21 May 2012: New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has released its draft report on factors that may affect the uptake of high speed broadband.
The key points that have emerged in the course of the study are:
- costs related to connecting to the network and using high speed broadband services are seen as critical factors. If these costs are significant, they are likely to slow-down uptake for both consumers, and small and medium sized businesses;
- video content has been identified as the primary driver of the uptake of high speed broadband services by consumers;
- rural users have the same appetite for high speed broadband as urban users, but have identified a more fundamental need, which is to be connected to basic broadband. They fear that they could be left behind as New Zealand moves forward with high speed broadband services. This issue has been recognised in the Rural Broadband Initiative and the Government’s five-point action plan for ultra fast broadband;
- potential issues regarding data caps, backhaul capacity, and internet protocol (IP) interconnection are likely to be resolved by market forces.
Full story here.