New Zealand proposes ambitious broadband plan

Australia and Singapore aren't the only countries with ambitious government-backed broadband plans. Now, New Zealand has unveiled its own broadband initiative. Under New Zealand's plan, the country's government plans to build a broadband network that will reach 75 percent of the country's subscribers over the next ten years. During the first phase of this project, the government will focus its initial efforts on bringing broadband services to businesses, school hospitals as well as Greenfield developments and various tranches of residential areas.

In October, New Zealand's government will develop a Crown-owned investment company called Crown Fibre Holdings to find an appropriate network partner to manage the fiber network. Crown Fibre Holdings will then create what it calls a Local Fibre Company with each of the network partners building out fiber network infrastructure and providing access to dark fiber products and also certain active wholesale Layer 2 services.

Similar to Australia's Next Gen Broadband initiative, controversy has already emerged over the plan. Although the country's communications Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ) applauded the initiative, Telecom New Zealand is crying foul as the government turned down its proposal. New Zealand's communication's ministry said that Telecom New Zealand's plan not only did not address enough homes and business, but it also provided only ducts and not the fiber itself.

For more:
- Telecom Paper has this article

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