Editorial: Squabble over free internet access hides issue

OPINION: One of the striking things for a Kiwi traveller heading to the big, sophisticated cities of the northern hemisphere – America in particular – is the ready availability of high-speed, wireless internet access there. It shapes everyday life, and the experience of it rams home how far behind New Zealand lags in the pursuit of the limitless opportunities of the online world.

In comparison, here wireless hotspots are thin on the ground and the cost of mobile broadband access is eye-wateringly expensive. Such shortcomings in our telecommunications infrastructure must be particularly glaring to visitors arriving from those northern lands. It is little surprise that when they get wind of the small oases of unlimited, free internet access available here – namely, in our public libraries – they flock to them.

The service is paid for by the public under a scheme agreed to by the previous government, to help improve access for all to the opportunities provided by the net. Its principles are laudable enough and libraries are an obvious fit for it, given their role as providers of freely-available information.

In some areas including Nelson and Motueka, it has been a victim of its own success. Especially during the peak tourist season, there are repeated reports and complaints of backpackers taking over libraries as they catch up on their online lives. The potential for resentment among some locals is obvious, ranging from those who say that other library users are put out, to those who grouch about taxpayer funds being used to pay for tourists' conveniences.

A particular grievance is borne by the operators of internet cafes who offer paid-for internet access and rely heavily on the tourist trade. They complain bitterly – and with some justification – that their livelihoods are being undermined by a rival taxpayer-funded service. It is true that their business model is probably on borrowed time, if and when universal wireless connections catch on here, but that scenario is different from the one of public money being used to offer a mirror service to theirs.

As it is, fiscal circumstances may intervene. The government contract for the library-based scheme will eventually run out and it seems unlikely that the current administration will be willing to keep providing near-limitless bandwidth to whoever wants it at the taxpayer's expense. In the meantime, the libraries themselves must make sure any problems being caused by free internet are closely managed.

But the flipside of the argument should not be lightly dismissed. For one thing, it shows the continuing disconnect some Nelsonians suffer, of extolling their region as a place the outside world loves to visit, but then resenting the demands of catering to those visitors. More significantly, it has demonstrated how badly served for internet access large parts of New Zealand – and large swathes of the New Zealand community – are.

It is unfortunate that an attempt to get more people into cyberspace has created hassles for library users and upset some small business operators. But their complaints only scratch the surface of the increasingly unavoidable truth, that New Zealand is ill-equipped to cater to the unstoppable demands of an online world.

- © Fairfax NZ News