RURAL REVOLUTION

Amy Adams on solving the digital divide

DIGITAL PLUNKET

Keeping kids well in the cloud

AGBOTS, DRONES,

driverless tractors, sensors – and more!

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2016 / ISSUE 2Championing better broadband for New ZealandSI

LICON ACRES

“Passing fibre in front of every house in Remuera does little to grow New Zealand prosperity. But when you run fibre to

a farm, you create the chance to transform New Zealand.”Ian Proudfoot, KPMG

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Contents 2016 / ISSUE 2

10 COVER STORY: SILICON ACRESRural broadband isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a must have. Fast broadband will transform rural communities – and through that the whole New Zealand economy.

PLUS: Agriculture, the fourth industrial revolution

4

A QUICK PAT ON THE BACKNZ is doing well when it comes to broadband speeds, but we need to keep up the pressure.

20

AMY ADAMS: SOLVING THE DIGITAL DIVIDEWe talk to the Communications Minister about her next steps to bring connectivity to the countryside.

REGULARS

1 EditorialCan the Government meet its ambitious primary industry export targets without ubiquitous high-speed rural broadband?

2 In briefThe Sky-Vodafone merger; first reading for new UFB consenting regulation; data usage tops 100GB, and Spark cashes in on Pokémon.

VIEWPOINT

6 Rosalie Nelson – ChorusThe huge growth in data usage is creating a challenge for telcos.

8-9 Telco viewVocus Fibre First, Truenet.

28-29 Guest column spotFrances Valintine, and /rant.

6

30 THE BENCHMARKThe Download explores the different broadband options and crunches the numbers on speed and data usage.

PRECISION AGRICULTURE

15Give a city slicker fast fibre and he/she will likely hook up to Netflix. Give a rural household access to super-fast internet and you might well grow the economy. We focus on three sectors already using smart technology to change lives in the countryside. PLUS: The invisible genius of agriculture

2016 / Issue 2

1The Download | Editorial

In 2013, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy announced an ambitious target – doubling primary industry exports in real terms from $32 billion in 2012 to $64 billion by 2025. As part of this strategy, the sector will need an additional 50,000 mainly young people to join the primary industry workforce – again by 2025, Nathan Guy says.

Meanwhile, separately, Communications Minister Amy Adams wants 99% of New Zealanders to access broadband speeds of 50Mbps by 2025, and the remaining 1% to have at least 10Mbps by that same magical date. Which (as the minister rightly points out) is better than what’s being promised to many of our OECD competitors, including Australia.

But instead of comparing ourselves to Australia, Canada and the UK, what if we instead put the three targets together – the ones about exports and primary industry workers, and the one about broadband. Can we achieve the former without the latter?

ASB rural economist Nathan Penny is just one of several experts in the space that thinks we can’t. In a pre-Budget call to action for the Government, he argued “bold goals need a bold response”, and that what is required is broadband and connectivity.

Of course, Amy Adams is right when she says (check out our interview with her on pages 20-21) that the targets were set independently by different ministries. But when Nathan Guy talks about primary industry productivity gains and using clever technologies, he is surely including the sort of innovation now being labelled “precision agriculture” – everything from smart sensors to geomapping, from cradle-to-grave monitoring of livestock, to drones delivering targeted fertiliser to fields.

Farmers using data to boost performance and productivity need widespread availability (and crucially adoption) of fast broadband in the rural

economy. And (as experts argue in this magazine) it makes sense for our broadband targets to be achieved earlier than our export targets, to give the primary sector a chance to use its newfound internet speeds to produce that much-anticipated growth.

Importantly it’s not just about getting broadband to farms so the smart gadgets actually work. It’s increasingly clear that strong rural businesses are reliant on strong rural communities, and high-speed, reliable broadband is critical for strong communities. Rural families need easily-accessible healthcare, internet access for their kids to do their homework and message their friends, social networks to keep them from feeling isolated. And as we show in our sector case studies (pages 22-27), there are some really exciting things going on in telemedicine and online learning. On the downside, demographic statistics show young people (20-40 year olds) are clearing out of rural areas. To keep them there, let alone bring more

of them in, people in the countryside need the same connectivity as their urban counterparts.

Don’t forget, farmers (and their families, neighbours and employees) watch Netflix too.

So is there a potential mismatch between the Government’s rural broadband targets and export growth numbers? Actually, in

the end it may not matter. Technology is moving so fast that broadband speeds (and to a lesser extent numbers of connections) tend to be outstripping Government targets. Telcos – and the experts who study these things – reckon you could realistically get to the Government’s broadband targets by 2021 or 2022, though it will possibly need a bit more money thrown in.

Bring it on.

Nikki MandowEditor

Fast trackingthe countryWe need high-speed rural broadband to meet some ambitious Government export targets

Editor Nikki Mandow

Editorial Consultant Gilbert Wong

Chorus Editorial Consultants Ian Bonnar, Steve Pettigrew

Account Director LauraGrace McFarland

Designers Julian Pettitt, Wade Wu

Photography Robin Hodgkinson, Nicola Edmonds

Publisher Ben Fahy

Chief Executive Officer John Baker

Published by Tangible Media, ICG Ltd.PO Box 77027, Mt AlbertAuckland 1350, New Zealandwww.tangiblemedia.co.nz

The Download is championed by Chorus PO Box 632, Wellington 6140www.chorus.co.nz

The contents of The Download are protected by copyright. Please feel free to use the information in this issue of The Download, with attribution to The Download by Chorus New Zealand Limited. Opinions expressed in The Download are not necessarily those of the publisher or the editor. Information contained in The Download is correct at the time of printing and while all due care and diligence has been taken in the preparation of this magazine, the publisher is not responsible for any mistakes, omissions, typographical errors or changes to product and service descriptions over time.

Connect with usFacebook.com/ChorusNZ Twitter/ChorusNZChorus NZ Limited on LinkedIn

www.thedownload.co.nz

Strong rural businesses are reliant on strong

rural communities. And high-speed, reliable

broadband is critical for strong communities.

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2

In briefSky-Vodafone merger awaits ComCom decisionSKY TV SHAREHOLDERS overwhelmingly supported a $3.44 billion merger with Vodafone NZ, though the deal is still subject to Commerce Commission approval. Under the deal, Sky will buy Vodafone NZ from its parent company Vodafone Europe, leaving the European company with a 51% stake in the merged venture.

The merger is being touted as a way to bolster Sky’s long-term profitability in a market where satellite TV is being threatened by internet-delivered services like Netflix. The two companies already have a relationship (Vodafone offers Sky with some of its broadband packages), but the merger could see four-way bundled deals involving mobile, fixed-line voice, fixed-line broadband and pay-TV.

The companies have suggested that long-term, the merger could boost the value of the company by $850m – $415m of which would come from future cost-savings and $435m from “revenue synergies”.

The Commerce Commission will examine whether a Sky TV-Vodafone merger could stop non-Vodafone customers from accessing “must-have” Sky content and/or discriminate against other online content providers (Netflix, for example), by preventing Vodafone customers from accessing their content. A decision will be made by November 11.

New legislation designed to speed up UFB consenting LONG-AWAITED legislation to resolve bottlenecks for people living or working in multi-unit properties, who find it hard to get their neighbours’ consent for an Ultra-Fast Broadband connection, has passed its first reading in Parliament.

Communications Minister Amy Adams estimates 250,000 households or business premises (17% of the total) need permission from neighbours to bring the fibre cable down a shared driveway or through communal areas in an apartment. At the moment, just one neighbour who can’t be contacted, doesn’t complete the paperwork or refuses to sign can hold up installation, sometimes for weeks.

The Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Bill should come into force next year. It establishes three categories of fibre installation, depending on the amount of disruption”:Minimum (no lasting impact on the property - e.g. fibre cable buried in grass at the side of a driveway): No consent required;Moderate (some lasting impact - e.g. a 1cm-wide incision is made in a concrete drive to conceal a cable): Neighbours will receive a design of what is proposed and have 15 days to object. If they don’t, they are deemed to have agreed;Major (high impact - e.g. driveway has to be dug up): All parties must agree.

250Number of new technicians and support staff Chorus needs to recruit by the end of the year

to meet burgeoning UFB install demand and reduce delays

fixing faults on its copper lines.

1900Number of additional

technicians and support people recruited by Chorus since 2011.

600Number of Chorus fibre installs

being completed each day.

“MAN, I’VE DONE SOME

CRAZY STUFF, BUT

THIS IS INSANE.”

Drifting racer “Mad” Mike Whiddett, after driving at high speed round a track in a car with blacked-out windows. Whiddett steered using live-streamed pictures sent from mobile phones on the roof of the car to screens on the inside of the windows. Whiddett was joined in the car by Vodafone director of 4G Tony Baird. The stunt was intended to demonstrate the speed of the company’s 4G network.

