Why should we have to wait until 2019 to get ultrafast broadband on fibre?
While in the meantime, we get to pay more for our copper-based services, which won’t improve during that time?
The Bill that Steven Joyce is rushing through parliament will see a price hike of at least five dollars a month on the average phone and broadband bill for many consumers. The effect of his new law is to re-average prices for the current copper based broadband services which means the price of broadband delivered over copper will increase in urban areas by more than 20 percent.
And, it will stifle competition in the copper market, while the vast majority of Kiwis will not be able to access fibre for up to a decade.
As if Kiwis didn’t have enough to worry about with hikes in food, electricity and petrol prices, they now face artificially increased prices for their broadband and phone while the Government presses through with its ill-advised telco laws and hands enormous powers to the Communications Minister as well as to New Zealand’s biggest telco, Telecom.
And, if I read Juha Saarinen right in the NZ Herald today, when we do get fibre, it may very well be much less than what the government said we’d get. Juha somehow got hold of Crown Fibre Holding’s wholesale pricings for fibre.
He said:
Despite the government’s promise that New Zealanders will receive at least 100Mpbs downloads and 50Mbps uploads on the fibre-optic network that will cost tax payers $1.5 billion, the price book shows that the entry-level service runs at more modest 30Mbps downstream and 10Mbps upstream.
Today’s broadband over the country’s ageing copper phone network provides up to 15Mbps downloads and 800kbps uploads.
So Steven Joyce says we’ll all get ultrafast broadband in our homes. By the end of 2019. He says we’ll get 100Mpbs. But it looks as though we’ll get 30Mbps. He says he doesn’t care what the industry thinks, he only cares about consumers.
And yet those consumers will have to pay more for their existing copper based broadband. Possibly until the end of 2019.
Even David Farrar on Kiwiblog thinks it’s questionable. He doesn’t say it’s a dog. But I reckon he thinks it.
How can we progress as a country if we can’t get broadband right? The only organisation supporting the Government’s new laws are Telecom. I wonder why that is?
They’d be wise to have a bit of a rethink on their position.
At some point Steven Joyce might realise he’s the only one in the room.
The only way to get telecommunications right is to do it directly through government and not indirectly through private profit making organisations.
Your upload speed constrains your download speed (packet confirmation, etc). I’d be happier to see this done completely in-house to be honest, we should have built this thing by now.
As an aside, we’re still waiting for a level 3 hospital at Kenpuru, despite 9 years of promises.
Upload speeds constrain creativity. Fast downloads encourage consumerism. Without fast upload to match we’ll continue to be a nation that is encouraged to not create. We’ll keep getting most of our art from outside nz.
Brenda – our download from outside NZ is constrained by our access points around to the outside world. At present we have the SCC, and another one coming online. High download speeds at the present day would give more local companies (especially entertainment, etc) an incentive to directly host content here, and may hopefully push hosting costs down. YouTube doesn’t even have a local presence, but I’d love to see smaller studios group together and offer their own-demand services.
“Why should we have to wait until 2019 to get ultrafast broadband on fibre?” Gee, perhaps the COST???
“Why should we have to wait until 2019 to get ultrafast broadband on fibre?” – He he he, that means that kiddies in primary school will be well through high school before the plan gets implemented.
They will probably be manufacturing flying cars by the time the fibre is complete.
@ Brenda: agree, re upload speed aiding creativity. Working in print with final files sent to FTP sites I can just squeak by with current broadband speeds from a rural area. I would still know the courier well if my files were any bigger, or more likely would not be living rural!
I don’t begrudge consumers having fast downloads for entertainment or whatever, but what’s the point of the huge fibre expenditure for the taxpayer if productive activity doesn’t get some action too.
@ Clare: What the #*%! prices going up? and a delay! I better start paying more attention, I used to follow blow by blow the telco/ISP developments but tired of it a couple of years ago, when Telecom seemed to squiggle out of whatever disaster it had created or legislation circumvented with little or no sanction.
“Why should we have to wait until 2019 to get ultrafast broadband on fibre?”
Because NZ is about to post its largest deficit.
I’d love to see you household budget Clare. Heres a tip. Your suppose to spend less/same then your income. Let your Labour party friends know that. We might see big turn around once the revelation is known!
We’ve already paid for it – many times over in fact. The profit taken out of NZ by telcos far exceeds what it would have cost to roll out FttH. Throw in the added costs of multiple networks, ISPs, unnecessary duplications and unwanted regulation and our whole telecommunications structure can be seen as the inefficient and corrupt (it really does seem to be designed to enrich a few at everyone else’s expense) mess that it is.
Yeah, they owe us!
yeah nah… it’s an elephant – right in the middle of the room and everyones got their eyes firmly shut
“Your (sic) suppose (sic) to spend less/same then(sic) your income. Let your Labour party friends know that.”
$900m borrowed this week by National, only a tad more than last week and way up from the $300m they started with back in late 2008 and early 2009 when they first started spending more than we earn.
Dont blame the earthquake those events will see an influx of foreign money bigger than even Fonterra earns over a six month period.
Gee Dave and Matthew didnt National know what it would cost before they promised it to all the schools and business back in pre November 2008 days? How fiscally irresponsible of them.
Why when Telstra clear has already got cables giving way faster broadband than anyone else can offer through it’s cable network, in Welly CHCH and AK why oh why is Steven joyce insisting that these cities get rewired by telescum??? Let alone the regulation holiday he’s also giving them. But as usual the sound of silence from the opposition benches is deafening….
Why when Telstra clear has already got cables giving way faster broadband than anyone else can offer through it’s cable network, in Welly CHCH and AK. why oh why is Steven joyce insisting that these cities get rewired by telescum??? Let alone the regulation holiday he’s also giving them. But as usual the sound of silence from the opposition benches is deafening….
Why do we have to wait until 2019?
1/ Lack of investment over the years by Telecom/Vodafone/Telstra
2/ Lack of, sorry, ZERO competition between Telecom/Vodafone/Telstra
3/ Poor regulation of the telco industry from both main parties
4/ Too much Kiwi ‘she’ll be right’ attitude going on.
@softstarter
You don’t get much private investment in infrastructure such as telecommunications because it’s damned expensive to start with (making it take a long time (counted in decades) before there is a profit) and the more competition you get the less profit there is. Competition in infrastructure is also massively inefficient costing far more than a monopoly ever would. That extra cost has to be paid for out of the economy and the more competition there is the more it costs – two networks costs twice as much as one. It’s this extra cost that had the other telcos (ie, not Telecom) lobbying for LLU and which should be driving the governments policy but they’re still being stupid and going after “competition” rather than going back to a state monopoly.