Dark fibre backbone infrastructure will be a significant component of New Zealand's planned $1.5 billion national broadband network, the country's Communications Minister Steven Joyce said yesterday.
NZ Communications Minister Steven Joyce (Credit: NZ Govt)
Dark fibre backbone infrastructure will be a significant
component of New Zealand's planned $1.5 billion national broadband
network, the country's Communications Minister Steven Joyce said
yesterday.
"I can tell you today that it's our intention to invest at the
infrastructure level — i.e. that is the provision of dark fibre
infrastructure," he told a conference in New Zealand
yesterday.
I can tell you today that it's our intention to invest at the infrastructure level
NZ Communications Minister Steven Joyce
"We anticipate that that is the level that the market will not
provide at this point. And government investment at that level will
facilitate the competitive commercial provision of ultra-fast
broadband services over fibre, with the minimum regulatory
intervention."
The move represents a significant deviation from the model that
Australia is likely to follow with its own NBN, with bids for the
network so far believed to be focused on rolling out infrastructure
to customers' premises; known as "access" networks rather than
"backhaul" infrastructure.
Joyce also outlined why a centre-right National
government was making an ideological shift towards government
intervention in the telecommunications market. Citing projects in the UK and US, Joyce said governments the
world over were promoting strategies to improve broadband coverage
for its economic benefits.
The New Zealand government believed the market was not providing
enough fast broadband.
"The development of an ultra-fast broadband network will be
critically important to New Zealand's growth prospects," he said. "It will
provide New Zealanders with the base infrastructure that will
support advanced broadband services, including high speed,
real-time internet connections to the world."
Joyce spoke of internet speeds in excess of 100 Mbps within
ten years, which meant replacing copper cable with fibre in coming
years. But left to the market, this might take more than 30 years,
denying New Zealand an annual expected economic benefit of NZ$2.4 billion to $4.4 billion, according to independent estimates.
The global financial crisis also made the government's $1.5 billion investment "even more important", he said, including playing a key role as the New Zealand economy moved out of recession.
Some media critics had expected and hoped Joyce would have
given more details of the government's broadband polices, including
how the $1.5bn will be spent. However, Joyce promised details "in the next few weeks".
Ernie Newman, chief executive of the Telecom Users Association
of New Zealand, told ZDNet.com.au he was "very impressed, very happy"
with the government's reaffirmation to the NZ$1.5 billion broadband
investment.
"This is about benefits to New Zealand after the downturn. I
think the whole investment offers a stimulus," he said. Newman added the minister showed he was mindful of how the
government's own proposals "need not chill the investment" of the
private sector.
Indeed, the telcos recently commissioned a report from
researchers Castalia which said the government's own proposals were
unnecessary and threatened private sector investment.
However, after the minister spoke, Telecom NZ CEO Paul
Reynolds issued a statement saying the telco wanted to "play a major
role" in bringing fibre to every doorstep — and that it wouldn't aim
to make "a single dollar profit" on a taxpayer-funded
network.
"We stand ready, willing and able," Reynolds was quoted in
The National Business Review.
