While dignitaries celebrate the completion of the Tauranga ultra-fast broadband roll-out at the Baycourt Community and Arts Centre tomorrow morning, Mount Maunganui based company is already demonstrating what the increased bandwidth can do for local businesses.

PowerSmart is using ultra-fast broadband to monitor up to 30 of their biggest solar power stations across New Zealand and the South Pacific 24 hours a day and provide instant technical support.

Tauranga company Powersmart is using UFB to communicate with customers across the Pacific. Photo: Powersmart

The Tauranga company monitors the solar power stations servicing 12 remote Pacific Island communities is proving distance is no barrier to business thanks to Ultra-Fast Broadband.

Now ongoing support is only a phone call away for the communities that can be up to five days' travel away, says PowerSmart marketing manager Richard Cullwick.

'UFB gives us the ability to sit in our Head Quarters in Tauranga, but monitor and look after sites not only all across the country but also all over the South Pacific.

'If anything goes wrong with a system, our technical guys can be on the phone with anybody in New Zealand and throughout the South Pacific, monitoring their system in real time, and talking them through any changes that need to be made.

'It means we can provide solutions over the phone, instead of spending five days to get there, which is the very real reality for a lot of these atolls.”

Before switching to UFB, the amount of internet traffic in their office would slow the network and become frustrating to work with, says Richard.

'Now we're able to provide instant support to our clients, saving both us and our clients' time and money.”

Powersmart only recently completed installation of a $35 million renewable energy project for the New Zealand Aid Programme in October 2014.

In that time, the company installed 12 off-grid solar power stations – eight in the Northern Cook Islands and four on Tuvalu's Islands – saving more than 500,000 litres of diesel imported each year. The final installation of the solar power stations was completed just three months ago.

Speeches and opening ceremony for the two day Baycourt UFB workshop begin at 9.30am. In attendance will be Ultrafast Fibre Chief Executive William Hamilton Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby, and Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller.

The beyond broadband expo includes free workshops and is held Friday and Saturday.