2016 / Issue 2

3The Download | In brief

Average monthly data usage tops 100GBUSAGE ON average on the Chorus network topped more than 100GB of data in May – the first time consumption has topped the magic 100GB level, and an almost 100% increase on data consumption at the beginning of 2015. And that’s just the beginning, according to Chorus, which expects national average monthly household data usage to reach almost 170GB by June next year –a further 64% increase. The increase comes as homes

and businesses with fibre connections are now using 190GB of data a month, up from 155GB in October last year. Data usage on copper is also increasing, but not so dramatically. Chorus Head of Insights Rosalie Nelson says “broadband as the fourth utility” is playing an increasingly pivotal role in our day-to-day lives.

“This exponential rate of growth places New Zealand among the most data-hungry

countries in the world. Already more than half (53%) of New Zealanders now watch internet TV and the number of online film and TV platforms has exploded. Two thirds of adult Kiwis now own or have access to three or more smart devices. On a global scale, by 2022, the OECD forecasts there will be 14 billion connected smart devices, like appliances, phones, computers, cars and watches, within households in OECD countries.”

Dec -

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Jan -

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Feb -

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Mar

- 15

Nov - 15

Apr - 15

Dec -

15

May

- 15

Jan -

16

Jun -

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Feb -

16

Jul -

15

Mar

- 16

Aug - 15

Apr - 16

Sep -

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- 16

Oct

- 15

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Copper Fibre Average

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Govt releases regulatory settings paperTHE LATEST STAGE of the Government’s review of the Telecommunications Act 2001 saw the July 12 release of an options paper providing detail on the proposed regulatory settings being considered for telecommunications pricing.

Internet NZ welcomed the paper, in particular discussion of the “utility-style” regulation, which would impose a similar pricing regime for telecommunications as that used for electricity. However, CEO Jordan Carter said the devil would be in the detail, and he was looking to see “whether the revised act leads to households spending excessive amounts on broadband, or

whether it strikes the right balance in protecting consumer interests”.

“This Review has to deliver a regulatory framework that guarantees fair prices for fast broadband. It also has to guarantee certainty for what these prices will be after 2020.”

The telecommunications users group TUANZ supported the principle of the “building blocks” model of asset pricing, and proposals to streamline regulatory processes. However TUANZ CEO Craig Young said “the tinkering with consumer disputes and advocacy process is a missed opportunity.”

Fairfax to be an ISPIn a surprise move, Fairfax Media announced it will move into the UFB market, as it attempts to make up for declining advertising revenues. Stuff Fibre will offer uncapped, 100Mbps, no-contract fibre broadband, with the launch date expected within the next three months. The new fibre-only ISP will be majority-owned by Fairfax, with five telco industry executives (including new Stuff Fibre managing director Sam Morse, ex of Vodafone and Foxtel) as the other shareholders. Fairfax said it had advised the Commerce Commission, which is still pondering the application for a Fairfax merger with rival media company NZME.(See more: Download /rant, page 29)

Pokémon GOldSPARK CUNNINGLY CASHED in on the Pokémon Go* craze, launching a July school holiday special “2GB GO” data pack, costing only $10. Spark Head of Mobile Marketing David Redmore says the mobile gaming craze contributed to an almost 10% increase in data use on its network in July. * Just in case you missed it: Pokémon Go is a free-to-play, augmented reality game created by Niantic (a San Francisco-based former Google startup). Players use their smart device’s GPS and camera to capture, battle, and train virtual creatures (Pokémon), who appear on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as the player.

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4

to broadband (96%), and we’re fourth when it comes to the take up of distance learning.

With smug satisfaction we can tell our cousins across the Tasman that our download speeds outperform those in the Lucky Country, according to benchmark speed tests by TrueNet and Ookla.

Nor have we been dogged by the issues besetting the National Broadband Network (NBN) project in Australia, where there has been slippage in goals and targets. The initial NBN target (eight million premises connected by 2016) has shifted to 2020, and politicians disagree on the Mixed Use Technology model for fast broadband (using copper, satellites, mobile broadband and fixed wireless alongside fibre), with critics saying the only way to future-proof is more fibre. Meanwhile, nobody can be proud at the cost blowout – from $29.5 billion to $46-56 billion, most from the public purse.

Globally, we’re no slouch, either. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development rates New Zealand as ninth out of 34

LET’S GIVE OURSELVES A PAT ON THE BACK

New Zealand is doing well internationally when it comes to uptake of fast internet. Now we need to ensure we make the most of the economic potential

of the technology.

FARMER CHARLES NIMMO from Leeston in the Canterbury Plains was the first person to access internet via Google’s top-secret Project Loon, a mission to see if an array of high-altitude balloons could deliver Wi-Fi web access to remote areas, far from fibre connections. Nimmo used his connection to check whether the weather was going to be right to crutch his sheep.

Google chose New Zealand for the experiment in 2013 because of New Zealand’s reputation as a great test bed for innovation. As Malcolm Fraser, chief executive of the Future Cities Institute told the NZ Edge website, “We tend to be early adopters, any technology that reduces the tyranny of distance, we’re keen on. We’re a small market, which means it doesn’t cost much to test something here and if anything screws up we’re far enough from major markets for it not to have a spillover effect.”

Casting ourselves as a nation of early adopters is the perfect foil to the naysayers who protest that our tiny size and economy mean we inevitably lag behind the rest of the world.

Our world leader status is borne out by statistics on our adoption of fast broadband technology. Figures from the World Internet Project show more than 70% of New Zealanders can be classed as “next generation users”, confident in the wired world and wanting high-speed, consistent broadband to keep the data flowing and the video streaming. When the project surveyed us in late 2015, ranked against 39 countries, we came in top for our internet use, with 92% of us surfing the web. In addition, 42% of us stream video for entertainment daily or weekly. We tie with Sweden for first place when it comes to access

countries for broadband growth and New Zealand has the second highest growth in fibre uptake.

The plan is for us to maintain our lead. If we meet the Government targets announced in October last year, 99% of New Zealanders will be able to access 50 Mbps fast broadband by 2025, and the remaining 1% will have access to at least 10 Mbps. This change will see New Zealand move from 17th in the world for rural connectivity to seventh, Communications Minister Amy Adams says. By comparison, the UK is aiming for 97% of the population having access to 24 Mbps.

We’re going to need that fast broadband because Chorus is already seeing the average NZ household using more than 100GB of internet data each month, and that's growing. Even Cisco’s conservative 2016 Visual Networking Index predicts the average Kiwi user will generate 35GB of internet traffic per month in 2020, up from 20.7GB in 2015. By 2020, the data streaming across our networks every 28 hours will be the equivalent to all movies ever made. We’ll be using some of that data to manage the internet of things, the predicted 37 million-plus devices and connections running everything from digital health monitors, smart home appliances and on-farm sensors or stock tracking devices.

By 2020, the Cisco boffins predict an average speed increase to 49.1Mbps, ahead of the global average of 47.7Mbps and close to the fastest speeds globally.

Fast broadband is only a means to an end, and that aim is to turbo boost our economy. The most-cited study to date, by Alcatel Lucent and Bell Labs, suggests that building the fibre spine will contribute $5.5 billion to GDP over 20 years.

2016 / Issue 2

5The Download | Let's give ourselves a pat on the back

DEVICES AND CONNECTIONS PER CAPITA

10

2015 2020

10

7.5 7.5

5 5

2.5 2.5

0 0

4.3

7.7

INTERNET USERS IN NZ

100%

2015 2020

94%100%

75% 75%

50% 50%

25% 25%

0% 0%

86%

Over the same period, the same analysis finds that services enabled by fast broadband in business, agriculture, health and education could lead to savings of $32.8 billion. The figure for business alone is $14.2 billion, with the productivity gains coming from two big drivers, high definition video conferencing and teleworking eliminating the tyranny of distance. Also included were the gains from better online training, customer support and workload management. Alongside productivity gains, the authors included reduced communication and travel costs, and savings from shifting functions to the cloud.

Schools are already reaping the benefit of cloud storage and software as a service, and by 2020 the benefits should be worth $3.6 billion, through the lowering of the cost of building and disseminating 21st century skills.

Our health system can expect $5.9 billion of returns, according to the Alcatel Lucent/Bell Labs report, as online consultations and remote monitoring reduce hospital admissions. The latest NZ Health Technology Review says local medical device and health IT companies are already prospering, with a total annual turnover of

$1.3bn and a research and development spend of $129mThe potential economic upside outlined in the Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs report is the carrot to close the gap between where we could be and where we are. According to the World Economic Forum Network Readiness Index, New Zealanders rank higher for the social impact and use of fast fibre than for our business use and economic impact. So we like using UFB to stream Game of Thrones, update our Instagram accounts and dabble with Periscope, but have not been as fussed about using the technology to make money.

