Broadband for everyone just a satellite dish away

By CHRIS BARTON

It was November 2000 at the E-commerce Summit that the Government first addressed concerns about the growing "digital divide" - not between rich and poor but between urban and rural communities.

Information Technology Minister Paul Swain said the Government was committed to securing internet access for all. But chief executive of Aoraki Corporation and chair of the summit Sir Gil Simpson chimed in by saying internet access for everyone in New Zealand wasn't possible.

At the press conference I asked why not? Swain said rather than ensuring internet was available to every home, the first step would be to provide public access at community level, in libraries and maraes. Sir Gil said internet everywhere was not feasible, especially for the more remote parts of the country, because it would be far too expensive.

Two years later their comments - besides having an appalling lack of vision - seem quaint. But the distressing part is that today it's still true. Large parts of the country can't get internet access or have phone lines of such poor quality that dial-up internet is too slow and intermittent to be bothered with.

The situation is even worse when it comes to the prospect of fast internet. At least 15 per cent of New Zealand homes - including some in urban areas - simply can't get Telecom's Jetstream because they're outside the technology's reach. Not to mention the exorbitant prices Telecom charges which ensure only the rich can afford it.

But that's apparently all about to change thanks to the Government's Probe (Provincial Broadband Extension) project.

Probe aims to make broadband available to most of New Zealand's 2800 schools by November 2003 and to all of them by November 2004. It divides the country into 14 regions and purports to have some "tens of millions" of dollars of Government money to help the regions achieve the goal.

In the process of providing to schools Probe hopes broadband will also reach others in the digitally impoverished regions and "encourage competition in broadband telecommunications".

But here's where you have to wonder whether the Government has really thought things through. Dividing the country into 14 regions is not necessarily a bad idea. But it automatically disadvantages one solution that could meet all the Government's needs in one cost-effective swoop.

I'm talking about two-way broadband via satellite. Pah, you say, as I did echoing Sir Gil - too expensive and too unreliable. But you'd be wrong. A little research shows two-way broadband via satellite is not only viable for covering the entire country, but also, with the right number of subscribers, quite reasonably priced.

Equipment manufacturer Nera for example says it could provide 1000 access points anywhere in New Zealand for $10 million. That includes the cost of setting up a satellite hub station or teleport and the leasing of the 90cm satellite dishes and terminals used by subscribers.

Ongoing costs for 640Kbps download and 128Kbps return path internet access would be a flat rate of $280 a month including voice calls. Not a great price for residential subscribers I know, but certainly reasonable for small businesses and schools for feeding multiple users.

Nera estimates the cost of reaching all of New Zealand's schools would be $25 million.

The company is not just making this up. It provided me with a detailed business case that showed a return in the second year. Nera is also supplying incumbent Norwegian telco Telenor with equipment to provide access to Norway's schools.

Nera's position is backed up by other digital video broadcasting (DVB) return channel by satellite (RCS) providers such as Aramiska which offer services to the UK starting at £199 ($650) a month for a 256/64Kbps service. Or Blastsurf which offer two-way satellite access at starting at US$70 ($150).

Intelsat - which has several satellites over New Zealand - has examples too such as its just announced broadband satellite service in Colombia offered over a Gilat SkyStar 360E platform.

Then there's New Skies, which announced in May it was planning to sell two-way satellite services here.

So if this is such a viable technology, why hasn't it happened here?

Probably because no one is prepared to take the $10 million to $20 million investment risk without being assured of some customers. Nera does admit it is at present working with Wellington-based satellite systems integrator V-SAT Communications to establish the network infrastructure for a DVB-RCS system. It says also it's in discussions with several service providers to establish an operator organisation to run the network.

Sky TV, our only residential satellite provider here, has unfortunately missed the broadband boat because both the set-top boxes and dishes it has chosen for digital TV aren't capable of two-way broadband.

A broadband satellite operator here also needs an internet termination contract with a local telco and an interconnect agreement if it is also to provide voice calls. But the satellite model doesn't fit well with either Telecom or TelstraClear because it threatens their investment in traditional wire-line technology. Ditto for TVNZ's transmission arm BCL which has most of its investment eggs in a terrestrial digital wireless network.

To find the $25 million or so funding for the establishment of a DVB-RCS based network to meet Probe's requirements it makes much more sense to combine the demand and requirements of all the 14 regions.

But the Probe project and the Government have their eyes on the ground when they should be looking to the skies.

* Email Chris Barton

Provincial Broadband Extension Project

Nera

Aramiska

Blastsurf

Intelsat

Gilat

New Skies