Cyclone Gabrielle exposed drawbacks in our communications networks - infuriating and frightening people in hard-hit Hawke’s Bay, but also raising questions about our overall telecommunications resilience nationwide.
Here are three doable ways to improve the situation for rural and provincial areas (cities are pretty sorted between the urban UFBfibre rollout and various mobile upgrades).
They’re all not so much stalled but rather on a slow train.
All need to be fast-tracked as part of a three-pronged solution.
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In December, the Government announced the Remote Users Scheme.
It said remote rural properties lacking decent broadband could apply for a $2000 grant “towards set-up and installation costs of a suitable broadband solution”.
Those who want the $2K can apply to Crown Infrastructure Partners here. Applications close “mid-year” and then CIP will collect them up and put them out to tender - with Elon Musk’s Starlink eligible to tender.
I would do three things here: Supersize the funding (it’s currently $15 million or enough for 7500 broadband connections at $2000 per property), make money available straight away, and make the $2000 available directly to a household that wants to do a DIY Starlink install (or indeed, get service sorted with a local wireless internet service provider).
In nearly all cases, it will be cheaper for the Crown than running fibre to a property or subsidising a new cell tower by the Rural Connectivity Group (a joint Spark-Vodafone-2degrees venture set up for the public-private Rural Broadband Initiative).
ABOVE: Starlink has built a network of six ground stations in New Zealand in partnership with Cello and Vocus NZ, aka Orcon Group (which merged with 2degrees mid-year).
Satellite broadband has been around for ages, but Starklink’s twist is that it doesn’t have one bird tens of thousands of kilometres above the Earth (leading to expensive, laggy service with right data caps) but thousands of low-Earth orbiting satellites for relatively cheap and speedy service by satellite standards, and no data limits.
A $2000 grant under the RUS scheme would get you a Starlink kit (a dish, cable and special wi-fi router for $1049) with money left over to get it installed on your roof.
Add to that solar panels and a powerwall battery and you are staying online for days without generators and fossil fuel as well. My setup got us through 50+ hours of power outage while others around struggled to find generators and get fossil fuel with all petrol stations closed.
Technology Users Association of NZ (Tuanz) head Craig Young - who supports the RUS scheme overall - told the Herald the $2000 could be higher, given Starlink, while cheaper than satellite rivals, still costs $159 per month, or twice the cost of an equivalent broadband connection in an urban area.
And $2000 won’t cover Starlink’s business-grade service, which requires a higher-gain, $4200 satellite dish and costs $840 per month, it promises 350 megabits per second, faster than most people’s UFB fibre.
Starlink isn’t perfect. For one thing, Musk has been silent on how long it will stay at $159, and whether unlimited data will remain as a long term perk, or is being used to juice initial interest.
Neither will Starlink promise any minimum speed for its consumer product (although dozens of users have told the Herald they regularly get download speeds topping 100 megabits per second, or roughly the same as entry-level fibre, with no lag problems - or at least none serious enough to interrupt the likes of Netflix or Zoom).
I was most shocked my DIY rooftop satellite install didn't get blown from my roof. But, it is pretty crazy to have had 100+mbps speeds during a cyclone in rural BOP.
And its router needs power, so it’s just as vulnerable as other solutions during a blackout, although it does pair well with solar solutions.
Another benefit is that while Starlink 1 gear was fixed to your roof, the firm’s second-generation product can be unplugged, taken with you and used from anywhere.
As I type, Starlink’s official local reseller, Noel Leeming, is listing Starlink kits as “not available” in Gisborne; the company’s website promises delivery in one to two weeks.
A spokesperson for The Warehouse Group (which owns Noel Leeming) said, “We’ve got good levels of The Starlink Standard Kit available throughout the country. Some stores are low, but we’ve got plenty of stock available online and more stock arriving in stores.” The Gisborne unavailability is due to a forced store closure rather than being out-of-stock.
Starlink’s wild popularity in the year or so since it became available locally saw it hit 10,000 NZ customers by October last year - a testament to the lousiness of incumbent rural broadband solutions.
And while they’re at it, Crown Infrastructure Partners should ensure every local council has a Starlink kit, or connection to another satellite provider. It’s fast, easy and relatively cheap.
Over the past few days, NEMA has delivered 10 Starlink satellite internet kits to Gisborne, five to Wairoa and three to Napier, demonstrating the technology’s utility as part of the disaster solution alongside temporary cellsites.