Supporting that conclusion is the MYOB Business Monitor report that revealed only 54% of SMEs had a website in 2015. It does make you wonder how customers find the 46% who do not. More concerning, the report notes that this figure has remained roughly the same for five years.

Tracy Moyes, general manager of coworking and collaboration network BizDojo, says fast broadband is only one part of the equation to transform from being a commodities-based economy, to being a knowledge exporter and creator.

Moyes says being up there in the world in terms of the speed and extent of our broadband network is all very well, but that’s not going to

lift our economy if all we do is stream videos and watch YouTube. What needs to happen now is for New Zealand businesses to sign up to our fast broadband and use it to boost productivity, to grow their companies, and to sell their products to the world.

Stephen Knightly, the chair of the New Zealand Game Developers Association, agrees. He says fast broadband has allowed New Zealanders to access global culture – movies, videos, games, social media – at the same time as the rest of the world, and that’s a great leveller. The next stage is for New Zealand creative and content production sectors to use our superior broadband to get products out to the world. And he says the Government needs to support that.

“The content industry has globalised and yet Government support for content creation is focussed on the domestic market. We could make content funding more sustainable by having a digital export focus so our creative industries can aim to go global from day one.”

Knightly would like to hear Americans complaining that geoblocking prevents them from accessing the latest great New Zealand content. “Now that’s where we want to be.”

VIDEO INTERNET TRAFFIC*

100

2015 2020

84%

100

75 75

50 50

25 25

0 0

73%

GROWTH OF ULTRA HD VIDEO*

12

2015 2020

11.7%12

9 9

6 6

3 3

0 0

2.1%

Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index, June 2016 * As percentage of all internet traffic (business and consumer)* As percentage of all video internet traffic

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6 The future of data | Rosalie Nelson

WHEN ULTRA-FAST BROADBAND (UFB) was first launched in New Zealand, there was a lot of industry hand-wringing. Would people want better broadband? What would they use the speed for? The consensus was that we were building UFB way ahead of demand. Our predictions for early uptake were, frankly, low – the estimate was about 20% of homes and businesses would take up fibre by 2020. Demand would be driven by business.

Fast forward five years, and the pundits (of which I was one!) have been proven wrong. Kiwis want better broadband. Uptake of fibre burst through the 20% mark in January 2016, four years ahead of schedule. Households are queueing for connections, and this demand shows no signs of slowing. And we are using the internet in new, more immersive ways.

Data volume is growing. The average household is now using 103GB of data a month – up 100% from the beginning of last year. In usage, that roughly translates to a family downloading two high definition movies for the kids and watching three episodes of the first season of House of Cards a week, plus a bit of web-browsing. Fibre users are consuming twice as much data as a copper household.

This is not a one-off data burst. Chorus predicts the average household will use almost 170GB of data a month by June next year, rising exponentially to 680GB by 2020. That may be conservative. Online TV is still at an early growth phase: while 53% of online kiwis watch some form of internet TV each month, about two-thirds are not using subscription services like Netflix. Ultra-HD and immersive TV are emerging. They will soon take us into a virtual world, where a game or programme can be watched from any vantage point, ringside or grandstand. Then there is the ‘internet of things’ that will connect myriad devices from home security cameras and fridges to Fitbits, heat pumps and coffee machines.

This is cause for celebration. New Zealand has invested in fibre to the home on a massive scale.

These trends show we want better broadband, and we do more with it. The potential is vast – at least three independent studies have identified economic benefits of between $32bn and $34bn from UFB.

But data growth does create a challenge for the industry. Traditionally broadband plans have been designed and priced around data caps – setting limits on the amount of internet traffic we generate each month – rather than speed and experience. It made sense. For a small and remote country, international traffic links were expensive. We didn’t have internet TV, and network technology meant there were limited speed options. Data caps were a way of making broadband pay.

But a data cap is a bit like a speed bump: it stops us from trying new things for fear that we will hit the cap and pay more or have our connection throttled. Our massive growth in internet use means a cap we can live with today becomes a constraint for what we want to do tomorrow.

So now we are moving more into step with the rest of the world. In the OECD, 64% of countries have no data caps – in countries like France, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, broadband users don’t even know they exist. Instead broadband is sold based on the experience of online TV or services users want.

Competition is shifting now to unlimited plans and innovative services. Spark bundles up broadband with Lightbox and Spotify. Vodafone offers Sky and Neon, with more to come if the merger with Sky TV goes ahead. And they are selling speed: over 75% of new fibre users are opting for the highest speed 100Mbps+ plans. Broadband is becoming a utility, where speed and services count. The challenge is how we, as an industry, manage the transition to broadband as a utility, rather than data as a commodity.

We’re on the cusp of a paradigm shift in New Zealand. The pace of change isn’t steadying; it is accelerating. What was once the realm of science fiction is now innovation in action. We need to be ready.

What you should know about broadband speed and streaming video

YOU CAN’T STREAM VIDEO ON ANYTHING LESS THAN A

1.5Mbps connection

YOU NEED AT LEAST A

3Mbps connection TO STREAM STANDARD DEFINITION VIDEO.DATA CONSUMPTION: 1GB/HOUR

YOU NEED AT LEAST A

5Mbps connection TO STREAM HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO. DATA CONSUMPTION: 3GB/HOUR

YOU NEED AT LEAST A

25Mbps connection TO STREAM ULTRA HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO. DATA CONSUMPTION: 18.8GB/HOUR

New Zealand’s need for speedRosalie Nelson, head of insights at Chorus, says we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how we use the internet in New Zealand. And the exponential rise in the amount of data we use may finally spell the end to data caps.

2016 / Issue 2

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8 Pardon the interruption | Vocus Fibre First

The connection challengeHigher than expected demand, complex installs and plenty of cooks in the kitchen have created some well-publicised issues for consumers wanting fibre. But Vocus is doing its best to improve the experience by launching a new division called Fibre First.

OKAY, SO IT sounds like a bit of a first world problem, but a rapidly-growing industry can have challenges. As companies across the UFB rollout are finding, when you are flat out and struggling to meet demand, basic business stuff like finding and training staff, maintaining high standards, meeting customer expectations, and keeping track of cashflow, can all become more difficult.

Fibre connections are growing at well over 100% a year across the country. In early 2015, 5,000 people were being connected a month. In early 2016 it was 11,000 a month. Now it’s closer to 16,000, according to Government figures. But with exponential growth comes the negative stories – long waits for connection, shoddy workmanship, customer frustration.

Vocus, the country’s third largest internet service provider (ISP) has a plan to tackle the problem. On June 27, Vocus, which sells fibre broadband through its Slingshot, Orcon and CallPlus brands, launched Fibre First, a division focused on streamlining sign-up and installation processes and improving the customer experience around connecting up to UFB.

The 12-person team has moved into a separate part of Vocus’ Auckland offices, where sales and customer service people sit alongside developers and business analysts. The theory is that having a multi-disciplinary team in close proximity means they will listen in to each other’s phone calls, discuss thorny installation issues when they bump into each other at the coffee machine, have joint meetings, and generally spend time discussing how to make signing up for UFB as easy and pleasant an experience as possible. “We’ve identified we aren’t doing the install process as well as we could, and we want it to be better,” says Vocus consumer GM Taryn Hamilton. “What we’ve done as an industry is told people getting fibre is easier and quicker than it is. Actually it can be a mission, and sometimes the customer experience can be awful. There can be failings on the ISPs’ side or on the part of the local fibre companies, or with subcontractors ... This is an experiment to see if putting key developers in with front line staff can improve processes.”

One of the problems facing Vocus and the other ISPs is that a single install involves several separate

stages and at least two different companies – so there’s a far longer lead time than, say, signing up for copper broadband. And there are far more possibilities for things to go wrong. Customers do the deal with their ISP, but the actual on-the-ground install work (bringing fibre from the street, through someone’s section and into the modem in their house) is done by a local fibre company and normally requires two visits – one to look at the property and check what’s going to be needed for the install, and the other to carry it out. Only after that’s happened can the ISP switch on the

broadband. Each company has its own teams – installers, billing people, customer service staff etc – and is probably also using contractors.

“As an industry we haven’t been as open as we could be with regard to delays. The risk is that people who have had a bad experience will tell their friends and family not to get fibre. When actually everyone who can get fibre should get fibre.”

If successful, Vocus hopes Fibre First will also bring costs down for the company. Hamilton estimates it costs around $10 each time a call centre person talks to a customer, so there are obvious inefficiencies if a customer has multiple discussions with Vocus over installation of a $69.99-a-month fibre plan.

