Ultra-Fast Broadband

The Internet is becoming a more and more pervasive part of our lives. New Zealanders are using the Internet to access more information in new forms, to communicate more and in new ways, to collaborate without regard to location, to buy and sell goods and services, to run their businesses, and to teach their children.

These requirements have outstripped legacy technologies which are struggling to keep pace. New Zealand’s ability to access the Internet for these many and increasing demands depends on investment in new technologies. For this reason, the Government decided to support investment to improve Internet access speeds in New Zealand, through the Ultra-Fast Broadband initiative.

Akamai’s “State of the Internet” report for Q3 2011 ranked New Zealand 41st fastest in terms of Internet speed. Average Internet speeds were 4.0 Megabits per second (Mbps), and only 23% of NZ business and residences were receiving speeds of more than 5 Mbps.

New Zealand can also improve in terms of the quality of broadband services. Oxford University’s Said Business School in 2010 ranked New Zealand 24th of 72 countries in its Broadband Quality Score, which combines data download and upload speeds with technical measures such as latency, packet loss, network oversubscription, jitter and service continuity.

CFH has a mandate to provide at least 75 per cent of New Zealanders with access to Internet services at speeds of at least 100 Mbps (Downstream) and 50 Mbps (Upstream), while enabling service providers to deliver high quality, reliable services.

For more information (these links lead to material which is not part of the CFH site):

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