Starlink has signed 10,000 Kiwi customers within 24 months. Photo / Supplied
Starlink has signed 10,000 Kiwi customers within 24 months. Photo / Supplied
Remote rural properties still lacking fast broadband can now apply for a $2000 grant “towards set-up and installation costs of a suitable broadband solution” - and Elon Musk’s Starlink is an eligible provider.
The Remote Users Scheme, announced by Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor and Digital Economy Minister David Clark,is aimed at owner-occupied properties, farmhouses occupied by sharemilkers, and occupied dwellings on iwi land.
Those who think they might be eligible can apply via Crown Infrastructure Partners’ website.
CIP will then put the work out to tender. Any provider is welcome to submit a proposal.
A spokesman for Clark’s office said there would be nothing to stop Musk’s Starlink bidding to connect rural homes under the scheme.
Starlink charges $1049 for a satellite dish, cable and Wi-Fi router setup. The Musk-owned firm has previously talked up a cost-effective way to deliver fast internet to properties too remote to be commercially viable for local providers, and outside the reach of the public-private Rural Broadband Initiative.
But this is the first time that Musk’s company has - potentially - been able to bid for some of the action.
Technology Users Association of NZ chief executive Craig Young, whose organisation has been critical of successive governments’ rural broadband efforts, gave the new scheme a cautious thumbs up.
“My view is it’s good to see the Government being a bit innovative in allowing the local user to find the best solution for their individual situation,” the Tuanz boss said.
“$2000 will be a great start but over time more will be needed to ensure they can continue to get the best service in future.”
Satellite broadband typically costs at least two or three times the price of a fibre or fixed-wireless connection. Starlink charges $159 per month for an unlimited data consumer plan (a business plan, which also involves a larger, high-gain dish that costs $4200, is charged at $840 per month).
The Remote Users Scheme is aimed at farmhouses occupied by sharemilkers, among others. Photo / Getty Creative
$15 million has been earmarked for the Remote Users Scheme, or enough for 7500 broadband connections at $2000 per property.
Starlink installation is DIY once you’ve received your $1049 worth of setup hardware and Starlink has no direct presence in NZ. But a cottage industry has sprung up, with several small rural internet providers offering new Starlink customers help setting up.
The $15m is part of a $60m top-up for rural broadband that formed part of Budget 2022. The balance of the money will go to extending the Rural Broadband Initiative to cover another 30,000 households, as announced by Clark earlier this year.
Technology Users' Association head Craig Young says the new policy is innovative, but more than $2000 will be needed, given remote rural broadband's higher ongoing costs. Photo / File
Spark and Vodafone, plus a series of small rural and provincial wireless internet providers, including Ispire Net (getting the thumbs up from CIP, if not making the Commerce Commission’s Christmas card list) won contracts for the RBI extension. In Spark and Vodafone’s case, it’s swings and roundabouts, with their work funded by the money they pay into the Telecommunications Development Levy - a tax on the telco industry, which is tied to revenue - making the pair the two largest contributors.
Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees have all recently made submissions to MBIE highlighting that satellite broadband providers - read: Starlink - sit largely outside NZ’s regulatory process and costs, while paying only a token amount for spectrum. Musk’s firm pays $150 for each of its 47 licences across its six New Zealand ground stations. With Starlink having signed 10,000 Kiwi customers within 24 months, its participation in the new Remote Users Scheme would likely sharpen the local players’ calls for the same rules to be applied to all providers.
Starlink has a team in New Zealand for Fieldays but through a spokeswoman, who declined interviews.
Clark says the homes should be connected under the Remote User Scheme from mid-next year.
In October, the Government abandoned plans for a 5G spectrum auction. Instead, Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees will be given spectrum in exchange for pledges to upgrade provincial and rural mobile and broadband coverage. Exactly where, and to what degree, will be hammered out over the next few months.