And East Coast iwi Ngāti Porou flew in 31 Starlink kits to connect remote communities with a charter flight arranged via its commercial arm, Ngāti Porou Holdings.
2. Sort out the trade-off for free 5G spectrum
In October, then Digital Economy and Communications Minister David Clark announced that there would be no 5G spectrum option. The Government would forego a windfall (the Crown realised $259 million from the 4G bids in 2014) in favour of a “direct allocation” of 5G-friendly airwaves to the mobile network players. That is, giving it to them for free.
As a quid pro quo, Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees agreed to expand their mobile networks in provincial and rural areas. The telcos have the spectrum already, but details of where, and when, the upgrades would happen - and how much would be spent on them - were still being hammered out. Clark said it would take “a few months”.
It needs to be resolved. New Communications Minister Ginny Andersen needs to lean on the telcos to come up with a concrete plan, timeline and budget.
Andersen seems capable. But tech and communications would have more muscle if it was as a front-bench portfolio. Clark was landed with the role after being disgraced and demoted; Andersen is ranked 19 of 20 in cabinet. We seem a long way from the days when the likes of Paul Swain, David Cunliffe, Steven Joyce and Amy Adams bossed the sector.
Some of our engineers are flying down to Gisborne today (on an airplane we’ve dubbed Air Force One;) with a load of small cell sites and satellite gear to help restore interim connectivity to the region. pic.twitter.com/2azxhCyESA
One of the few bits of hard information so far is Spark’s NZX disclosure that it will spend at least $24m expanding its 5G network in provincial and rural areas under the spectrum quid pro quo deal. (Spark spent $180m for 4G spectrum at the 2014 auction. The telco realised $911m from the sale of 70 per cent of its passive cell tower network assets last year to a Canadian investment fund, with around a third of the proceeds going to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends, a third fund future network upgrades and a third to debt and the cost of leaseback arrangements. The firm formed to run the tower network - Connexa, 30 per cent owned by Spark - is run by long-time Spark infrastructure manager Rob Berrill).
Crown spending on public-private broadband and mobile initiatives since 2010. Source / Crown Infrastructure Partners, MBIE's Lifting Connectivity in Aotearoa New Zealand, December 2022.
The situation is pressing now that old copper lines are being de-commissioned. For all its issues - including lousy internet speed - a phone on a copper line requires no power. It’s always “on” if lines aren’t blown away, or a battery at a local roadside cabinet or generator at an exchange hasn’t failed. The Commerce Commission approved a 111 Code to safeguard vulnerable people as copper service is withdrawn. One of its provisions is for telcos to supply someone with a basic mobile phone if necessary - but for that, of course, you need mobile phone service in your rural areas.
3. Extend UFB fibre
The 12-year, multi-billion Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) fibre rollout officially wrapped up in December.
The same month, Chorus chief executive JB Rousselot renewed his call for the public-private rollout to be expanded into rural areas to give them “digital parity” with urban broadband.
The UFB - including a second phase - covers 87 per cent of the population. Chorus says that leaves around 650,000 beyond the pale.
It’s easy to see Rousselot’s push as an effort to drum up new business for his company (and Enable, Tuatahi First Fibre and Northpower Fibre - the local fibre companies that service the areas not covered by Chorus).
Hundreds of sites fixed in the last last 24 hours. 88 VF sites now down, so great progress being made - but more work to do. Fibre breaks, like this one, are becoming the largest problem. We’ve chartered planes & hired helicopters to fly in equipment & people to sort. Stay safe pic.twitter.com/7fl9zKvevJ
And Cyclone Gabrielle has shown fibre optic cables are not impervious to extreme weather. Chorus has reported breaks on two fibre cables to the East Coast, while the Telecommunications Forum says fibre has been washed away with destroyed bridges in a number of areas.
But it’s still an important piece of the puzzle for improving resilience, and one that has Tuanz’s backing.
It has survived well through earthquakes, and in normal times can handle peak periods without any loss of bandwidth.
And Rousselot can point to a major MBIE report, Lifting Connectivity in Aotearoa New Zealand, released late last year, which recommended “Extending fibre for better performance and resilience”, particularly in urban fringe and more populated rural areas - some of which had seen population expansion since the UFB was first envisaged.
“The government will support or encourage the extension of fibre,” the report says.
But when, and how, is not clear. It needs to be sorted, and soon.
