Broadband

I am pleased that with John Key's policy proposal, launched yesterday at a Chamber of Commerce lunch in Wellington, the debate about New Zealand's broadband future has shifted from "whether" to do fibre to the home, to "how and how soon" to do it.

There's always been one simple problem with high speed broadband rollout: the commercial providers won't do it, because the rate of return on the investment or the risks involved are too high to justify the investment. A commercial provider can't get enough of the gains from the rollout to justify building it.

So what do you do? Well,  you change the risk/return mix. And that either involves establishing some kind of monopoly, or investing some public funds to change the returns required to get build happening.

Professionally speaking, I am pleased there is now a political commitment from one major party to putting money into this. I am looking forward to assessing the various plans that come forward, and I'm sure that InternetNZ will be looking to persuade all parties to invest in this critical infrastructure.

As a Labour person I am quite sure the Nats' proposal can be bettered, and that Labour will do so. David Cunliffe's comments have critiqued what the Nats have proposed - the specifics of it, such as they are - but he has not criticised the goal. That's good, because it is important for New Zealand to get on with it.

Final point, I ended up next to Williamson at the launch lunch. His zeal for this is impressive, given his record in government. It's nice to see a genuine change of view and broad, cross-party acknowledgement of the importance of this kind of technology.

Comments

[Draco TB]

The cheapest and most efficient way to get FTTH is for the government to build it's own network. One network with one administration is far more efficient than multiple networks, multiple administrations and the interconnect agreements that go with them. It will be cheaper simply because the government won't have to be paying the profits that the shareholders will demand. As we already own Kordia we won't have to set up a completely new company/administration to do it.

[Paul]

So for a service that is not essential to everyday life, New Zealand is expected to pay big out of it's tax dollar for a network that as yet we don't need and can't really profit from. Even those people who can't actually afford the end result still have to pay. This isn't a public service, it isn't a government opening a potentially profitable SOE, it's just plain highway robbery.

[DavidW]

"As a Labour person I am quite sure the Nats' proposal can be bettered, ....." Can I please play poker with you?

I seriously doubt we are likely to ever get value from Jordan Carter if his kneejerk response is "I'll see yours and up one" Please just try to inject some intellectual honesty rather that idealogical fantasy on everything yo look at.