Why is Pacific Fibre needed?
The digital divide between New Zealand/Australia and the rest of the world
is widening at an alarming rate.
Video and applications such as Flickr and YouTube require more bandwidth than current capability enables, resulting in a poor user experience – we have hit the bandwidth wall. Next generation, high-tech, companies cannot sell, and build partnerships abroad using tools such as Live Meeting and Skype – instead they have been forced to carry the overhead of off–shore staff.
The divide is not only on bandwidth, but also on price. The prices New Zealanders and Australians pay are high compared to international benchmarks.
And things are set to get worse
The face of computing is changing. Next generation devices, like Netbooks and the iPad, are providing cheaper entry points but will consume significantly more bandwidth – data (including photos, movies and emails) is not stored locally, but instead is stored remotely in a ‘cloud’, accessed via international broadband.
Unless we address the international bandwidth issue, New Zealanders will not get affordable access to services and devices increasingly common in the rest of the world.
Government FTTH initiatives need international component
New Zealand and Australia’s broadband will only ever be as fast as the narrowest point.
The New Zealand and Australian governments are investing heavily in fibre to the home. Those investments will be futile if our international bandwidth remains the same. Right now 90% of our internet access requires international connections – addressing international bandwidth is paramount.
Meanwhile national Backhaul in New Zealand is inefficient (eg. peering) but could be improved with industry collaboration.