Direct fibre to rural New Zealand totally achievable, Tuanz says

Ultra-fast broadband directly to the farm is totally achievable, an industry body has said in support of a call to expand the government's rural broadband rollout.

The Telecommunications User Association (Tuanz) has seconded a call by Federated Farmers to extended fibre to the majority of farms around New Zealand, saying it’s more important for rural communities to have super fast access to the internet due to their remote locations.

Tuanz chief executive Ernie Newman told NBR only a tiny proportion of New Zealand completely geographically isolated should have to use satellite connections in the long-run as fibre would never be feasible to such locations.

But he added the majority of rural New Zealand should have fibre directly to the farms. “This is totally achievable, especially seeing the majority of these farms have copper telecommunication and electricity lines and fibre is not more expensive today than [copper] was. These communities would exponentially benefit from [ultra-fast] broadband.”

Mr Newman said rural communities were the heartbeat of the New Zealand economy, and such technology would increase productivity and provide significant social benefits.

“We believe the government’s plan for rural New Zealand needs to extend much more widely than [to rural] schools. The end result must be that every home, business, school, farm, marae and health care centre – whether urban or rural – has ultra-fast connectivity.

“This will enable not only major productivity gains for rural businesses, but also huge advances nationwide in the way in which health and education services are delivered and environmental issues addressed,” Mr Newman said.