Faster internet boosts outlook

18th March 2010

A Government plan to roll out high-speed broadband to rural New Zealand - with a promise the whole country will get faster internet speeds - has been welcomed in Northland.

The proposals  have been signed off by the Government and work will start on the necessary infrastructure early next year.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce announced the plan this week, saying 97 per cent of rural households would get access to broadband services of at least 5 megabytes per second, and the remainder would get at least 1Mbps.

"For many remote and not-so-remote rural areas this will be light years ahead of where they are today," he said.

The Government has also finalised plans involving reform of the Telecommunications Service Obligations (TSO), involving compensation to Telecom for supplying local telephone services in commercially non-viable areas. No increase in line rental charges were expected.

A big part of the broadband plan would be connecting fibre directly to rural schools, where demand was most concentrated.

Power supplier Northpower is rolling out its own fibre-optic broadband network in Whangarei where speeds on the network can reach up 100Mbps.

Northpower fibre manager Darren Mason said the company supported the Government's plan. He predicted it would bring huge benefits for the region.

"I think this will go a long way to stepped increases in rural areas, which has got to be good for a rural region like Northland," Mr Mason said.

He said rural businesses and schools would likely see the greatest benefits of faster broadband speeds.

"Schools would have a huge potential for things like e-learning and running new programmes and applications, so from Northpower's perspective it's great for the region," Mr Mason said.

He said Northpower would "definitely" look to get involved.

 Mr Joyce said some people were concerned that too much emphasis was being placed on school connectivity.

"While the schools will be the original catalyst to get fibre to the community, achieving at least 5Mbps across the communities is the primary aim of the exercise," he said.

 New Zealand's  telecommunications would equal or better anywhere in the world, Mr Joyce said.