrastructure, so will do our best to maintain service. Severe wind gusts may cause power outages, trees down, phone line and cellular disruption. Stay safe!

09/12/2025

Good news! Speed increases begin for all customers tomorrow! After many months of equipment upgrades and delays dealing with bad weather, we are finally in a position to throw open the taps a bit more to allow customers access to more Internet speed in time for the Christmas period. When the trust was set up in 2013, the wireless tech wasn't available to transmit high bandwidth connections and we were borrowing the school's fibre line with a data cap. Now at the end of 2025, we have a much faster dedicated fibre connection, plus all interconnecting links between Mākara transmitters have been upgraded. The original 20mbps customer plan will double to 50mbps, with some customers on newer equipment reaching up to the maximum of 60mbps down and 40mbps up. Have a great Christmas and New Year!

15/11/2025

FROMMS – 3 Month Update

There has been a lot happening 'behind the scenes' at FROMMS over the last few months. A lot of time, graft and money has been spent improving the network reliability and end-to-end speeds.

We did have a few set-backs (of course) due to the nature of operating a rural Wireless network, mostly with the severe storms of October which really punished our hill top infrastructure but this has now been fully repaired and fortified. Here are some highlights worth mentioning:

· New business fibre line and core networking at the school (for faster speeds)

· New wireless links installed between all Makara areas to increase site capacity

· More bandwidth now available for all customers (coming this December)

· New redundancy measures implemented (a second backup Internet connection, power outage prevention, backup wireless links to critical sites, better monitoring systems)

· Antenna replacement and recable of British Peak site due to severe storm damage

· Introduction of a new coverage area for the Village (please pass this information on!)

· Introduction of a Network Status page to check for outages (fromms.instatus.com)

We will now be able to offer customers faster speeds in time for the Christmas holidays.

All customers will get a free speed upgrade from December, from the original 20mbps plan up to a maximum of 60/40, so over twice the speed to say a big thank you for being loyal customers.

This will give you a much better experience with multiple device use at the same time, online gaming, and enable 4k streaming reliably. If your current rooftop dish cannot receive these new speeds, we will offer a free replacement. You will need to make sure your dish location still has a clear view of your nearest tower, with no trees, bushes or other obstructions in front of it otherwise you will not get the full speeds and possibly have intermittent service. Contact us if you are having these or similar issues.

On top of that, we will be launching a 'Business' tier plan for a full fibre broadband experience (100mbps) from January 2026 if you run a business, work from home or require a faster connection.

Also, although we cannot improve cellular service, we are able to provide Wi-Fi Calling on the FROMMS network for all compatible phones on all NZ networks. Failing that, we can provide a landline phone service using any old wired or cordless phone system you may already have.

Finally, if you have a second dwelling on your property, either another house, shed, barn, outbuilding, granny flat, tiny home or AirBNB operation, we can either offer you a second internet connection for half price, or enable you to share your existing home connection over to the other buildings using wireless links, the same way you receive your FROMMS connection. No cables or digging required, just 'line of sight' between buildings. And it's much faster and more reliable than a 'mesh' or off the shelf repeater system.

Thanks for your continued support, and have a great Christmas!

FROMMS Community Network Status

29/10/2025

Thanks to Peter May who has been helping me fix our battered Internet tower after the truly brutal winds on Thursday and Monday knocked our customers offline.

27/10/2025

UNPLANNED OUTAGE - Primary tower down due to storm damage. Will assess and repair when it is safe to do so and weather has calmed down. Thanks for your patience.