I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
This UK document circulating today shows that New Zealand is not unique in desiring competitive infrastructure.
Prospects for next generation broadband
This quote is topical:
While the public value of next generation broadband for society and the economy as a whole is potentially high, the large scale of investment combined with a significant number of uncertainties surrounding the prospects for recouping that investment, mean that the potential private value available to investors is comparatively weak.
The recommendations make sense (especially the first one)
- Define the public value of broadband networks
- Monitor demand for bandwidth
- Set a benchmark target for 2012
- Explore alternative commercial models to support network investment
- Develop a regulatory framework for next generation broadband
- Explore options for access to passive infrastructure
- Identify models for efficient public sector intervention
- Remove non-sector specific regulatory barriers
- Review universal service/universal access
I think with Telecom’s statement of last Friday the ball has bounced towards the Government. With the PM and DavidC overseas we can expect a few days grace but there is a lot of uncertainty in the market right now.
The clock is ticking.
Update: I think Ernie nails it:Â http://www.stuff.co.nz/4030379a1865.html
blog
Rod, interesting report especially as there would be people out there (me included) who actually thought the UK had a better Internet infrastructure than we do (and it very well may do) but if you look at the report, they describe the UK’s new broadband infrastructure to be rolled out over the next 5 years as a “patchwork of broadband availability where, for the vast proportion of consumers, practical broadband speeds will vary massively between 1 and 24 Mbps. It is likely that a significant minority of users will see no real improvement in their broadband access speeds during this time” - Page 4 no 13.
I see this as very scary for NZ because if we assume we are behind the UK at the moment (I think a reasonable assumption given that they have more carriers and options) and Telecom is rolling out ADSL2+ (which is what the UK’s prime Internet technology will be), rolling be the operative word here.
So this means that when it arrives, probably sometime next year, everyone who upgrades will get the same level of service that we have now but slightly faster.
Also did you see that rolling out fibre to 90% of UK homes would cost 14 billion pounds. Given that the majority of homes in London, Manchester etc are terraced, or semi detached, its much easier to roll out fibre than in urban NZ cities.
A better solution would probably be VSDL which is what Orcon said to me.
And in 5 years ADSL2+ won’t be what we all want; I want fibre at home now.
So whoever is to provide the infrastructure in NZ needs it to run over fibre (which VSDL will) not copper. A copper solution is yesterdays answer; we have last century’s solution at the moment.
There are 6,574 million people in the world, 1,114 million are Internet users which is 16.9%. Asia has 10.7% penetration, North America 69.7%, Europe 38.9% and Oceania 53.5%, second only to North America. Our user growth is 142.0% while North America’s is 115.7%. Europes is 199.5% and Asia’s 248.8%.
So in NZ do we have a situation where less are buying computers and dialup access and more people are moving from dialup to broadband only to find its not the promised land after all.