Budget means access to broadband internet for communities

Rural and provincial communities will get access to broadband internet as part of new plan unveiled in today's Budget.

Tens of millions of dollars will be spent over the next two years putting broadband access into schools and communities.

The earliest beneficiaries will be schools, but Dr Cullen says that once deployed, the access to high speed internet will also benefit local businesses and most government departments.

In his Budget speech, Dr Cullen described broadband as the nervous system of new economy, and said it was as important to New Zealand as roads, power lines, railways, and telephone cables were last century.

The objective of the plan is that the majority of schools will have access to high speed two way internet by end of 2003.

The infrastructure will be made available to remote schools by the end of 2004.

Telecommunication suppliers will be asked to tender for the work region by region.

It is hoped that a substantial portion of the work will be completed by the end of 2002.

The initiative is jointly funded through education and economic development funding.

The Government has conducted five regional pilot projects to test demand.