New Zealand: Rural Broadband Light at the End of the Tunnel is the Train
February 7th, 2011You’ve heard of putting a wolf in charge of guarding a hen house. In rural New Zealand, we’ll get two wolves on the job.
The final announcement has not yet been made, so I suppose there’s a chance that it might not be as bad as it looks now. However, my money is on the light at the end of the tunnel being the train.
Via: Computerworld NZ:
The other bidders for the Rural Broadband Initiative say they don’t know the basis of the decision to award the tender to Telecom/Vodafone and that they can’t see where the proposed copper/3G proposal can be superior.
“They say they’re going to a proven technology with copper – it’s so proven that it’s being replaced by fibre everywhere,” says Kordia ceo Geoff Hunt.
“The opportunity to deploy much better broadband has been lost. It is really disappointing,” he claims. “New Zealand had an opportunity to invest in 4G technology, which is where Australia and China are going. We’re really disappointed.”
He claims the decision effectively condemns rural communities to suffering from same old duopoly services that continue to under-deliver and hold rural New Zealand hostage.
“The government had an opportunity through the RBI to provide a technology step-change in services for rural New Zealand that would have laid a future-proof and highly competitive foundation for the next 15 years.
“We should remember that this was supposed to be the rural broadband initiative and not the rural mobile initiative.”
Hunt claims Telecom’s copper has been rejected for urban New Zealand and performs even more poorly in rural environments.
“The 3G element of the Telecom /Vodafone solution is being superseded all around the world by fourth-generation wireless (4G) technologies like TD-LT, OpenGate’s proposed technology solution for the RBI.
“Australia, India, China and the US are all planning to roll out this technology now, and between them will have more than one billion customers. We thought this would have been a compelling sign for New Zealand if the Government wanted to keep in-step with its key trading partners. Alas, no.’
“Telecom is also in contract negotiations to deliver Ultra-Fast Broadband, which requires them to deliver up to 100 Mbps in urban areas. Rural access to up to 5 Mbps will hardly close the digital divide,” Hunt says .
“Without competition, it is hard to see this duopoly doing anything other than rolling out the minimum requirement of 5 Mbps over six years. Urban users in the same timeframe will have access to 100 Mbps,” he claims.
Kevin
I’m not sure if this offers any hope : http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/iwi-consortium-plans-9-million-auckland-whangarei-fibre-link-ck-85258
Yes, Taitokerau Networks is mentioned in the article I linked as well. I really hope their AUK to WRE link goes well. Maybe it will continue to expand even though the government’s RBI contract is going to go to the unholy alliance of Telecom/Vodafone (TeleFone? VodaCom?).
TeleFone will be bungling around for years before anything actually gets built. 5 megabits (if you’re lucky) and 1 megabit (if you’re not lucky) will be laughing stock material by 2016, when this is due to be ready.
Taitokerau Networks is talking about that first leg being finished in five months.
Yep, it’s the train.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/weak-regulation-around-telecom-vodafone-300m-rural-broadband-project-internetnz-ck-85325
“The open access obligations that have been proposed are, like those set out for the Ultra-fast Broadband Initiative, far from strong. This will unfortunately limit retail service providers’ ability to compete with the infrastructure providers themselves, who are also the major retail providers in rural areas.
“Given that the two partners are the major infrastructure owners today, new infrastructure based competition will not emerge. This reinforces the importance of very strong open access provisions and a big role for the Commerce Commission.
10-year regulatory holiday could also apply to rural scheme
“Our reading of the Telecommunications Amendment Bill currently before Parliament is that the regulatory holiday that the Government is trying to secure for urban providers could also apply to this rural scheme. The unacceptable scenario of an unregulated pairing of the country’s biggest telcos controlling New Zealand’s rural communications infrastructure thus becomes a real prospect.
my jaw dropped when i saw this news yesterday. my first thought was, “Kevin will be gritting his teeth!” if it were me, i’d be frothing at the mouth. i know, because six years ago i lived in rural Japan and i had no broadband options. none. when it finally dawned i was dumbfounded. but this is 2011, jeez. the only thing that might be cause for hope is that the stuff in that nbr link you posted above might just be enough to piss off enough rural people who are the National Mafia Party’s traditional support base. the electricity asset sales are bad enough but the outcome has at least some theoretcial conjecture involved. this rbi bullshit is not conjecture at all, they’re telling rural nz to eat shit for the next 10 years. are people really that stupid?
@tochigi
Re: gritting teeth and frothing at the mouth:
The last time I updated my previous post on my lovely dealings with Telecom, I added “that” scene from the film, Scanners to it:
[Possibly NSFW] https://cryptogon.com/?p=19124
And that was before this latest news.