Already the team have come up with some areas where processes can be improved, Hamilton

says. “For example, sometimes the Chorus guy will turn up to check the install and he’ll realise that it’s a straightforward install and he can do the connection on the spot. That’s great for the customer, who doesn’t have to take another half day off work. However, because we’ve got the install date scheduled for the day Chorus was originally going to be doing it, the customer still has to wait until after the original install date before they get UFB. That’s unnecessary delay.

“So now we’re realising we need to make sure that before that first visit the modem is already on site, and number portability and data authentication processes are already set up. Then if Chorus can connect the customer straight away, we are ready to go too.”

Another thing that really annoys customers is when there have been delays with the install process, or something isn’t working properly, but they still get a bill for the first month, Hamilton says. “Our system is smart enough to be able to see automatically whether everything’s up and running. We need to be saying ‘The phone’s not working, so we won’t bill them yet.”

Improving communication with customers around timing for fibre installations is another priority. “The industry hasn’t been good at setting expectations. Using averages is meaningless, but it’s not easy to be accurate, because every install is different and with a multi-dwelling unit, for example, there are a lot of unknown factors."

Hamilton says good customer satisfaction ratings are critical for his company, because as a challenger brand Vocus hasn’t got a huge marketing budget. Although the vast majority of existing Vocus customers are on copper broadband, the majority of new sales for Orcon are for fibre connections. He hopes the Fibre First project will also give the company a competitive advantage as ADSL customers upgrade to fibre.

“Although fibre is getting a disproportionate share of our resources at the moment, we know that the vast majority of copper customers will become fibre customers. We want to make that easy for them and ensure we have the capability to manage that switch.”

Taryn Ham

ilton

2016 / Issue 2

9Keeping tabs | TruenetPH

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The man keeping the ISPs honestNew Zealand ISPs have been criticised in the past for low speeds and lack of consistency, but TrueNet's John Butt says it's mostly good news these days, both in the cities and the regions.

IT WOULD BE fair to say a few Internet Service Providers (ISPs) see red at mention of John Butt’s name. In 2012, Butt founded TrueNet, a business which measures and reports on broadband performance. The service is a joint venture with open source IT company Catalyst IT and is funded by the Commerce Commission, which under the Telecommunications Act is obliged to review and study the industry for the long-term benefit of New Zealanders. “We’re piggy in the middle,” says Butt, acknowledging that isn’t always a comfortable place to be.

Those who challenge TrueNet would say Butt is a poacher turned gamekeeper – an engineer with an influential career in telcos, who went on to found a company which monitors their performance. Maybe, says Butt, however the work is for the public good. Independent monitoring of how ISPs perform keeps everyone honest. Part of the problem is that the Commission makes ISPs part-fund TrueNet. And not everyone agrees with the company’s monitoring model.

Butt says you can’t keep everyone happy. He has the frankness of an engineer but maintains a wry professional objectivity in the face of

occasional hostility. He’s got a job to do, and he’s getting on with it.

In July, TrueNet hit a significant milestone, 300 million tests, which means the company has the country’s largest database of grassroots consumer experience of ISP performance. The testing is done remotely via bridge routers installed in the houses and offices of 400 volunteers. The “probes” conduct an array of tests, from getting the volunteers’ computers to call up a series of web pages, to a ping test to see how long it takes for a packet of data to upload and download. The computers feed performance data back to TrueNet 24/7, from a variety of ISP providers.

TrueNet data allows ISPs to drill down into what’s going on with their networks – and those of their competitors. And it means Butt and his team can produce regular commentary on the state of our broadband performance.

While there may have been criticism in the past around speed and consistency of ISP offerings, mostly these days it is good news. In April, TrueNet compared webpage download speeds in New Zealand with those reported by the US Federal Communications Commission and found our internet experience over copper

is vastly better than theirs. “The worst New Zealand ISP is well ahead of the best US ISP for time-of-day performance,” the report said.

Then in June, TrueNet acknowledged some great work ISPs are doing on ADSL and VDSL evening speeds – once a time of significant congestion and slow down. The testing showed all ISPs achieving evening peak speeds nearly equal to off-peak speeds. “That’s the equivalent of having all cars on the motorway doing 95-100km/h during rush hour,” Butt says.

So would Butt be happy with his broadband if he was a farmer? TrueNet has up to 70 probes in rural areas, with people on a full range of broadband services and providers, from DSL and fibre, to fixed wireless and satellite.

“Like a lot of things, that depends on where you live. Some farmers on VDSL connections have wonderful service, but there’s lots on older ADSL1 and for many that means 0.5-1Mbps.”

He says farmers can buy satellite broadband, and with smart software trimming webpages to a minimum, the speed can feel like good VDSL at times. Still, they shouldn’t try streaming video in the evening, he says.

TrueNet has been analysing the impact of the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) and finds an improvement each quarter of about 7% in performance from wireless connections, largely mobile broadband, and from Chorus connecting rural cabinets with fibre. But ironically, the improvements for rural communities with access to the RBI has left those still waiting feeling even more disadvantaged. “Those without the benefit of RBI funding are now likely to find that websites take over three times longer to download than those where an update has occurred.”

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10

SIL

ICO

N

AC

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*NO, THIS ISN'T THE NAME OF A RETIREMENT VILLAGE FOR TECH FOUNDERS. IT’S ABOUT HOW RURAL BROADBAND CAN TRANSFORM THE NEW ZEALAND ECONOMY.

Cover Story | Rural broadband

2016 / Issue 2

11

Passing fibre in front of every house in Remuera does little to grow New Zealand prosperity," says Ian

Proudfoot, KPMG’s global head of agribusiness. "But when you run fibre to a farm, you create the chance to transform New Zealand.”

So while connecting the suburbs to Ultra-Fast Broadband helps connect New Zealanders with each other and the world, giving a high country farm access to a high-speed internet connection helps boost New Zealand’s GDP. You’ll also potentially give that farming family a chance to access specialist medical care without having to drive for two hours to a hospital, you’ll allow the kids to get on the internet for their homework, and everyone can access social networks that can help relieve isolation and potentially depression.

A lot of clever stuff is already happening around the country:• A recent trial at a GP practice in Lawrence,

a 435-person Otago town having problems recruiting a new doctor for its health centre, saw 14 patients treated via telemedicine by a doctor in Dunedin, 92km away. With the help of a nurse doing the hands-on work, the online GP was even able to successfully diagnose appendicitis in a patient with severe stomach pain.

• In Methven, near the western edge of the Canterbury plains, farmers Craige and Roz MacKenzie are using soil mapping techniques to work out water and nutrient levels in different parts of their fields. Then they send this virtual map to the on-board computer in the smart tractor or irrigator out in the field, which puts water or fertiliser only on the areas of the field that need it. Not only does it reduce the farm’s water and fertiliser consumption by

30%-50%, but it means excess minerals aren’t leaching into the subsoil.

• Meanwhile, 116-student Manganuiowae-Broadwood Area School, nestled against the Raetea forest in rural Northland, now has a BYOD programme, cloud software apps which allow students to share and showcase their work, and access to the same online learning resources and professional development materials available to any other school in the country.

What unites these three rural projects, plus thousands of others, is fast, reliable broadband. The Government-funded part of the first phase of the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI1) is now complete. As a result, almost 300,000 rural premises are now able to access fast broadband. Meanwhile, the Ultra-Fast Broadband programme has been completed in 19 towns and cities, allowing in excess of 1 million households, businesses, schools and hospitals to connect to fibre.

One of the most telling statistics is on uptake of fast broadband, which is high in rural areas. In the first phase of the Government's Rural Broadband Initiative, more than 85% of people opted to upgrade to a faster connection. And that’s not surprising. The percentage of people in rural areas who are self-employed or running a business is nearly double those in the city. And more than twice the number of rural people as city dwellers earn income from their own business. Many of those people will be working from home. So connecting up to fast internet does more than give them better access to YouTube videos – it helps them run their business and hopefully earn more money.

The growth of New Zealand’s technology sector is, of course, great news. But behind the glare of the shiny

new thing, the primary sector remains a vital part of the country’s economy. Over 70% of our merchandise exports

come from that sector and the Government’s growth strategy for 2025 involves doubling these exports.

So enabling significant productivity gains in the rural sector is crucial for New Zealand over the next decade.

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12 Cover Story | Rural broadband

And it’s not just farming. Tourism brought in close to $30 billion in the year to March 2015, generating almost 5% of our GDP. Part of the beauty of travelling in New Zealand is the wonderful scenery and hospitality outside the main centres. But travellers want to check their emails, share their photos, book tickets, and search on the internet for what to do at their next destination.

