It looks like measles, but in fact it’s an outbreak of 3G goodness: The government’s Broadband Map been updated to reveal W-CDMA cellular coverage, street-by-street.

So far, that means only Vodafone, which is around 70% of its way to deploying a 3G network that will cover “97% of where New Zealanders live, work and play” - a population-driven rather than geographic rationale, made stark by the concentrations of red on the map; Vodafone's W-CDMA coverage, offering up to 7Mbit/s peek download speed is, appropriately, depicted by swathes of red.

Vodafone promises to finish its network on May 31, giving it bragging rights – by at least 24 hours – over Telecom’s 3G network, which is due to be finished on an unspecified day in June. Til then, there’s zip Telecom 3G to show on the map.

If you haven’t already visited the Broadband Map, maintained by the State Services Commission, then do check it out. It reveals tons of network information that before the current bout of regulation would have been considered way too commercially sensitive for most people inside, say, Telecom to know, let alone competitors, or we the great unwashed.