KEY POINTS:
Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showing strong growth in the uptake of broadband in New Zealand have been welcomed as encouraging by the Telecommunications Users Association.
The OECD's Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry surveys broadband use across the organisation's 30 member countries every six months. Its latest findings reveal New Zealand had the world's sixth-fastest growth in broadband penetration over the year to June.
According to the OECD figures, New Zealand now has 853,000 broadband subscribers and the number of subscribers per 100 inhabitants increased by 4.05 to 20.4.
The average growth rate across all OECD countries was 2.66 new subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
The fast rate of growth aside, the total penetration figure of 20.4 per cent meant New Zealand's international ranking for broadband connectivity remained unchanged at 19 out of the 30.
Telecommunications Users Association (Tuanz) chief executive Ernie Newman said the 4 per cent growth rate recorded over the past year was "substantially better" than the OECD average of 2.66 per cent growth.
"These statistics confirm what Tuanz is seeing in the market and what we are hearing from members - New Zealand is catching up rapidly."
Newman said a combination of factors was behind increased uptake of broadband services, including the Government's 2006 reform of telecommunications regulations, Telecom's "positive response and renewed wave of investment" and "some very fast and effective standards work within the Commerce Commission and the industry".
"We now have a very healthy market, with multiple service providers driven by competition and the race to provide the best services."
In the lead-up to next month's election, the two main political parties have been touting investment policies aimed at pushing New Zealand up the OECD's league table of broadband connectivity.
The country has languished at between 19th and 22nd most connected country for several years.
Labour has promised to spend $500 million over the next five years building an improved high-speed broadband infrastructure while National has promised $1.5 billion over six years to help bring high-speed fibre-optic connections to 75 per cent of the population.
But Michael Foley, a senior IT consultant and vice-chairman of Tuanz, said that while the broadband commitments being made by political parties were a move in the right direction, they were not enough by themselves.
Neither party had articulated how the investment they were promising would create a technology resource that could be used to drive national economic development, he said.
Foley, who also sits on the governing council of internet development lobby group internet New Zealand, said he wanted "to see the dots joined between the rollout of infrastructure and the role New Zealand wants to play on the world stage in the decades to come".
"New Zealanders want to boost, or at least maintain, living standards here," he said.
"Neutralising our geographical isolation by digitally connecting our energy and creativity with the world is key to that."
Last week the Commerce Commission released the results of its second quarterly survey on broadband quality, saying the overall performance of the country's five largest internet service providers had improved over the three months to the end of June.
The commission's chairwoman Paula Rebstock said: "This is a very promising signal that the regulatory interventions being taken to encourage competitive prices, better quality and incentives to invest are beginning to have an effect."
