MEDIA RELEASE

Broadband solutions remain a priority for communities

For immediate release on 5 February 2009

“Any broadband solution has to be a combination of private sector, the Government and local government initiatives,” President of Local Government New Zealand Lawrence Yule said today after the cancellation of the Broadband Investment Fund by the Government.

“New Zealanders cannot rely on the private sector alone to deliver all communities with internationally comparable broadband services and pricing, said Mr Yule.

“There are many places in the country where high speed broadband is not available and telecommunications companies have said they will not invest in those places that do not fit with their commercial model. Our view is that high speed broadband is core priority infrastructure for communities.”

My Yule said he looks forward to discussing with the Government what its alternative options are and the role that councils can play.

The Broadband Investment Fund had offered up to $340 million for regions to develop broadband solutions. The Fund was to offer assistance for projects which wouldn’t have got started under a purely commercial basis, to promote competition through open access and to help deliver high speed broadband to the home.

Councils were party to the majority of the seventy-five applications submitted as specific solutions to meet the differing needs of communities. Many of these proposals were in conjunction with private sector companies and each was targeted to meet the region’s specific economic and social objectives.

“Given that councils had put significant effort into developing solutions to ensure that their communities can have access to high speed broadband, I can understand why they will be disappointed with this announcement. We look forward to having input into the national broadband plan”, said Mr Yule.

ENDS

© Scoop Media