report<\/a> says New Zealand\u2019s much touted rural connectivity has become patchier, with quality of connection now an even greater issue than the breadth of coverage across rural NZ.<\/p>\n\u201cThe survey identifies that 99% of NZ now has internet access. But the quality of the service across the board seems to have decayed regardless of the service users have access to,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
In the report, 26% of respondents said they had seen a decline in their rural internet connectivity, with 60% reporting no change and only 13% reporting an improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wireless broadband leads as the key source of rural internet for 44% of users, with satellite close at 36%, a jump from 19% at the last survey in 2022.<\/p>\n
Young said it could be that usage demands are outstripping the technology in place in certain sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen this before in certain parts of the country. We cannot stand still on this stuff. It is not a one-off investment and has to be continually upgraded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young also noted with concern that 12% of rural users are still using 3G services, despite the technology being due to be shut off at the end of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis suggests to me that \u2026 the message may still not be getting out there.\u201d Its use has, however, declined from 34% at the last survey.<\/p>\n
The survey also found mobile coverage across the rural highway network is still vulnerable to drop-outs, with 86% of respondents confirming problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can understand if the level of coverage on farm is a bit patchy at times, but it is concerning we have this issue on the highway network when funding was set aside to deal with this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The $50 million Mobile Black Spot Fund was established in 2016 to improve coverage across 1400km of state highways, alongside the Rural Broadband Phase 2 initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we still seem to have these areas where it remains an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rural users appear to welcome the Starlink satellite network\u2019s impact on connectivity, with over a third relying on the tech.<\/p>\n
But Young cautioned about the reliance on one provider.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were promises made over a year ago by Amazon that NZ would be the first country in the world to benefit from its Project Kuiper low level satellite network.<\/p>\n
The project intended to launch 3200 low Earth orbit satellites with NZ early in the launch window. As of this month it has reportedly launched only102 satellites.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not been part of the discussions the company has had in private about the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young said it is also essential that if there is going to be greater reliance\u00a0 on satellites then more than just text capability using it has to exist.<\/p>\n
Fibre remains the gold standard for high-speed connectivity, but is an elusive optimum for many rural users with only 3% having it. That is up from 1% three years ago.<\/p>\n
While it is costly, Young said it could be possible for a collaborative, nationally focused effort to see more fibre in rural areas. But the government does not appear to be focused on such a major project.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it is election year next year, and we will be taking this information to the government for them to take on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farmers Weekly Poll<\/p>\n
Is your internet connection better than it was two years ago? Let us know here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading Time: 2 minutes The risk of rural connectivity decaying due to a lack of continuing infrastructure investment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[49,48,244,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-167635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}