MEDIA RELEASE

Regional bid to get better broadband to the Bay of Plenty

For immediate release: Friday 13 April, 2007

Bay of Plenty councils have gone right to the top in their bid to get better broadband services in their region.

Environment Bay of Plenty Chairman John Cronin met with the Minister for Information Technology, the Hon David Cunliffe, on Thursday 29 March in Wellington to explain what Bay councils are up to and to explore possibilities for collaboration.

“We need a regional network of affordable broadband here,” Mr Cronin says. “And we need it soon. We’re behind the rest of the world in this respect, and we are most at risk in the Bay of Plenty due to a lack of true competition and investment in broadband”.

Mr Cronin talked to the Minister in particular about the possibility of the Bay of Plenty councils being consulted prior to any further allocation of radio spectrum to devise a way of ensuring its availability to rural and remote areas. “In rural and remote areas, good radio spectrum is essential to create demand and encourage investment in infrastructure. In the context of broadband development in New Zealand, the whole Bay of Plenty can be described as rural and remote,” Mr Cronin says.

Mr Cronin says the Minister was “very enthusiastic” about the project and agreed to greater collaboration between Environment Bay of Plenty staff and Ministry of Economic Development officials.

Environment Bay of Plenty is working closely with the region’s city and district councils, economic development agencies and industry groups to resolve the broadband issue. Last year, it commissioned a business case study to look for ways local government can support the development of a regional network.

One possibility is for the Bay of Plenty councils to develop an investment entity that creates an open access broadband infrastructure, which a number of telecommunications companies could then link up to as localised service providers. Environment Bay of Plenty’s group manager HR and Corporate Services, Miles McConway, says that competition of this sort would encourage the growth of a regional broadband network and hopefully result in better penetration and greater capability at a lower price.

“The study will identify a number of opportunities and actions that the councils, either collectively or individually, can explore or act on further,” Mr McConway says.

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