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$40m top up for rural broadband
The Coalition Government has dipped into its $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) to invest $40 million in rural connectivity. The funding will be used to expand the Rural Broadband Initiative Phase Two (RBI2) and the Mobile Black Spot Fund (MBSF) - two initiatives launched by the previous National Government.
Broadband Compare TUANZ Award winners are...
More than 200 professionals from New Zealand's ICT sector celebrated the industry's efforts at this year's Broadband Compare TUANZ Awards held late last week in Auckland.
Brislen on Tech
I listed the digital divide as the single biggest issue facing the new CTO, as something that needed to be addressed immediately.
That didn't work out so well but the issue remains high on the list of things that need fixing in New Zealand, albeit on a list with some good company. Teaching and health issues are up there, along with public transport, decent employment laws, better privacy and data management legislation and a bunch of other things to boot.
But it's definitely up there on the list.
I'm not just talking about the urban-rural divide, although that's the most obvious one. We are developing a two-tier network and, as Hamish MacEwan says so well in his piece below, there is a cost to that decision.
[PLUS: Access to content is starting to change the game... and security theatre: not as much fun as a night at the actual theatre]
Examining digital exclusion
The digital divide is often spoken about in terms of numbers - the 2020 Trust estimate that 100,000 school-aged children don't have internet access at home, Internet NZ estimate that 16,000 rural ho…
Fibre: Finish the Job
How much simpler, cost-efficient and effective would the services and support you deliver to New Zealand households be if you could assume fibre availability the way you assume roads, electricity and …
Telcos ranked to pay for rural levy
In the tech sector the TIN Report ranks companies in terms of revenue and celebrates their success, with many of those featured using the acknowledgement to attract Government assistance. In the telco…
Chorus unbundled fibre design
Unbundled fibre is coming, by 2020 it will be available for use by retail service providers. What that means for end users is uncertain, in fact what it means for telcos is uncertain, but key details …
Brislen on Tech
We remember when the future was cool. The Sky is falling ... for Sky. And Goods and Service Tax will be applied to every item you buy online - will this change the world of retail for ever?
Ever-decreasing dial-up
Every year a curious statistic is published by Stats NZ - the number of New Zealand residential dial-up internet connections. This year it's down to 18,000, a 25% reduction on last year.
There are…
UFB contractors breach employment standards: MBIE
Nearly all of the sub-contractors working on the Ultra Fast Broadband project for Chorus have been found in breach of employment standards, according to a media release from the Ministry of Business I…
International connections
A map of international telecommunication cables across the globe shows a disparity between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. News service ZDNet lists only 17 subsea cables across the globe and wh…
