Govt has open mind on faster, cheaper broadband

New Zealanders need better broadband access, but the Government still has an open mind on how that will be achieved, Communications Minister David Cunliffe said today.

Mr Cunliffe reiterated to an international internet conference in Wellington that New Zealand needed better, faster, cheaper broadband internet access.

"The status quo does not meet New Zealand's needs."

It is a theme that has been expounded several times this year by Prime Minister Helen Clark and other senior ministers as they have sought to lever Telecom to open up network access to rival providers.

Mr Cunliffe, who is overseeing a review of regulations in the telecommunications sector, said New Zealand's broadband uptake was currently 22nd out of 30 comparable developed nations.

It was the Government's goal to lift that into the top quarter of developed nations by 2010.

But he had an open mind as to how that would be achieved.

"Key decisions as to the nature of any change have yet to be made."

In the past few weeks his office had received about 1000 emails and letters, most of them calling for reform.

Mr Cunliffe also used the speech to call for an international agreement to fight the huge number of spam emails cluttering the internet.

Parliament is considering the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill, designed to clamp down on those who create spam - or junk email - messages.

But Mr Cunliffe said an international agreement would be far more effective and once the bill was passed New Zealand would be raising the issue in talks with other countries.

Mr Cunliffe's speech opened the internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) conference.

ICANN is the international organisation that assigns internet domain names. It has also been integral in designing internet protocols.

Mr Cunliffe said he would also chair a forum of Pacific communications ministers on Thursday.

A series of meetings would also be held on Friday, which has been declared Pasifika information technology day, in a bid to highlight the importance of the technology to the Pacific.

- NZPA