Rural internet plan welcomed

Federated Farmers and rural schools in South Canterbury have welcomed the Government's high-speed broadband plan, but the rural advocacy organisation says more money is needed.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce said the plan, signed off yesterday, would give 97 per cent of households access to broadband services of at least 5 megabits per second, with the remainder reaching at least 1Mpbs.

A big part of the plan would be connecting fibre directly to rural schools. The rural broadband initiative would help deliver fibre connections to 97 per cent of schools across the country and 99.7 per cent of students, Mr Joyce said.

Most rural schools would achieve broadband speeds of at least 100Mpbs, while the most remote schools would achieve speeds of at least 10Mpbs.

"Taken together, the two initiatives [urban and rural] will deliver to New Zealanders modern telecommunications that will be the equal of, or better than, anywhere in the world," Mr Joyce said.

Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesman Donald Aubrey said the Government needed to spend more than $300 million for that to happen, considering it had pledged to spend $3 billion on delivering faster internet speeds to 75 per cent of New Zealanders' homes, workplaces and places of study within 10 years.

Mr Aubrey said Federated Farmers would also look at asking the Government to improve the speed for the wider community to match that of schools.

"We are keen to see that target increase. It should ensure that rural New Zealand doesn't miss out in getting an upgrade of service.

"There's no doubt that, potentially, improved broadband can improve productivity."

Waimate Main School principal Adam Rivett said the plan was "brilliant".

"It's the way the world is these days. We're an instant society. We do find that the speed of our internet connection is variable.

"It can be frustrating if you're a classroom teacher wanting to use the internet with your children."

Mr Rivett said the school had broadband on its 30 computers and was looking at buying another 20 computers, but their broadband was not as fast as in urban areas.

"Having the faster internet would be really good. We find that if we have more than 10 kids on [the internet] it slows down."

Fairlie Primary School principal Louise Shannahan said the new plan would be "accepted gratefully".

"It would be absolutely fantastic if that was going to be the case, just to speed everything up and give us that access – that would make such a difference for the kids."

She said the school often had problems with its server because of its rural location.

The rural broadband initiative is expected to cost around $300m and is being funded by a $48m direct government grant plus $252m from a telecommunications development levy.

- © Fairfax NZ News