IMPACTS OF POOR CONNECTIVITYThe problem, however, is that internet access in many rural areas is unreliable, expensive or non-existent, and this has significant economic and social impacts, says Penelope England, CEO of Rural Women, a not-for-profit information and advocacy group for rural communities. “Twenty-three percent of New Zealand businesses are rural-based, but the reality is that for many, internet speeds are simply not fast enough to support data-heavy activities like streaming and content development,” England says. “Over 13% of our rural population have no internet access at all. Others struggle to receive speeds capable of supporting basic activities like internet banking and online grocery shopping.” Impacts of poor connectivity include:• Lost opportunities for productivity gains and

growth in the agricultural sector when farmers can’t take advantage of smart online tools;

• Difficulty for farmers meeting mandated business reporting requirements;

• Competitive disadvantage for rural SMEs without access to innovation needed to bring growth;

• Increased risk of social exclusion when people can’t access platforms like Skype and Facebook;

• Limited access to online Government public services;

• Difficulties retaining and attracting young people, who are driven into the cities unless they can access high levels of connectivity for education, employment and entertainment.

England is worried that the completion of RBI1 will still leave about 34,000 people outside the network, and she wants RBI2 to bring rural broadband speeds up to the same standard as urban speeds. She also wants the time-of-day issues resolved. “Many rural broadband users see their speed drop significantly in the evenings meaning that websites do not download, files take a long time to appear, or even fail to be delivered due to timeouts.”

For a country like New Zealand to be successful

in the global game we need to be world-

leading ... New Zealand should be the Silicon

Valley of agriculture and horticulture.

Steve Rieger, Vodafone

UFB2 and RBI2 will solve these problems for many people. The contracts for both are still being negotiated by Government body Crown Fibre Holdings, but Amy Adams wants the two programmes to jointly deliver broadband speeds of at least 50Mbps to 99% of New Zealanders by 2015, plus at least 10Mbps to the remaining 1% by the same date.

UFB2 will see $210 million invested to extend fibre to at least another 5% of the population, and an as-yet-unspecified number of smaller towns, likely to start in the second half of this year. Adams hopes by the end of the project in 2025, technologies will have advanced enough to bring gigabit (1000Mbps) speeds to 80% of New Zealand.

Meanwhile, RBI2 will involve spending $100 million connecting rural New Zealanders beyond the UFB network, plus $50m to fix mobile black spots on rural roads where locals and tourists can’t call for help if there’s an accident.

Craig Young, chief executive of the Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ), says the Government should be congratulated for the level of investment so far,

but he’d like to see a more ambitious deadline for connecting the rest of the country. The irony of the success of the UFB programme, he says, is that by delivering world-leading speeds to a large part of the country, the Government has exacerbated the urban/rural digital divide.

The drift to the cities is another very real problem, and not just for agricultural workers. The issue of filling the vacancies left as an ageing medical and nursing workforce retires from rural practices and regional hospitals is very real, says Kyle Ford, CIO at WellSouth Primary Health Network. It’s a big problem, which has a couple of solutions – lure younger doctors and nurses to the countryside, and develop telehealth solutions where some patients “see” their doctor or specialist by video conference from a bigger centre. The patients could be at home, or could be supported by a nurse or GP from a local clinic. Both solutions need good connectivity.

Craig Young says he’d like to see RBI2 finished in 2021 or 2022, and Vodafone wholesale director Steve Rieger says a faster rollout is logistically possible. Vodafone was one of two telcos (with Chorus) to win the RBI1 rollout contracts, and the company is bidding for a slice of RBI2. Rieger believes the Government has done “a phenomenal job” with broadband up until now, but should be aiming for 2021 for finishing remote rural coverage.

“It’s entirely practical that every bit of agricultural, horticultural, and viticultural land could be covered by wireless broadband. If you exclude the Southern Alps and state forests, where broadband isn’t practical or needed, that leaves a target of 70% land mass coverage, up from 50% now. If you assume the physical building starts next year, you could complete that within four years.”

WHY RBI2 IS IMPORTANT “For a country like New Zealand to be successful in the global game we need to be world-leading,” Rieger says. “New Zealand should be the Silicon Valley of agriculture and horticulture.”

There’s no doubt getting everyone connected up as soon as possible is the best solution, Amy Adams says. But at what cost? New Zealand’s geography, particularly all those pesky mountains, means delivering an urban-like connectivity experience to isolated farms isn’t cheap. And it gets even more expensive because farmers don’t just need broadband in the farm house and office. They need it anywhere there are crops, fields or animals to be monitored. Amy

13

2016 / Issue 2

Who are rural broadband users? As the countryside struggles to keep its young people, it’s clear the need for fast internet access is about far more than building the rural economy.

“By spending $500 a month on broadband I can save $90,000 in fertiliser in a year.” This is what a pragmatic Southland farmer told Colmar Brunton researchers interested in what rural New Zealanders wanted when it came to fast broadband.

In the same way there is no average urban broadband user, there is no average rural broadband user. But if you do happen to live in the country, you’re likely to pay more for fast broadband, and get speeds that city folk wouldn’t stand for.

As of March 2016, the Rural Broadband Initiative had enabled 285,489 households and businesses to connect to fast broadband – and, of these, 106,482 had signed up. But, while the Ultra-Fast Broadband rollout to 921,625 urban premises has delivered fast fibre with potential speeds of 100-200Mbps, the RBI relies on a range of technologies tasked to deliver “at least 5Mbps”. Some technologies such as VDSL might be considerably faster, but the blistering speeds of the cities are mostly not possible in the countryside without a fibre connection.

Yet rural users, in particular farmers, have an arguably greater need for fast broadband than

city dwellers. From an economic perspective, the primary sector accounts for 7.6% of GDP and contributes over 70% of New Zealand’s merchandise (as opposed to services) export earnings. Our rural sector feeds 40

million people in 100 countries. And the Government’s goal is to double primary industry exports in real terms from $32 billion in June 2012 to $64 billion by 2025. That requires annual growth of 5.5% a year.

All this from an estimated rural population of 620,000, spread thin over two thirds of our land area. Statistics New Zealand defines “rural” as any area or town with less than 1000 people. In terms of demographics, rural households are more likely to be married than their urban counterparts and

on average have more children. At last count there were 68,295 rural “enterprises”, 48,228 of which have no employees, which suggests a lot of these will be farms run by a couple and their family.

Farming these days is so much more than a quad bike and a sheep dog. High performing farmers use smart, online tools for everything from managing their accounts and budgets, to measuring the yields of their paddocks and improving the weights of their herds. If the Government wants to have any chance of reaching its primary

export growth goal, farmers will need the tools and manpower to lift productivity.

Strong rural economies are nothing without strong and sustainable communities. If you live three hours from the nearest major hospital, you are going to want great online medical services – from video specialist appointments to remote blood pressure monitoring. Meanwhile, almost every school-age child in rural New Zealand is accessing online education, and when it comes to

the tyranny of distance, farmers want broadband so they can stay connected to family and friends. Rural folk are hardy and self-sufficient, but face a demographic challenge. It is getting harder to keep the next generation on the farm, with 20 to 39 year-olds making up only 19% of the rural population, compared to 26% in urban New Zealand.

The Government wants to attract 50,000 more young people into the primary sector over the next 10 years, and there aren’t many who are going to jump into a job where

their device can’t connect easily and reliably with the outside world. FOMO (fear of missing out) is even more a problem in the countryside.

Research from Colmar Brunton finds rural broadband users are aware of the digital divide. They use the internet as much as their city counterparts and they want the same broadband performance as urban users. This includes more retail competition and better speeds and reliability, whether broadband is delivered by mobile or fixed connections.

The Government wants to attract 50,000 more young people into the primary sector over the next 10 years,

and there aren’t many who are going to jump into a job where their device can’t connect easily and

reliably with the outside world. FOMO (fear of missing out) is even more a problem in the countryside.

UPTAKE

RBI

39.2%UFB

23.9%

AVERAGE AGE OF NURSES IN NZ

46PEOPLE SELF-EMPLOYED OR

RUNNING A BUSINESS*

RURAL

29%URBAN

16%

PEOPLE WHO EARN INCOME FROM THEIR OWN BUSINESS*

RURAL

23%URBAN

16%

A SURVEY OF NZ GPs

37%OF RURAL PRACTICES

HAD A VACANCY

41%OF GPs INTEND TO

RETIRE BY 2025* ACCORDING TO 2013 CENSUS DATA

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14 Cover Story | Rural broadband

Nathan Penny

Adams says on a per user basis, the Government has already spent more on delivering broadband to rural consumers than urban ones. And that’s before tackling the hard-to-reach places.

