The company will use spectrum in the 1800MHz band – which it secured in an auction last year – and will trial the services for three months in 10 sites across the city.
“With our customers’ ever-increasing appetite for data, coupled with more LTE-capable handsets available, we feel it is now the right time to extend our capabilities to the next generation of mobile,” said Stewart Sherriff, CEO at 2degrees.
The company expects to launch commercial 4G services in Auckland in July this year, and to cover the wider Auckland region by the year end.
“Our customers are using more than triple the amount of data they were two years ago and it has become an integral part of our work and personal lives,” said Sherriff.
“There is no doubt that 4G will transform our lives further and we are looking forward to the exciting possibilities it will provide to our customers,” he added.
The operator hopes to roll out the 4G network to provincial areas of the country in 2015.
Rival operators Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone New Zealand are already aggressively pursuing their 4G roll-outs in the country.
