Top economies leaving us behind in broadband use

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

A year of development in high-speed internet services has failed to lift New Zealand's broadband penetration. Reports by the International Telecommunications Union and the OECD put us on the bottom rungs of the international ladder.

In the ITU internet report Birth of Broadband, issued in September, New Zealand placed bottom out of 30 countries ranked by broadband subscribers per capita and 28th by the percentage of internet subscribers who use broadband.

In the OECD report released in Paris last month, the country ranked 23 out of 29 economies surveyed, two places behind Australia, and a rank lower than when the preceding survey was published six months ago.

Access to high-speed internet is seen as a key requirement for productivity growth and social development, though some countries have paid more attention to it than others.

Regulatory pressure and the Government's Probe initiative is stimulating investment in broadband infrastructure but the impact is yet to register.

Broadband customers across the OECD countries should climb to 82 million by the end of this year but New Zealand shows no sign of gaining on the rest of the pack.

Last year 55 million subscribers or customers were using broadband services, seen by many carriers as economic salvation as revenue from toll calls and other telephone services is eroded by competition.

The OECD survey places Korea at the top of the broadband chart with almost 15 people per 100 subscribing while New Zealand has about two per hundred.

Ernie Newman, executive director of the Telecommunications Users Association, said the failure to unbundle the local loop was a big reason why broadband use here was so poor.

Newman said the figures presented to the OECD were deceptive because Telecom included its Jetstart service in them. Jetstart offers customers a connect speed of 128 kilobits a second and is not regarded as true broadband. About 75 per cent of Telecom's broadband customers are using Jetstart.