The second problem is getting people to use their fast broadband once they’ve got it, but here many experts seem to be optimistic. Almost all schools are already connected up and most teachers are embracing the opportunities provided by fast broadband, according to schools’ managed network provider Network for Learning. Meanwhile, Julia Jones, a farm enterprise specialist with KPMG, says while some farmers she sees are reluctant to change practices they’ve used for the last 20 years, there are loads champing at the bit to get internet speeds that will allow them to innovate.

And in the medical profession, Opotiki GP chair of the Rural GP Network, Jo Scott-Jones, says even the last 18 months has seen a sea change in how doctors view technology. “It’s a growing part of the conversations we are having. Even last year doctors might have been saying ‘Do we really need telehealth services?’ Now it’s ‘How are we going to use them?’” The

While governments in other countries are

giving handouts to their farmers, we argue for

better tools to improve rural businesses. [Fast

broadband] is a tool which can give New Zealand

farmers a real edge.Nathan Penny, ASB

change will come through a combination of patient demand, technology becoming cheaper and more available, and international practices influencing local GPs and specialists, he says.

If you build it they will come. And the sooner you build it the better. ASB rural economist Nathan Penny wants the Government to lift its target for rural peak speeds to at least 100Mbps, and to move the deadline to 2022.

Rural connectivity is non-negotiable, he says. “This is a real opportunity for New Zealand agriculture – an opportunity to understand our consumer; an opportunity to tell our story more easily; an opportunity to speed up product growth and get scale that hasn’t been there before. But, at the same time, it’s an opportunity to maintain what we love about farming and rural businesses: mum and dad running the business.”

He is calling on the Government to be more ambitious about rural broadband.

"The business case for this investment stacks up very well. While governments in other countries are giving handouts to their farmers, we argue for better tools to improve rural businesses – and this tool can give New Zealand farmers a real edge.”

2016 / Issue 2

15

Smart agriculture is changing the business of farmingHow smartphones, cloud-based software, drones and Ultra-Fast Broadband are creating a productivity gap between the technology haves and have-nots of New Zealand farming.

IN 2011, the red meat industry discovered a startling statistic. High-performing sheep farmers earned more than twice as much for their meat per hectare of land as lower-performing ones, and produced more than double the amount of lamb per hectare.

The industry group took a hard look at the main problems impacting productivity and profitability with poorer-performing farmers, and they came up with five key areas: • Inconsistent information flows to farmers

(from banks, Government, processors, advisors, ITOs, etc);

• Poor information and technology uptake by farmers;

• Lack of integration between farmers’ various management systems;

• Lack of measurement and benchmarking;• Poor budgeting. The partnership estimated

that only 5% of sheep and beef farmers used an effective budget, and 65% didn’t budget at all.

The gap between the top 20% of farmers and the rest was compounded because 80% of farmers believed they were in the top 20%. Basically, most farmers didn’t even know that they could be doing much better.

At the end of 2014, ANZ’s AgriFocus team took a look at the issue, producing a report entitled ‘The

secrets of top-performing red meat farmers’. Once again, the authors focussed on the gap between the top 20% of farmers and the rest – and concluded the situation was getting worse, if anything.

“The gap ... has doubled over the last 20 years. There even looks to have been a further divergence in performance within the top 20% in recent years, driven by high performers continuing to push the boundaries beyond what was thought feasible just a few years ago.”

But the overall message was positive: that the achievements of the best farmers showed a huge potential for the rest. “From an industry-wide perspective the potential to increase on-farm performance is immense,” the report found.

How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Precision agriculture

16

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THE PRODUCTIVITY GAPResearch suggests top-performing farms produce twice as much lamb per hectare and earn twice as much as their poorer-performing counterparts. Even if you exclude the lowest 20%.

FARM QUINTILE

(by profit/hectare)

20%-40%

Top 20%

Difference (%)

WHAT FARMERS OFTEN FOCUS ON

WHERE THE OPPORTUNITY IS

LAMB PRICE

($/head)

91.70

94.23

+3%

LAMB SALES

(kg/hectare)

44

103

+134%

LAMB SALES

($/hectare)

222.20

522.01

+135%

Source: Red Meat Sector Strategy (2011), Beef + Lamb New Zealand Economic Service, Sheep and Beef Farm Survey

Julia Jones

How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Precision agriculture

“Even using conservative estimates of how far the performance curve can be moved yields a large industry benefit ... if 30% of farmers in the bottom 80% achieved the same performance as the top 20% this would generate $640 million (+23%) of additional EBITR [earnings before interest, tax and rent] each year (based on the 2011/12 season).”

While bigger farms did have some advantage over smaller ones, the report found farm management practices – such as weight gain generated, cost of feed utilised, trading margins created and the timing of buy/sell decisions – were “equal, if not more important, determinants of profitability”.

Julia Jones, a specialist with KPMG’s Farm Enterprise team, gets up close and personal with farmers every week. She says too many are running their businesses the same way they did 20 years ago, and that needs to change.

Ground-breaking smart technology is already out there, she says, and as rural broadband speeds and connections improve, so farmers will increasingly be able to use them to boost productivity on their farms.

The technologies fall broadly into two categories: business management (banking, budgeting, financial performance monitoring etc); and farming systems (clever stuff to improve productivity and cut costs out in the field) – though there is quite a bit of overlap. And there are plenty of New Zealand companies with products available.

At the business management end of the scale there are products like cloud accounting software Xero and farm management app Figured, which help farmers to do their finances and budgeting, and share their numbers with their banker,

accountant or consultant. ASB Bank recently bought 500 Figured licences for its farming clients.

Then there’s Blerter, a real-time health and safety app, which enables farmers to instantly report incidents, observations, and near misses, including when they are out in the back blocks, via smart phone, tablet or wearable device.

Meanwhile, the growth of electronic monitoring and cloud-connected weighing and metering systems (Gallaghers and TruTest are just two of our top agri firms involved in this area) has opened up the market for systems to make sense of all the data that’s now available. Farm IQ has developed farm management software for sheep and beef farmers, allowing them to use electronic ear tags (which uniquely identify

each animal) to monitor their stock right through life – and death. For example, a farmers could record data on an animal’s genetics, and combine it with other information, including how much it weighs at different stages of its life, what it’s been fed, and what health treatments it’s had. Then, once it’s gone to the meat works, farmers could add processing and meat inspection data. Put the whole lot together and farmers are able to see, for example, which animals are the most productive. They are also able to share information with other people – bankers, advisors, even vets. And that makes it easier to make good business decisions, says FarmIQ CEO Collier Isaacs.

Take Rob Lawson, who farms sheep at Moana, just north of Dunedin, and uses FarmIQ to monitor the performance of lambs so they can be sold at an optimum time and weight. Lawson tags all his lambs at docking or weaning and then follows them through against performance target weights. For example, he tries to get his “replacement lambs” (the ones he keeps to breed from) to 55kg by the time they are 18 months old. If a lamb is underweight Lawson can decide to give them additional feed, send them off for grazing elsewhere, or sell them.

“You are looking to drill down to a greater level of detail than you can see with the naked eye, and then make decisions using that information. For example, we worked out that we should wean our lambs earlier on our hill lands, because we noticed from the data that in the latter part of their growth prior to weaning, the lambs weren’t getting heavier, and they were just bringing the ewes down. So now we wean them at 90 days, rather than 120.

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2016 / Issue 2

Know your cow: Electronic identification (EID), often involving a digital tag inserted into an animal's ear and containing a unique number which can be read by a reader, is a critical part of animal management and traceability.

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“We also realised that the strongest part of the operation was our low country early growth rate. Lambs in our low country paddocks were growing faster than we realised, so were ready to be sold earlier than expected. Five years ago we thought getting 1000 lambs away by Christmas was good, but now we are sending 2500 away. This means better cash flow earlier in the season, and keeping the ewes in better condition. And when it’s really dry, getting lambs off early leaves more feed for the ewes going into autumn.”

Lawson says better information allows him to make better decisions, which leads to heavier lambs and increased profitability.

“Without doubt, the most important tool on a farm is a computer, as long as you’ve got decent broadband.”

KPMG’s Julia Jones says cloud-based farm management systems won’t just help with productivity, but will facilitate individual traceability right across New Zealand’s agricultural sector. In the same way that someone who buys merino leggings from Icebreaker can scan the barcode to find out which farm the wool came from, so in the future if a shopper in a German supermarket wanted to know where her

steak was born, she should be able to pinpoint the cow to an individual New Zealand farm and field – and get the environmental and ethical data.

The other side of the field now known as “precision agriculture” is the sexy stuff going on out in the field. Drones, driverless tractors, soil monitoring, and imaging are transforming the way farmers manage their land (see the Invisible genius of agriculture sidebar, page 14).

