The Government's Rural Broadband vision: fibre as far as possible
By
August 05, 2022
In a country referred to as the ‘last bus stop on the planet’, ultra-fast broadband has a pivotal role to play in unleashing innovation and bringing New Zealand closer to Asia’s growth markets.
This was a key message from Communications Minister Amy Adams speaking at the Rural Broadband Symposium, hosted by TUANZ, to discuss the next round of rural broadband funding and upgrades.
Minister Adams told the mixed audience of communications, health, council and rural business leaders that the government didn’t need convincing of the importance of the rural economy to our economic success. Primary industries in rural New Zealand produce 10 per cent of our GDP, but more significantly, over 70 per cent of our export revenues. The sector’s future is dependent on improving productivity and output, and reducing the environmental impact, all of which hinges on the use of machine-to-machine technology, enabling anything from herd management and fertiliser tracking to dairy automation.
Minister Adams said the government is looking for ‘innovative’ solutions that deliver the best speed to the greatest number of people in proposals for rural broadband funding. The government would like to see:
- A clear vision for what rural broadband is trying to achieve in taking fibre where copper and electricity connectivity has gone before. Bearing in mind financial constraints, a pragmatic solution may be one that connects fibre to critical nodes, with other access technologies delivering broadband service beyond that.
- Solutions that are modern and upgradeable, instead of short term technology fixes that cannot scale to meet future broadband needs.
- Options that encourage competition – Minister Adams suggested solutions needed to be offered on a wholesale basis with enough scale to attract multiple retailers to use it to deliver rural products. She challenged smaller local providers to consider how they can collaborate to create a consistent wholesale platform others can easily use.
- More commitment from local councils – Minister Amy Adams called for councils to be clear on how they will actively support or reduce build costs by better managing local resource consents, championing uptake and contributing financially. Some of the options raised included:
The government funding rural broadband upgrades to a township and the local council providing additional funding to extend it to fibre to the premises.
The government to fund the rural backhaul and the council pays for access.
The creation of fibre hubs for businesses, instead of focussing solely on building fibre to communities.
The address set the tone for the day. As different providers (including Chorus) presented their vision for the rural broadband opportunity, debate shifted into the rural roadmap over the next five years, how far fibre can go, what alternative technologies are there, and who pays. What there was little debate over was the value of fibre nationally and its ability to unlock social and economic benefits.