Surveys aim to help unlock fast net cash

Joseph Stuart wants Northlanders from community and sports organisations and people from regional industries to get online and fill out a quick survey as part of a bid for Government funding for better digital connectivity.

Several online surveys have been prepared by Northland's economic development agency in a bid to get digital infrastructure funding for Northland and they are available for members of the public to fill out.

The surveys contain six questions for industries from farming, aquaculture, construction and education to hospitality, retail, manufacturing, logistics, local government and marine, and everything in between.

There are questions for tangata whenua, community, sports and environmental organisations.

The surveys ask what could be done with better access to the internet, what industries could do well with digital access and what online services or digital initiatives could be improved with better digital infrastructure.

They ask why those improvements are not being made now, including what problems are hindering success and what can be done to remedy those problems.

Joseph Stuart, general manager of business growth at Northland Inc is hoping that Northlanders will fill out the surveys as part of the region's bid for some of $360million of national broadband funding.

The Ministry of Communications has launched its Ultra Fast Broadband Initiative (UFB) and the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) search.

The ministry has already received Northland's bid for funding in the first part of the project, which revealed that almost 86 per cent of Northlanders were unhappy with their internet services.

Communications Minister Amy Adams says more than 21,435 homes, schools and businesses in Whangarei have access and could connect to fibre broadband under the Government's Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) programme.

Those figures did not reflect those who had already connected.

The region must now show how it would spend any funding received, and so a Digital Enablement Plan must be presented to the Government by September 18.

Mr Stuart and the team at Northland Inc have launched a new website - Collaborativenorthland.nz - to help communities and companies upload their stories and ideas.

The plan will focus on four main issues - increased connectivity, innovation, capacity (skills and training) and doing better with what we have.

-Individuals and companies can upload their stories to the new website at the heart of the project, collaborativenorthland