Key ups the budget for rural broadband
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Posted Sun 23 August 2009 @ 10:19 a.m. by Ernie Newman
John Key's announcement that the government is to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more than the palty $48 million originally earmarked for rural broadband has to be the very best telecommunications news for some time.
Speaking on the Country Channel, Key described rural broadband as "a commercial must for agriculture" and essential to productivity improvement.
Amen to that.
But I'd go further. I see it as transformational not just to farming as an industry, but to rural New Zealand overall. Its the answer to keeping rural schools and hospitals open, improving the quality of life and security of rural communities, and halting or reversing urbanisation.
If you thought New Zealand was starting to get there broadband-wise, think again - sadly the OCED has found we are the developed world's dial-up capital. This chart taken from the its "Communications Outlook" released last week shows us having the lowest ratio of dial-up to broadband of any OECD country. The lowest - no exceptions! And by quite a margin.
And there's more bad news! Last night on TV3 news the good citizens of Cromwell were complaining bitterly that they have been left in the dark ages for months after the town's broadband "almost collapsed." The local community newspaper almost missed deadline four times, other businesses have lost sales, and one business has been told by Telecom it can't have a broadband connection until September 2011.
I'm saddened and deeply frustrated. I thought we were getting past that kind of stage.
So Key's announcement is super-timely. A last minute, game-changing penalty to end a depressing week.
Lets hope we get an early announcement about the detail from Minister Joyce. And lets hope too that it includes decisive action on the Kiwi Share – a decade of inaction on this by successive governments has had a great deal to do with trapping kiwis in our dial-up backwater. We HAVE to change promises into action.
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