The New Zealand government is looking to extend the country’s broadband network to rural areas where blackspots impede mobile phone and broadband coverage.
The government has released a Request for Proposals to the industry in which it says the intention is to extend the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) and provide mobile coverage to black spots on state highways and in tourist areas.
Under the RBI Extension, improved broadband will be delivered to communities unable to access broadband speeds of at least 20 megabits per second.
New Zealand’s largest telco, Spark, has welcomed the announcement by Communications Minister Amy Adams, saying that it looks forward to working with government, community stakeholders and other telecommunications network operators to identify how the government's RBI and Mobile Black Spot Fund can be best directed to improve ultra-fast broadband availability in rural New Zealand.
{loadposition peter}“Around 293,000 rural New Zealanders are accessing better broadband under the first phase of our RBI programme. This next stage sees an investment of NZ$150 million to extend coverage to even more New Zealanders,” the Minister says.
“My aim is to provide high-speed broadband to the greatest number of under-served rural New Zealanders within the funding available, and give regional communities access to high-speed broadband. We also want to improve the reach of mobile services to support safety on state highways and enhance the visitor experience for tourists.”
Adams says the Mobile Black Spot Fund will improve the availability of mobile services to areas which do not have coverage from any mobile operator, and a long list of state highway and tourism locations have been identified for which the government wants to see proposals.
Although there are more than 200 mobile black spots noted in the request for proposals for potential inclusion, Adams says that not all those locations will get coverage and others not listed could also end up with increased coverage.
"We identified a long list of mobile black spots to guide respondents to highway zones and tourism areas without mobile coverage. The areas finally selected from this list will be as a result of negotiations in the course of the RFP process.”
For the mobile black spot programme, the RFP sets out a minimum requirement to provide 3G voice services, with 4G preferred in tourist areas.
The RFP also notes that the RBI2 and MBSF programmes will deliver open access to government funded infrastructure (towers, cabinets), with exemptions from some obligations for regional operators.
Adams says the programmes will contribute towards meeting the government’s “aspirational targets for rural broadband”.
“We’ve set an ambitious goal of ensuring that by 2025, 99% of New Zealanders will have access to broadband peak speeds of at least 50Mbps, and everyone will have at least 10Mbps. We’re interested in seeing how proposals for delivering coverage under the RBI2 and MBSF programmes show an upgrade path in line with this vision,” she said.
The government is expected to award the first contracts by June 2017.