NZ Government claims 'clear mandate' for $NZ300m rural broadband initiative

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 01 December 2009 08:25

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

New Zealand's communications and information technology minister, Steven Joyce, says that submissions received in response to its proposals to deploy fast broadband to rural communities have given the government a clear mandate to move forward with the plans.

His claim comes just one day after release of a report into the New Zealand economy   that was heavily critical of the Government's plan to subsidise broadband by spending $NZ1.5b on the rollout of FTTH to a large percentage of urban households, in addition to the $NZ300m earmarked for the rural broadband initiative.

The government aims to connect 93 percent of rural schools to fibre delivering bandwidths of at least 100Mbps, with the remaining seven percent getting at least 10Mbps. Through other technologies. It also aims to give at least 80 percent of rural households access to broadband with at least 5Mbps of bandwidth and at least 1Mbps to the remainder.

The government is proposing to fund the rollout through a combination of direct government funding and revenue from "a more transparent and effective industry levy than the current [Telecommunications Service Obligation] levy."

Joyce announced the rural broadband plan on 10 September and on 29 September released a rural broadband initiative discussion document and a TSO reform discussion document.


A total of 67 submissions were received on the rural broadband proposal and 23 on the TSO reform proposal. These are now available on the Ministry of Economic Development website.

Joyce said "I am pleased with the large number of submissions on these two proposals, which demonstrates the significance of the decisions before the government...It is now time to focus on developing the proposals to ensure the $300 million earmarked for rural broadband is spent in a manner that achieves the best possible outcome for rural New Zealand...I expect to announce the government's final policies on rural broadband and TSO reform in early 2010."