Fibre to the farm critical

Media release
4 November 2009

Fibre to the farm critical

The New Zealand Regional Fibre Group is backing the Government’s planned rural broadband initiative.

However, the NZRFG, a collective of 17 lines and power companies, says more work is needed to ensure the plan reaches its potential.

In fact, the group believes it can exceed the Government’s minimum broadband performance standards through a nationally co-ordinated, regionally based fibre roll-out.

And if the $300 million Government funding is not enough to get the rural sector connected to ultra-fast broadband, the NZRFG has proposed alternative funding models to the Government to meet the rural need.

NZRFG spokesperson and Unison chief executive Ken Sutherland says the group, which is in the process of establishing a number of regionally operated local fibre companies, wants ultra-fast broadband speeds of 100Mbit/s to reach entire rural communities – not just schools.

“We believe speeds of 100Mbit/s throughout New Zealand, not just in the urban landscape, would deliver huge benefits to rural folk and we want to give rural New Zealand a real boost,” says Mr Sutherland.

“For a farmer to do things as simple as research and development, or banking online, would be a massive time saver and money saver. Many of us take these tasks for granted but the reality is most farmers are on dial-up and are extremely limited in what they can do online because it takes hours. They don’t have that kind of time to waste because they are running very complex businesses.

“When you consider the rural economy is the economic backbone of New Zealand - and primary product exports contribute $20 billion of our $50 billion export revenue annually – then investing in infrastructure that will drive greatly improved efficiencies is crucial to our productivity. Rural broadband should be provided by fibre, not copper.

“For rural New Zealand to be on parity with urban areas in terms of ultra-fast fibre speed and investment, it would experience a quantum shift in connectivity, services and competitive capability. Small and mid-sized towns not included in the Government’s 33 candidate areas, deserve better than 5-10Mbps, when neighbouring townships will have 100Mbit/s. The NZRFG can make that happen.”

Mr Sutherland says because NZRFG members are largely community owned and have extensive existing lines networks throughout New Zealand’s rural landscape, they are well placed to add fibre to their infrastructure. Many already are.

“A number of NZRFG members are putting in fibre networks because we believe it is critical the primary sector is not left behind the rest of the country with sub-standard connection speeds. We are obligated to provide for our communities and find initiatives to make fibre work – and we will.”

While Mr Sutherland acknowledges the suggested speeds for rural are an improvement, especially compared to dial-up, he says ultra-fast fibre broadband is the future for all of New Zealand because it makes existing copper broadband look like dial-up.

“We just want the chance to connect rural NZ in the manner we know we can. What the Government is planning is a once-in-a-generation infrastructure upgrade that will change the way we communicate. That in itself should be applauded because it will keep us on a footing with the rest of the world when it comes to our communication platform,” says Mr Sutherland.

Under the UFB initiative, 75% of New Zealanders will benefit from broadband fibre connections of 100Mbit/s.

“We recognise that Telecom is currently upgrading its legacy copper network and improved speeds of up to 5-10Mbit/s will be delivered to rural communities over the next couple of years.

“But we would like to see as much of the population as possible receiving speeds of 100Mbps so everyone is on a level playing field, including many farming businesses and hospitals which contribute greatly to our economic, social and cultural wealth. That can only be good for us all.”

Mr Sutherland says the Government will never have a better opportunity to create the right technological conditions to enable the rural sector to experience productivity gains equivalent to other sectors of the New Zealand economy.

Under the proposed rural initiative, a large proportion of New Zealand’s rural population is set to miss out on the connectivity speeds heading the way of 33 urban centres under the ultra-fast broadband initiative.

“While rural schools would receive 100Mbit/s, many rural communities are not centred around their schools. Therefore they would be unable to connect to the new ultra-fast rural broadband network.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media