The Government announced the new investment plans as part of its response to COVID-19.
Background: The Government of New Zealand is currently running phase two of the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2), which was launched in 2017 after the publicly owned Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP) found that 90,000 rural households cannot access broadband speeds of at least 20Mbps. CIP, contracted to provide broadband for approximately 84,000 of those households and businesses (including some commercial coverage from mobile operators), started deployment in 2018 with a view to complete it by 2022. CIP is partnering with the Rural Connectivity Group (a joint venture between Spark, Vodafone and 2 degrees), and with nine regional wireless providers to provide RBI2 coverage. For RBI2, a total investment of NZD307m (USD185.5m) was made available.
Additional funds are on the way: On 29 April 2020, the Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media announced new investment in rural broadband, with an extra NZD15m (USD9.1m) available in savings from the Ultra-Fast Broadband initiative. These funds will be used to upgrade some existing rural mobile towers, upgrade wireless backhaul (which connects remote sites to central networks), and install external antennas on households to improve coverage.
Capacity upgrades take priority: The minister noted that, while the RBI2 plans go ahead, the newly announced investment brings forward capacity upgrades where it is most urgent in light of COVID-19 – particularly households with school-age children who need internet access for remote learning. Upgrading infrastructure is likely to be the fastest way to provide broadband to rural households where there is currently coverage but the towers are at, or near, capacity.
