Martin Sharrock: Road to ultra-fast broadband won't be smooth

Opinion

The Government's plan to accelerate the roll out of ultra-fast broadband to 75 per cent of New Zealanders is both exciting and challenging.

The opportunity to design and build a nationwide infrastructure network doesn't come along often and carries a hefty price tag.

We need to get it right first time.

The big question: how do we best interconnect our 4.3 million people and 268,680sq km of land? There are lessons to be learned from other industries, so let's use transport - the ICT Minister's other portfolio - to compare.

Imagine you need to transport a parcel by road from Invercargill to Nelson.

All starts off fine, but just as you get to Dunedin, the road stops dead. You have to re-route around the city.

In Oamaru they drive on the right; it's chaos. Out in the country, the roads get bumpy and slow - if only they would invest more money in rural roads.

In Christchurch, the roads are narrow and unsuitable for heavy traffic. They are building a bypass but it's delayed due to cost. Why didn't they just re-use and widen the existing road?

There is a railway line up the coast, but instead of re-using the existing infrastructure, the road builders took a winding route through the mountains; if only they had re-used the railway infrastructure.

It's a different transport system but all the hard digging has already been done. As you near your destination, you discover you need to cross an open, boggy field to get to the house.

If the road builders had given the householders an incentive, they would have built their own private access road.

The Government has committed $1.5 billion to accelerate the roll out of ultra-fast broadband.

To do this, it has designed a system where the country is divided into 33 different regions - the management of each open to tender by private and industry investors.

The roading analogy above demonstrates that we cannot underestimate the complexity of this task, nor can we undervalue the consequences of not doing it properly.

The architects of our fibre network don't have the same luxury of time that has seen our roading system gradually evolve, but we can learn from their example and co-ordinate our regions, re-use as much as we can, and be consistent throughout the country.

The first consideration is co-ordination. The telco industry needs to work out the best way to co-ordinate the regions, not only for the commercial benefit of all stakeholders, but for the overall experience of the end-user.

The second major consideration is the concept of reuse. There are ducts all over the country used for sewers and electricity - we need to gain access to these. And if an existing copper wire can already deliver 100Mbps, then fibre may not be necessary at all.

The third consideration is the need to be consistent throughout the country. Our rural roads are used by less people but are generally of good quality and well maintained.

Our rural fibre network might need more investment, but it must provide a similar service. Private roads often make up the last few metres to our homes.

In many countries it is similar with fibre - the last few metres from road to house are done 'DIY' by the householder as an incentive to save cost.

Finally, we must not forget why the Government is doing this. Our roads connect us with other people, new places and infinite possibilities.

The applications that will be delivered over the ultra-fast broadband network will also transform our lives. Fibre will advance our society in ways that even we in the industry do not yet know.

So what is the moral of the story? It's not actually about the infrastructure that's in place, or the means of transport - it's about what it enables. It's about the outcome.

Ultra-fast broadband has the potential to open up infinite opportunities in New Zealand - if collectively we can get all our ducts in a row.

* Martin Sharrock is chief technology officer for Alcatel-Lucent New Zealand.