Joyce flags mobile as rural broadband solution
ICT minister Steven Joyce says mobile networks will play a significant role in delivering broadband to rural areas.
ICT minister Steven Joyce says mobile networks will play a significant role in delivering broadband to rural areas.
It’s hard to make a compelling financial case for the government’s proposed fibre-to-the-home plan, despite a paper prepared for cabinet describing it as an attractive investment structure for private sector investors.
Communications minister Steven Joyce admits that government will be “walking a bit of a tightrope” in spending $1.5b on a national broadband network. While anxious not to be seen to line the pockets of the large telcos, it must at the same time avoid duplicating network capacity that those companies (predominantly Telecom) have already put in place.
Government will be putting most of its $1.5bn broadband investment into dark fibre infrastructure, says ICT minister Steven Joyce; implying that the higher levels of broadband services will be left to private provider riding the fibre.
Communications minister Stephen Joyce comes across, first and foremost, as a pragmatist. His priority is delivering National’s broadband strategy but not without a caveat: “You’ve got to get value for money”.