Push for affordable rural broadband

Affordable broadband could soon be offered in the rural Waikato after Wintec joined the region's councils to investigate which areas are poorly served.

Environment Waikato, and the region's district councils, have put $1000 each into the WOW (Whole of Waikato) Regional Broadband Governance Group, which says affordable broadband is as important as power, water, and sewerage.

The group is investigating what level of service is available across the region and plans to make a case to the Government's Broadband Initiative Fund in June for cash. National said it would axe the fund if it won the general election on November 8. However, it has promised to spend $1.5 billion on a half-share of a fibre optic network that would connect 75 per cent of New Zealand households and businesses to broadband in the 22 biggest cities by 2015.

Otorohanga mayor Dale Williams, who is a member of the group, said the project was in its early days.

"All we have agreed, so far, is the vision: to try to provide affordable broadband to the last mile to every person living in the Waikato."

Mr Williams said while Otorohanga had broadband it was slow, and outlying parts of the district could not get it except via satellite at about $600 per month.

"For a struggling sheep and beef farmer that's just not an option," Mr Williams said.

The vision would be included in long-term council community plans across the region to gauge public feedback. Marlene Perry, the manager of Te Kuiti's Wintec campus, said a survey of 300 people showed rural businesses had been hung out to dry on the broadband front.

"The broadband strategy is to encourage open dialogue between telcos and communities. Fishery, forestry, tourism and rural schools are currently not on any telco's map down through the King Country to Taupo and up through Thames and the Coromandel Peninsula. These are deemed not profitable for telcos, yet they are contributing a significant amount to the Waikato economy," she said. "My passion is that the rural sector be better equipped. Europe will be instigating electronic identification data tagging by 2010 and those countries that do not comply with their produce, from gate to plate, will be excluded from exporting. The Government Broadband Investment Fund is a step in the right direction but the roll-out of funds and strategy is slow."

She hoped the group would see greater transparency over where fibre optic cables, enabling broadband, had been laid in the Waikato. "Telcos do not have to tell anyone where they have laid cables and the district councils do not have registries of cabling," she said.

Waikato IT consultant David Hallett, who runs Pulsar Computer Solutions and has attended meetings of the group, said broadband was extremely important for Waikato productivity.

"Agriculture would receive a direct benefit in terms of access to weather forecasts, information portals and electronic submission of herd records. Extending high-speed internet over the farm, with a wireless solution, means the ability to use electronic sensors for data-capture and PDAs for on-location data-entry, thus avoiding rekeying and subsequently increasing data accuracy."

Meanwhile, the Hamilton City Council has commissioned a study, as part of its new economic development strategy, which will examine Hamilton's strengths and weaknesses in the digital sector. The study is also likely to look at the infrastructure required to support high-speed broadband, the potential for developing new community, education, business and health uses for high-speed broadband and the potential to develop new IT-related business clusters. The study will be produced next year.

- © Fairfax NZ News