Rural areas miss broadband plan

People living in towns smaller than Oamaru will miss out on a $1.5 billion government plan to connect homes, schools and businesses with ultra-fast broadband.

Communications Minister Steven Joyce yesterday set out details for the broadband plan, which would see 75 per cent of New Zealand homes wired up with fibre-optic cable within 10 years.

The Government would set up a new Crown-owned company that would let regional tenders to lay fibre to homes, businesses, schools and healthcare facilities in 25 cities. Greater Wellington, Kapiti, Levin, Taupo and Masterton all make the cut.

Mr Joyce said the fibre would give broadband speeds of at least 100 megabits per second. He expected the Government contribution of up to $1.5b would be at least matched by private-sector investors.

The regional approach meant there might be no single price for ultra-fast broadband. Telecommunications companies would negotiate pricing with local fibre companies.

Mr Joyce said the Government would soon make a further announcement on rural broadband. It has promised a separate $48 million initiative.

Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe accused the Government of performing a $1.5billion backflip. He said the scheme largely mirrored the approach of Labour's $325m Broadband Investment Fund (BIF), which the Government scrapped, but was more wasteful of taxpayers' dollars.

"The Government has largely adopted the policy framework for BIF. If that was what the Government was going to do, why didn't they tell the public before the election?"

Mr Joyce said the Government's plan differed from Labour's in three key respects: its "sheer size", the Government's investment in fibre providers instead of handing out subsidies, and its focus on fibre to the home, rather than other technologies.

The Government conceded that there was a risk thatprivate investors might not come forward with their share of the $3b, that this might not be enough to provide the desired network coverage, and that local fibre companies might fail.

Laws might be changed to make it easier for contractors to string cables on power and telephone poles, and to lay fibre in "micro-trenches" cut in roads.

Tim Davin, policy manager at the Institute for Professional Engineers, said 25,000 kilometres of cabling would be needed.

New Zealand did not have enough trained engineers to build the network, but some could be brought in from overseas, he said.

The fastest residential broadband service in Wellington is TelstraClear's InHome cable network, which provides download speeds of up to 25 megabits. Parent Telstra in Melbourne is rolling out technology to increase cable download speeds to 100 megabits.

The Government-backed fibre network would provide faster upload speeds and potentially even faster download speeds, Mr Joyce said.

Of the government funding, $150m would be spent making schools "broadband ready".

HIGH-FIBRE DIET

Ultra-fast broadband will let people do a lot more online.

Most current broadband will let people watch basic internet video and music clips and standard-definition TV broadcasts through their phone line, but not high-definition TV.

Ultra-fast broadband will let people watch high-definition or three-dimensional TV online, while talking on the phone via broadband or making video phone calls.

Downloading movies will become much faster.

- © Fairfax NZ News