0 Cities: 1 on ultra fast broadband

Federated Farmers is challenging the Government to prove it is committed to rural economic development, after yesterday’s announcement that ultra-fast broadband will be rolled out to 75 percent of New Zealand within the next ten years.

“We want more information on how rural New Zealand will benefit from this package,” says Donald Aubrey, Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesperson.

“Urban New Zealand is getting a multi-billion dollar boost while rural New Zealand appears to be left with crumbs. Farmers look at the small amount promised to them and ask how that will deliver ultra fast broadband over vast geographical areas.

“The Government shouldn’t need to be reminded that while farmers are a very small part of the general population, they directly generate 64 percent of everything New Zealand sells to the world. Agricultural productivity has outstripped every other part of the economy for much of the last 27 years and its GDP contribution grew, rather than fell, in the last quarter of 2008.

“Just imagine how much better agribusiness could be with access to even moderately fast broadband, let alone 100 megabits per second. Farmers are still struggling on speeds of 28 kilobytes, paying for climate affected satellite broadband or still on fax machines.

“Where does the wealth or innovation come from with a teenager being able to download a movie, legal or illegal, in ten minutes rather than an hour?

“While high hopes are held out for Telecom’s new 3G network from June, that will not offer anywhere near the speed of ultra fast broadband and will have capacity constraints. Even then, it will not reach some remote areas that happen to be integral to the economy.

“I have sought a meeting with the Minister as soon as possible so that Federated Farmers can be part of the solution. We need a solid, workable and costed plan so that rural New Zealand can benefit from the revolutionary potential of ultra fast broadband,” Mr Aubrey concluded.