I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
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Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Communications at 8:24 am on Thursday, 26 June 2008
The NBR asked if I’d submit a few articles for NBR online. He’s the first.
This came out of a KEA workshop hosted by Stephen Tindall a few weeks ago. I think he coined the ‘Broadband could be our new red socks campaign’ idea.
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Great idea Rod. There is no excuse at all for sub-par speed and only a lack of decisiveness holding us back. There will always be detractors as there are in any game changing exercise, but if we’re not going forward re broadband we will be going seriously backwards.
Perhaps we could even commission a song for the project. Dave Dobbyn singing “Slice of Fibre Optic Heaven”…………?
The result of the last year of agitation has resulted only in “broadband” becoming highly politicized.
A far, far better approach would have been to go round regional operators and quietly provide seed money to provide good capacity to aggregation points.
Failure to do so leaves an enormous gap so that the nationally-based providers can throw around figures like “75% connectivity in 5 years”, whilst forgetting that
The result of the last year of agitation has resulted only in “broadband” becoming highly politicized.
A far, far better approach would have been to go round regional operators and quietly provide seed money to provide good capacity to aggregation points.
Failure to do so leaves an enormous gap so that the nationally-based providers can throw around figures like “75% connectivity in 5 years”, whilst forgetting that IT IS STILL THE SAME 75 PER CENT OF COVERAGE!! Putting bigger pipes where there are existing pipes does nothing if you don’t make an effort to connect the rest of the country.
So, stop the political grandstanding AND DO SOMETHING CONCRETE AND USEFUL! The figures you would need to start some genuine regional capacity rolling are not huge and you will see immediate and fruitful results.
I’ll go back to a statement that I make often: In order for broadband to be effective in NZ, from the current starting point and with the kinds of capability that we need to compete with internationally; SOMEONE HAS TO GIVE SOMETHING AWAY. If everyone in the supply chain is looking for 20% ROI, it is never going to work. Never.
IIRC the contract for the red socks in the last campaign went to a Chinese company even though there was at least one New Zealand company (Levin) with a lower bid. Not sure if that’s a good strategy for a national broadband campaign :-)
Sorry but I don’t really understand this concept of ‘Broadband - Our New Red Socks’
Is the public meant to buy red socks and this sponsors the laying of a cable?
What if not enough money is raised, will the ship be left stuck in the ocean somewhere?
And how is this public sponsorship meant to work, will broadband then be supplied free? My guess it it won’t and therefore why would the public want to ’sponsor’ it??
Hey,
Really enjoyed your talk this morning at Pukekohe. Nothing to do with red socks at all, but thought I would let you know. Linda
I heartily agree that international connectivity should be the priority. Recent research on ICT readiness suggests that NZ is already missing the boat.
There are a whole host of reasons why we need to develop better broadband and ICT penetration to improve innovation levels throughout the economy.
But can we please draw on our intellectual assets and make a proper economic business case first.
http://geniusnet.blogtown.co.nz/2008/06/30/why-ict-underpins-innovation/