Telecom and Vodafone have surprised the market, joining forces to pitch for the Government’s $300m Rural Broadband Initiative.
The two companies will pool resources, using Telecom’s fibre network and Vodafone’s highspeed wireless internet services in an effort to bring rural internet services in line with urban
The announcement was the death knell for an unlikely contender.
Federated Farmers’ shelf company Fedztel was formed to be part of a bid for the initiative, but has pulled out following the Telecom-Vodafone announcement.
Feds chief executive Conor English says the group can be most effective working with the winning bidder to ensure the best services possible for rural communities
“There’s $300m in subsidies going into this and so the prices need to reflect that.
"We’re not talking about people having to get a return on all their money they invest because it’s not their money that they’re investing it’s being invested by the Government and through the levy that’s going on so the prices should be no higher than in the city.”
Mr English says the six-year timeframe should be used as an outside maximum for the rollout.
“What we don’t want to have happen is that in six years time we’ve still got people who haven’t even got speeds of a megabit and we need to avoid that like the plague.
"We’ll being working very hard to make sure that those people right on the extremities certainly get looked after.”
Rural Women New Zealand has lent its support as well, giving the partnership its blessing.
Spokesperson Jacky Stafford says it’s important rural people get the best possible support for improving their telecomms services.
“The exciting thing is that now we’re getting people actually talking together and trying to make it work for rural.
"I think there’s real recognition now that rural’s important and probably the emphasis should be on rural rather than urban, that rural has missed out and actually needs it.”
Ms Stafford says the upgrades would especially benefit farmers wanting to improve their businesses.
