The WRS identifies broadband as a key enabler of economic growth, particularly around innovation and productivity benefits. High quality broadband infrastructure can also transform the delivery of education and health services and facilitate new forms of community engagement and participation in public life.
The Wellington Region Broadband Operational Group (BOG) has been working on determining a number of ways in which it can ensure that ultra-fast broadband comes to the region and is deployed in the most efficient way possible.
The government has been progressing its Ultra Fast Broadband Initiative (UFBI) and the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) through its announcement of key partners involved in the project. The overall objective is to accelerate the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband to almost 80% percent of the New Zealand population over the next ten years. In the first six years there will be a concentration on priority broadband users such as businesses, schools and health services, plus greenfield developments and certain tranches of residential areas.
The Deployment Standards Initiative (DSI) is a project being managed by the Ministry of Economic Development (MED). The specific objectives of the project are to provide a robust set of fibre deployment standards for new and existing technologies and build support among stakeholders for new deployment techniques. This can assist in bringing down fibre deployment costs. BOG has provided expert feedback on early drafts of the standards.
Workstreams
Workstreams have been prioritised to focus on the areas that can be advanced most effectively and where the leverage is greatest. For example, the importance of determining where regional cooperation can best enable the faster deployment of fibre. This has included investigating whether new trenching technologies could potentially be employed in the region.
Our priority workstreams are:
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Establish a stocktake of council policies on access to council assets (eg ducts, pipes, buildings), including charging regimes and legal agreements with a view to developing a region-wide policy
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Establish a stocktake of region-wide rules for aerial deployment to determine where aerial deployment can take place
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Establish a stocktake of region-wide council rules for trenching with a view to establishing an agreed set of regional rules for new trenching technologies
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Establish a stocktake of council rules around road openings to establish a more regionally-coordinated approach to road openings.
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Assist in the facilitation of broadband deployment to the rural areas of the region
WHO’S INVOLVED
A working group called the Broadband Operational Group (BOG) was established with a cross section of representatives from each of the region’s councils, Grow Wellington, NZ Transport Agency, and Local Government New Zealand. It is being co-chaired by the WRS Office and Hutt City Council.
WHAT’S HAPPENED
The Wellington region provided support to enable the only trial to be undertaken throughout the country for shallow-trenching. This took place in Kelson with the support of Hutt City Council.
BOG is involved in providing comments on the recently released draft Standards Specification for Telecommunications Cabling Deployment which will become part of the National Code of Practice for Utilities Access to the Transport Corridors.
In October 2010 two reports were comissioned by Business and Economic Research Ltd (BERL to assess the economic development benefits of the Government's Ultra Fast Broadband Initiative for the Wellington region. These showed that an early roll out of UFB in Wellington could add around 11 percent to GDP growth by 2026. Delayed roll-out would add around 8.8 percent to Wellington GDP growth by 2026. The two scenarios add around $3.65 billion and $2.94 billion respectively.
"The Economic Development Benefits of an Early UFB Roll-out in Wellington"
"GDP Benefits of Early UFB Roll-out to Wellington"
