Gunnedah Council was the first to team up with TUPS Company to deliver high-speed wi-fi internet to doctors, patients, school students and every business and resident in town.

The new pilot scheme has taken a year of planning and construction and connects to the web using fibre-optic cables that were laid in Gunnedah 30 years ago.

Gunnedah Shire Council’s manager of economic development and tourism Chris Frend said the company made contact with council 18 months ago, with the view to set up a remote internet access and provide wi-fi to individuals, businesses and a free wi-fi hotspot.

Mr Frend said council had received "very positive" feedback from users.

"The Wi-fi was turned on early last month and it’s a big boom to business and individuals - especially those who can’t access the internet because of remoteness," he said.

"It is going to have benefits for any business in regional Australia.

"Through wi-fi, data can be delivered at a 40MB to 60MB range per second."

TUPS managing director Geoff Peach said the feedback he had recieved had been positive, especially from people outside the Gunnedah town centre.

"This is an opportunity for people in remote and rural areas to have access to the internet with the high speed and performance of those in larger townships," he said.

Mr Peach said a number of councils had approached TUPS about hooking up wi-fi through fibre optics.

"There is a lot of optical fibre around the place, especially in remote and rural communities, and Moree, Narrabri, Inverell, Tamworth, Griffith, and Cowra are just some of the towns that could take advantage of this solution," he said.

"We are currently in serious discussions with Forbes and could be rolling out wi-fi there in March.

"We are also in very high discussions with three other councils."

Mr Peach said his company worked with Gunnedah Council and residents for more than 12 months to "iron out all the bugs" and offer a product that was "robust and resilient".

Mr Peach said the company had done a review of the original packages for homes and businesses and lowered prices.

Since the scheme was launched on December 8, TUPS had completed nine installations.