News
14 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – April 17, 2017
Big three put cash in RBI2 pot Richard Rennie richard.rennie@nzx.com A FUND of $75 million and less constrictive conditions under the second Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2) round is likely to see the big telcos delivering more tailored networks to rural communities. Applications for RBI2’s second round of funding closed with $100m ring-fenced for expanded rural broadband and $50m for dealing with cellular blackspots. But the big three telecommunications companies Spark, Vodafone and 2Degrees Mobile had also put $75m of their own money into the pot to extend rural coverage. Group spokesman and Vodafone chief executive Russell Stanners said RBI2 promised to give the big companies more freedom compared to the original RBI to configure cellular and network sites that were suited to the communities they would be servicing. “What we learned under RBI1 was the Government over-specked the size of some towers, expecting only a couple of mobile operators and half a dozen internet providers. It meant in some cases the sites were completely overengineered. This time around we
want to build towers that are more fit for purpose.” Advances in technology in the past few years mean it was possible to configure towers for significantly less than the $500,000 it usually cost to build a cell phone tower. Costs could be as low as $50,000-$60,000 a tower for tailored community network solutions. “And we can purchase the components and build them for at least as cheap as what the Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) say they can do them for.” Stanners said the union between the three telcos for rural broadband delivery promised to push penetration further than it was now. “The existing land coverage is 53% and the joint RBI2 proposal will see this go to 70% “The aim is to have more coverage and more speed to as many people as possible. “When you get 68%-70% land coverage in NZ the only areas not covered are the tops of the Alps and forest floors.” The use of more fibre optic cable for data backhaul had helped lift site speeds and capacity and the sites would also be 5G capable when that
TAILOR MADE: The second Rural Broadband Initiative promises to give more freedom to configure services to suit rural communities, Vodafone chief executive Russell Stanners says.
technology was available in about 2020. The sites would also be enabled to cope with the data demand that greater use of internet of things technology brought. The alliance between the three telcos was the most costeffective means of creating what would be a shared wholesale wireless network, open to internet
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service providers to sell to farmers. The extension was estimated to add more than 1200km of mobile coverage to main roads and bring improved speeds to rural households. Stanners said it was notable the WISP proposals put forward for funding did not appear to have those companies putting any money towards the initiative.
“Our proposal is unique. “Not only are we delivering fixed wireless broadband but we are delivering 5G when it comes and IoT network technology and investing our own money. “I have not seen other proposals but have not seen any indication at this point of time any are as comprehensive as future-proofed or with skin up front.”
New law boosts internet access THE passage of the Telecommunications Amendment Act through Parliament has been hailed by farmers and fibre companies alike for the ability it provides both to gain greater access to faster rural broadband and cut costs in doing so. Known in its full title as the Telecommunications (property access and other matters) Amendment Act, the legislation enabled the installation of fibre optic cables on power poles passing over privately owned land. Farmers with poles on their land used for suspending the cable would also have the opportunity to get hooked up to the ultrafast network for free, providing the building they connected was within 200m of the poles used. Beyond that there would be a 50% subsidy to carry the connection out as far as 500m. Northpower in Whangarei was a key sponsor of the bill. Corporate affairs manager Steve Macmillan said the act’s passage would shave millions off the cost of getting faster broadband deeper into rural New Zealand. His company provided fibre through Northpower Fibre to homes and businesses in Whangarei and had earlier explored the options for extending fibre into rural areas. “Our original costing back then estimated it would be $120 million over 10 years to get fibre to about 20,000 electricity customers in Kaipara-Whangarei districts.
“But the paperwork was going to be another $100 million on top of that. This is how much we will save just in this area alone, let alone across all of NZ.” There was no guarantee lines companies would necessarily pursue the fibre optic business case. But it did open up the option and that could include partnering with wireless internet service providers (WISPs). Macmillan said the law’s passage was helped by a tremendous level of cross-party support and input from lines companies and Federated Farmers. “You only need to read the comments on Parliament’s Hansard record to get an idea how everyone came together on this one.” Northpower Fibre was expanding its network into 12 more Kaipara and Whangarei towns over the coming four years and the law would enable farms in the vicinity to hook into the developing fibre loop. Federated Farmers communications spokesman Anders Crofoot said it had taken two years of negotiations to reach a point where landowners would fairly benefit from having a new commercial network built on their land. It was a significant change from the original proposal that had envisaged companies being able to lay cable across private land with no benefit to the landowner.