Thursday, March 28, 2024

Nats fibre goal challenged

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National’s push to extend fibre further into less populated districts has been met with a guarded welcome from the internet industry.
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The party’s communications spokesperson Melissa Lee says by 2030, the party intends to have an additional 50,000 homes on high-speed fibre network.

This would take the total national coverage by ultra-fast broadband (UFB) via fibre to 90%, compared to the current target of 87% by 2022. 

Present UFB fibre coverage sits at 80%.

But both wireless providers and Technology Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) are questioning whether fibre is necessarily the best means to accomplish better connectivity in less densely populated districts.

TUANZ chief executive Craig Young says the aim was a good goal to have, but only if fibre was the right solution for the application.

“Fibre is very much gold standard and having that target is a positive, but I do think you are scratching at the edges and risk getting quite an expensive extension,” he said. 

“That is not to say you should not do it, but it needs a lot of work to define who the extra 3% should be (who gets it).

“It could be whether there is more value in delivering fibre to a small rural village, or is it better to get it to a larger farm operation instead?”

Melissa Lee says she had explored the costs with telco companies, but was unable to reveal them due to commercial sensitivity.

A Chorus spokesperson confirmed the company was unable to share costs on fibre expansion. 

However, it can be confirmed the Crown entity has done scoping work on the feasibility of expanding the fibre network to 90% and beyond. It has noted the challenge for less densely populated areas is that the cost per property increases dramatically.

Lee acknowledged the topography of NZ was such that there would be places where getting fibre in would not be possible, and a combination of technologies would be required.

Wireless Internet Services Provider Association NZ (WISPA) chair Mike Smith says there was currently a war going on between Spark-Vodafone and Chorus for rural broadband coverage. This did not help when it came to ensuring the right technology went in the right place.

“Fibre is one good way to deliver backhaul from sites, whether they be cellular or wireless, and it makes sense to hook up users along that route. However, as much as fibre is good, it is not necessarily the most cost-effective means,” he said.

Long-time internet consultant Ernie Newman likened the installation of fibre much beyond the existing target as akin to “using your Porsche for the lambing beat”, and not necessarily fit for purpose.

“We need a plan that determines where UFB ends and RBI starts. It is too easy to fall into this short-term transactional funding from grants including Provincial Growth Fund where it may be politically advantageous to throw more dollars at the network in this way,” he said.

Young says his concern was whether committing millions to fibre rollout for a diminishing number of connections would be the best spend, when some existing rural broadband tech was already falling behind.

“But it is a positive thing that the Nats have at least pinned their goal in the ground,” he said.

WISPA is supporting a national connectivity register similar to that operating in the electricity sector to give a better picture of coverage. 

This would help ensure initiatives in the future, including the Ministry of Education’s equitable data access project, can have a better indication of connectivity capability at any given address.

National has also committed to increasing the performance of rural broadband to ensure the remaining 10% of households not covered by fibre could get uncapped 100mBps coverage via copper or wireless technology by 2030.

Lee confirmed the party would be promoting a combination of technology to push beyond the 90% on fibre, with $1 billion allocated to achieve that.

As much as reaching remote communities and households was important, Lee says an emerging challenge has also been around more intensely populated rural areas. 

Places like Coatesville near Auckland and West Melton in Canterbury were typical of such areas where internet speeds were suffering due to higher numbers of users on limited infrastructure.

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