Broadband tipped for Budget

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Money for rural broadband internet services could be included in the Budget on May 23 if proposals prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Education are approved.

Information Technology Minister Paul Swain said the Government would call for tenders for regional broadband services this year if the proposals were implemented.

The Government would be looking at providing services to schools in a regional environment, "that is, bundling the schools in with the wider community access issue."

Swain said the "aggregation of demand" from public and private sector users in each region would lead to cheaper and better services than would otherwise be available.

He said the Ministry of Education wanted broadband services in rural areas to enable teaching via videoconferencing in hard-to-staff areas and as a means of establishing a national schools network. Fast internet access was also critical for regional economic development, and the Government had set a target of providing broadband internet access at the community level by next year.

"My test of this is that I need to be able to go to a small town or a school or a farm and get the same type of two-way speed that you can get in a major city."

Swain said a regional approach was being favoured after the success of pilot projects in the Far North, Southland, the East Coast, Wairarapa and Taranaki, which were started with $300,000 of government funding last year.