Two years ago, a UK consultant, Ian Beecher-Jones, estimated 60% of Britain’s farmland was being managed by precision farming methods, including sensor systems, cameras, drones, microphones, virtual field maps, analytics and GPS-guided tractors.

The 60% figure might seem high, but Ian Proudfoot, global head of agribusiness for KPMG, says it likely reflects the high number of farmers (in New Zealand as well as the UK), who have adopted one or more pieces of technology that fit within the suite of precision farming. “Comprehensive adoption is probably less than 10%, but it would not surprise me if New Zealand farmers’ adoption of some form of these technologies was at a similar level or higher than the UK. Although very few farmers have

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18 How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Precision agriculture

THE INVISIBLE GENIUS OF AGRICULTURE Five cool technologies transforming the way we farm

DRONES The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is the poster child of smart agricultural technology, though it’s still in its infancy in New Zealand. The first unmanned crop-spraying drone got Civil Aviation Authority approval last year under new rules, but the potential is clear for a multitude of tasks from crop management to real-time monitoring of animals on distant paddocks. The Agra MG-1 “octocopter” is a Chinese-developed drone designed to spray large areas of farmland with pesticides or fertilisers. Its manufacturer DJI claims it can spray 4,000-6,000m² in 10 minutes. In NZ, drone company Haptly is working on technology to collect pasture quality information and send it via the cloud to a farmer's device. And Tauranga-based GPS-it has developed drones which map farms and orchards, and record crop density from above.

DRIVERLESS TRACTORS The Google self-driving car? Pah, old hat. Driverless farm vehicles have been around for at least a decade, but mostly need a human in the cab to make decisions in an emergency, like if a cow wanders into its path. But a farmer can programme the coordinates of the field into the tractor’s system and then the machine can plough, or spread fertiliser or whatever, all by itself, using GPS technology. Meanwhile the farmer can be running his business from an iPad in the cab. John Deere, one of several autonomous vehicle manufacturers, says the technology also provides large savings in terms of avoiding missed spots and repetition. The next stage, where external sensors take over the supervisory role, won’t need a driver.

SMART SCANNING Robotic scanning technology is increasingly helping farmers be more productive. For example, Craige Mackenzie’s Agri Optics business has developed a device called SmartN, which scans the ground and detects where cows have urinated. Because cow urine puts nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous into the soil, the machine makes sure only spots that haven’t been peed on get additional fertiliser. Mackenzie says that can cut fertiliser use by up to 30%, and avoid excess nitrates leaching into groundwater. Meanwhile, scientists are developing weed scanner technology, which can recognise individual weed varieties and spray unwanted plants, leaving the rest of the plants untouched.

Without doubt, the most important

tool on a farm is a computer, as long as you’ve got decent

broadband.Rob Lawson, Moana Farm PH

OTO

GR

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Y JA

CK

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FOR

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widely integrated sensors, data analytics, drones and robotics into their farming systems, many have mapped their pastures, adopted GPS in their tractors or started using precision irrigation.”

While farmers don’t need broadband to use GPS mapping, many of the other innovations need good internet access to be useful.

Isaacs says at the moment reliability and access is more important than high speed.

“I’d rather we had lower speeds in more places and absolute reliability, so when you went to use it, it works, even when it’s raining or blowing.”

FarmIQ product development manager John Dyckhoff says it’s frustrating for farmers who might have broadband in the farm office, but not out where the decisions need to be made. “For example, you might be running animals through a weigh scales in the woolshed and you want to get a comparison of what they weighed last time, so you can make an informed decision about whether you need to feed an animal differently, send it to the works etc. You want to be able to see the information in real time, rather than just relying on gut feeling.”

He says farming is increasingly complex, and the more information available, the more

productive a farm can be. “Farmers have to have a degree of knowledge in a multitude of areas. They have to be accountants, agronomists, animal health experts. They think they are doing a reasonable job – and probably they are. But they could be doing a much better one. Technology can help, but so far we are only scratching the surface with what it can do. Because in the past they haven’t had broadband connectivity, many farmers haven’t looked to exploit the systems or tools which can help.”

And that’s not just damaging individual farmers’ profits, but it has a big impact on New Zealand’s competitiveness, KPMG’s Ian Proudfoot says.

“We are competing with countries like Ireland where the agricultural sector has taken a real step forward in terms of auditing and data collection. We need to have that data so we can better manage everything from production to the environment, from animal health to waterways. And we need to maintain our premium position in the future, with data available not just to the farmer, but to the consumer, who will want to know that the producer has done the right thing.”

2016 / Issue 2

19How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Smart technologies

SAMPLING AND SENSORS Soil sampling, electromagnetic mapping and sensor technology mean farmers can now work out the soil anatomy of different parts of a single field, and adjust water or nutrients. For example, some areas of a field might be predominantly clay (and so retain water) whereas others might be faster draining, and so need more watering. Sampling and mapping tools collect that information, and then farmers combine the data with a tractor’s internal software to vary how much water and fertiliser to put on each patch of ground. And it’s not only tractors with that level of sophistication. Planes can be programmed to drop fertiliser only where it’s needed, and irrigators (those big rotating booms you see inching their way across a field in summer) can be programmed so each nozzle releases water only where needed. The savings in water and fertiliser from these technologies can be 30%-50%, according to Craige Mackenzie, one of New Zealand’s most technologically-savvy farmers.

AGRICULTURAL ROBOTS Darkness falls, but the kiwifruit pickers keep on picking – because they are robots. Also known as agbots, robots that can pick fruit are being developed by a number of companies around the world, including Tauranga-based RoboticsPlus. Scanning and imaging technology will allow the robots to handle the varying shapes of individual fruit, and apply the correct pressure. RoboticsPlus reckons commercially-viable orchard robots are 3-4 years away, though packing robots are already operating in a shed near you. International pundits predict that by the mid 2020s, entire farms could be staffed by “robotic farm swarms”, packs of agbots each with thousands of microscopic sensors, which monitor, predict, cultivate and extract crops with practically no human intervention.

The fourth industrial revolution: agricultureEvery year, KPMG’s Agribusiness Agenda takes a look at the primary sector – what agribusiness leaders are concerned about, and what they need to be doing to stay ahead of the game.

In this year’s agenda, Auckland-based author Ian Proudfoot, KPMG’s global head of agribusiness, points to 2016 as the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, embodied by smart production, automation and data exchange. And unlike the previous three revolutions (industrial, technological and digital), this fourth one will have a dramatic impact on the farming sector.

“Given it is centred on the fusion of physical, digital and biological technologies, the agri-food sector will be at the centre of much of the change that occurs [in the

fourth revolution],” he says. “It will reshape how food, beverage, fibre and timber is produced, processed, distributed and consumed around the world. Similarly it will revolutionise the clothes we wear, the fibres they’re manufactured from, and the materials used to build our homes.”

And the role of fast internet? When KPMG surveyed industry leaders for last year’s Agribusiness Agenda, they put the delivery of high-speed broadband as the number two priority for the sector, behind biosecurity. This year, broadband has dropped to number

four, and the agenda gives it only fleeting mention in its 68 pages. But that doesn’t mean broadband isn’t important; in fact it’s critical to practically everything discussed in the document, Proudfoot says. It’s just that broadband is an enabler, a given. The report doesn’t talk much about electricity either.

“Internationally, more than $6bn was invested in agricultural technology in 2015, according to the global agtech investment marketplace, AgFunder. That's more than double the 2014 figure and up from $100m in 2005. The speed and scope of new technology available is huge – as is the potential impact. We rely on agriculture to pay for schools, hospitals, roads; we are the only country in the world where our farming sector has such influence. So being at the leading edge of new technology and connectivity is critical.”

Proudfoot says it’s vital that broadband speeds and quality are as good for people in the countryside as for those in the cities – and that means getting fibre to everyone, everywhere. But achieving that is going to require innovation and vision, from both the public and private sectors, he says.

Options might include putting fibre along electricity networks, using the sort of public-private models that are funding rural irrigation schemes, or even teaming up with international infrastructure partners, he says. What about working with an overseas forestry investment company which wants to use sensors to improve productivity in its own New Zealand operations?

With countries around the world looking at data collection and smart technology to improve their agricultural sector, New Zealand can't afford to fall behind.

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20 Q&A | Amy Adams

When will the UFB2 and RBI2 contracts be announced?We haven't made any statements about that and there are no dates set at this stage. It is being negotiated now and as soon as the contracts are completed we will make announcements.Obviously we are keen to move ahead as quickly as we can, but at the same time, I want to give Crown Fibre Holdings the maximum amount of flexibility in getting the best deal they can for taxpayers and for coverage. And of course we can’t finalise RBI2 contracts until we know where the fibre is going.

