A significant number of schools, located in towns too big to be rural but too small to be urban, look set to miss out on broadband funding, according to an independent analysis.
While the UFB (ultra fast broadband) initiative is set to cover the 33 largest cities and towns in New Zealand and the RBI (Rural Broadband Initiative) will connect around 750 rural schools, an analysis on Inside Telecommunications by Jonathan Brewer, has shown around 470 schools (over 108,000 students) will get no fibre at all.
InternetNZ acknowledged that underlying limitations on the data might mean there are errors in the analysis but said it is clear that a "substantial" number of schools and students will be sharing an inadequate connection.
InternetNZ's site also noted that 90 percent of the schools missing out on UFB are within two kilometres of existing Chorus fibre.
Photo credit: DeclanTM via Flickr.
