KEY POINTS:
The Auckland City Council - frustrated at the lack of action by the private sector - is planning a 100km fibre network to provide faster and cheaper broadband across the city.
All going to plan, the citywide network could be providing high-speed broadband to thousands of businesses and most residents by 2010, including a wireless network in the central city.
The network would be available to customers within 200m of the proposed route, designed to be close to businesses, government departments, libraries, emergency services, schools and universities.
The network is estimated to cost $20 million to $25 million, of which the council would contribute about $2.6 million to kickstart the project.
Economic development and sustainable business committee chairman Richard Northey said the council would have loved the market to have provided faster and cheaper broadband but it had not.
Auckland was so far behind Sydney and Brisbane that some businesses would go there unless something was done about broadband.
"This is about the interests of employment, economic health and prosperity of Auckland city," Mr Northey said.
Another councillor, Richard Simpson, said that to be internationally competitive, Auckland needed to match cities such as Stockholm and be committed to multi-gigabit broadband by 2010. At present, Telecom's broadband dawdled along.
"This is the Huka Falls compared with a garden hose that is wearing out," Mr Simpson said.
The council is talking to the telecommunications industry and private entrepreneurs about a possible public-private partnership. Under the plan, the network would comprise ducts and fibre only. Service providers would lease the fibre for their own services.
The council has explored a range of options, including a fibre network, micro-technology, street ducting, wireless broadband and a council information portal.
Business cases are being prepared for all options - although the council believes the best way to go is a 100km citywide fibre network.
The fibre network could be laid in a trench 600mm deep at a cost of $200 a metre. A cheaper option is micro-trenching, which involves a machine cutting a slit in the road, laying the fibre and reinstating the road in one continuous process at $50 a metre. This option has its problems, including the possibility of cutting into existing assets in the ground and being outside the code of practice for roadworks.
The power lines company Vector is planning to offer high-speed broadband on the North Shore in partnership with North Shore City Council along 38km of a fibre-optic network originally built for communications between its electricity substations.
Broadband city
Along the route are:
* 6600 businesses.
* 1675 business with potentially high broadband requirements such as the media and computer firms.
* 75 government departments.
* 37 hospitals/medical facilities.
* Council facilities such as libraries.
* Half of the city's fire, police and ambulance stations.
* 82 schools.
* Auckland University and its Epsom education campus, Unitec, AUT.
* All Telecom exchanges.
