The government's $300 million rural broadband plan doesn't go far enough according to the New Zealand Regional Fibre Group (NZRFG).
The alliance of 19 lines companies and fibre providers has released a statement pushing for fibre connectivity to be extended so that “broader rural communities” are on a par with the proposed urban connectivity speeds of 100Mbps. This follows the announcement this morning that cabinet has approved a rural broadband plan set to deliver 5Mbps to 97% of rural households.
"We still believe that alternative funding models may be required beyond the current level of Government grants to deliver ultra-fast broadband to rural New Zealand," says NZRFG spokerson and Unison chief executive Ken Sutherland.
The group’s goal is to take fibre connectivity to 80% of New Zealanders – 5% further than the 75% of premises passed which the Government is aiming for in its Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) plan.
In the government’s plan it states that participants in the UFB may wish to bid for the Rural Broadband Initiative funding. “To this end, the government will build in sufficient flexibility to the tender to enable potential Local Fibre Company partners to express an interest in the Rural Broadband Initiative ahead of final UFB Initiative decisions.”
Sutherland says the key to ensuring a nationally co-ordinated, regionally based fibre roll-out is agreed national technical standards. To that end, the Telecommunications Carriers Forum has established a UFB working party with members that include Crown Fibre Holdings, Chorus, Commerce Commission, Enable Networks, FX Networks, Kordia, MED, NZRFG, North Power, TelstraClear, Vector and Vodafone.
Chairman of the Telecommunications Industry Group (TIG) and Vodafone CEO Russell Stanners says the industry expects standards to be agreed to by September. “We’re all very excited about it,” he told TR. “It’s a big change and a big intervention and it accelerates something that would probably happen anyway.”
September is the month Crown Fibre Holdings CEO Graham Mitchell says the government hopes to finalise contracts, having made the final decision on which companies will partner with the government by 30 June. Mitchell says that all 18 respondents who submitted proposals in January have been deemed eligible to proceed to the next stage of evaluation.
While much of the decision making will go on behind closed doors due to the commercial sensitivity of the process, it hasn’t stopped Telecom and Vector from fierce lobbying. At the TIG’s Planet 2010 conference in the weekend Vector was offering punters the chance to win a Flip Mino HD Camera if they answered the question “Yes, I want the world’s best broadband connection,” or “No, I can wait, and wait.”
Meanwhile Chorus took a more sedate approach by putting its prototype hybrid cabinet on display. TR snapped the photo of the Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson (pictured on right) examining its contents with Chorus head of business development Craig Young.