In an emergency situation the difference between life and death often relies on people making split-second decisions.

It's a scenario St John ambulance staff know all too well.

St John staff based at the Thames station now have access to ultrafast broadband. Photo: File

Following a $15,000 grant from the Thames-Coromandel District Council, St John staff based at the Thames station now have access to ultrafast broadband which will greatly improve their operations.

In January, telecommunications infrastructure company Chorus laid a fibre optic cable to the station which is located at the north end of the Thames township.

St John district operations manager Bruce MacDonald says the access to faster and more reliable broadband has made a huge difference to their operations.

'We can have 15 to 17 people working flat-out on computers at the same time and on the old system it was hair-pulling. No business would want to operate like that,” Bruce explains.

'On the old ADSL connection it would take too long to open the applications we use that provide us with information to help us make decisions.”

With their new fibre-optic connection, applications used by St John staff now open instantly which allows them to make decisions instantly when managing emergency incidents.

In the past when staff used teleconferencing to manage emergency events audio quality was always poor and because it sucked up a lot of bandwidth they wouldn't be able to work on their computers.

'It was severely restricting our communications. We now have the option of video-conferencing, which we couldn't do before. This will save a lot of travel - it's quicker and more efficient,” Bruce says.

A wireless broadband site has also been installed on the roof of the station which will also pump wireless broadband into central Thames.

While a second wireless site installed on the roof of the Post Office will pick up the high-speed wireless link from the St John site and will further distribute wireless coverage through Thames.

The Thames-Coromandel District Council says the $15k grant is a form of co-investment in broadband services which is aimed at providing the infrastructure businesses and residents in the Coromandel need to prosper.