What do you say to people who say this needs to happen soon?The ultimate goal is to ensure as many New Zealanders have as good a quality of broadband as they can get. If I was to judge myself on the speed of contracting rather than the ultimate outcome I think I would have my priorities wrong. The most important thing is the net result that we get for the money I have been allocated in the budget.

How flexible are you in terms of delivery of RBI2? Might you use small, local telco players, councils, even foreign investors?The Government is absolutely open to a range of technology mixes and provision of services. In the five years between the contracting for RBI1 and contracting for RBI2 we have seen significant changes in available technology and the performance of that technology and we are certainly not committing ourselves to simply repeating the mix and structure under RBI1. We

AMY ADAMS, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS

The speed demonAmy Adams has been the Minister for Communications since 2011, a year after the UFB rollout started. Living on a farm in Canterbury, she knows the importance of a good internet connection for rural businesses.

The Government’s target is to deliver 50Mbps internet speeds to 99% of New Zealanders by 2025. Is that fast enough, soon enough?I am sure that if I was given enough money in the Budget I could get things done in a shorter period of time, but if the net effect of saving perhaps a year of build time is that a lot fewer people get high quality coverage then that is something we have to weigh up. And there is inevitably a trade-off between speed and price.

Can you imagine a time where the broadband experience would be the same whether you lived in a town or in the countryside?I don't think we will see fibre to every home in New Zealand at least in the foreseeable future, but that is not to say rural homes won't have a high quality of connectivity. But there is a big difference between someone in a small town outside the footprint of UFB, versus someone who's decided to live extremely remotely in the wilds of the Southern Alps. I live on a farm in a rural electorate, and I am very aware that when you live rurally, you don't expect to have, necessarily, the same things within easy reach as you do in the cities.

However, I want to see rural NZ connected and able to partake in the digital world. Although we have this incredibly difficult geographic population density when it comes to building a fixed line network, one of the real advantages that New Zealand has compared to places like Korea, Singapore or Japan is that we are incredibly rich in spectrum to support mobile-based solutions.

If you look at what you are able to do with fixed wireless or cellular connections today in terms of speed, plans, and data transfer compared to when we rolled out RBI1, there is light years difference, and we can only really speculate what 5G and future iterations will do.

The Government has targets of doubling exports and getting 50,000 young people working in the primary sector by 2025. Is that achievable without bringing the rural broadband targets forward?Those targets were set under other portfolios and ahead of the broadband targets, and the other Ministers are very confident of achieving them. Obviously we see improving broadband across the country as a significant enabler of economic growth, but the export and employment growth targets were certainly never conditional upon having broadband of 50Mbps.

Are you happy with that speed?In actual fact, 50Mbps by 2025 is right at the top end of what you are seeing around the world. For example, Canada set a target of 5Mbps, and they have just had to extend the timeframe because they couldn’t achieve this. The UK has set a target of 10Mbps, which they are still working on achieving. If we can get it sooner than 2025 that is fantastic and we have said publically that we want at least 80% of the public at speeds that are scaleable to a gig by 2022. We also know that at least 90% of the public will have 4G LTE [fourth generation high-speed mobile] services that will provide speeds of up to 100Mbps.

21

2016 / Issue 2

have already involved councils in terms of making sure there aren’t council compliance issues and asking them to identify blackspots and to show us their plan for using fast broadband for their communities. We can see a significant difference already across New Zealand between the councils and the regions that have a clear digital strategy and a plan for using that to advance the growth of their region and those that don't. The goal for me is the highest quality coverage, to the most people, for the money available, and whatever mix achieves that, I am open to.

What are your plans for encouraging people to use the broadband that’s available?We need to increase focus on that but it won't be led out of my portfolio. For example [Education Minister] Hekia Parata recently announced changes to the schools' curriculum to include digital technologies. And we have the National Health IT Board doing a lot of work around telehealth and e-health initiatives. [Small Business Minister] Craig Foss is doing a large piece of work around getting SMEs to think about fast broadband and understand its value. And because sometimes there is a reluctance to move online because of a fear around cybersecurity, we are working on a cybersecurity strategy.

But in many cases it’s about cultural and education: People don’t use it because until they use it they don’t know what benefit they will get from it. It was like my husband and mobile phones. He’s been a farmer for a long time,

and getting him to use a smartphone was a big challenge. Now that he has one, you couldn’t take it away from him – he realises he can run his business and talk to suppliers and fertiliser spreaders and whatever when he is out and about. Often until you embed technology in your life you can't imagine why you need it. You might think fast broadband is just about doing what you have always done a bit quicker, but it's really about rethinking how you operate.

Is there more money available for rural broadband than you have allocated so far?As you know, we only announce funding in formalised ways – we don't give out hints. At the moment we have allocated another $150 million for RBI2 and mobile blackspots, and $210 million for UFB. What further iterations might look like will be the result of future Budget processes. But I am encouraged by the fact that increasingly we are able to deliver more connectivity with the funds available than would have been envisaged earlier on. For example, when we set up RBI1 we aimed for peak speeds of not less than 5Mbps, but the movement in technologies over that time means actually the average peak speeds being delivered are around 15-40 Mbps. And that’s to 97.8 percent of New Zealand.

Does that not just increase the divide for the other 2.2%?Sometimes we forget that back in 2008, 80% of rural NZ was on 256 kilobit per second

speeds. We have improved broadband for the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders. And we have spent more per rural user than we have on their urban counterparts. Also, as a by-product of the programme, people have got enhanced mobile connectivity.

Where are you at with the Telecommunications Act review? The principal part of the review is around the pricing model. We have also highlighted the need to look at whether we have sufficient regulatory safeguards to protect competition in the mobile market, and whether we need regulation around the price of roaming services. I’m also interested in making sure we have a system where consumers can get effective redress when they don’t think they have received a good service from telcos, be they wholesale or retail. Separately, I have a raft of land access reforms going through the house at the moment to make sure that in situations where there are shared driveways or apartment buildings, for example, one curmudgeonly neighbour up a right of way can’t just decide no one’s going to get UFB because he’s decided he doesn’t want it.

Will that have any impact on rural broadband?It depends what you call rural. Is 30 houses and a pub rural or urban? Some of the towns which will get broadband under RBI2 will be quite small – maybe down to 300 people.

Tech check: Communications Minister Amy Adams looks at smart technology during an RBI completion event in Waipu, near Whangarei. With (above) Blackhawk Tracking Systems chair Keith Oliver and Vodafone CEO Russell Stanners, and (left) GPS-it founder Matt Flowerday.

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22 How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Rural business

The faces of modern farmingCanterbury high country farmers Dan and Mandy Shand need high speed broadband to run three export-focussed businesses, a sheep and beef farm – and two children!

IT WAS 2001 when Dan Shand got the call from his dad on the family’s North Canterbury hill station. “Did I want to give the farm a crack?” Dan was a graphic and web designer; his wife Mandy was a scuba diving instructor. They were both based in Sydney. But they decided, yes, they’d give it a shot.

The first task: diversification, in order to create some additional revenue to keep the farm viable. Shand’s parents kept working the cows, deer, sheep, and Dan and Mandy started building a three-night walking track through the beautiful Canterbury high country.

Building paths and accommodation was fine, but marketing the track using the farm’s dial-up internet connection proved a nightmare.

“People would send us a booking, but there was such a delay with the connection. Often we had to get up in the middle of the night to send emails to people. Updating the website was horrendous. I asked our service provider what to do about my speeds and he told me to get in the car, turn the radio onto the AM bandwidth between stations and drive up the road until I heard a strong clicking. Then go tell the farmer they needed to get a better earth on their electric fence. By the end of the trip I’d got at least 30

places where I heard clicks. I was facing talking to a whole lot of neighbours who didn’t care about my internet problems, and telling them to fix their electric fences.”

Running a successful international tourism business from Hurunui was looking unlikely.

But in 2005 the Shands’ luck changed. Dan heard that a local farmer/electrician, Chris Roberts, had set up Amuri.net, supplying internet connections using strategically-placed wireless towers, mostly powered by solar or wind. Shand was his sixth customer. And although speeds aren’t huge – on an average day they might get around 15Mbps down and 5-10Mbps up – that was enough to do what they needed.

“It was life changing for us. Finally I could start getting marketing traction and the business took off. We were doing 800-1000 people a year.”

Since then, the Shands have started a honey business, and taken over more of the operation of the livestock part of the farm. They employ four staff.

Shand says the internet powers every part of his business, from recruitment (using Skype interviews), to banking and business management apps, to Google Drive for all the

farm documents, and My Maps for plotting the farm. With no mobile phone coverage on the farm, Dan and Mandy use messaging to communicate with each other and with staff in the back paddocks.

More recently Shand has started a stock management software business, teaming up with partners and developers around the world. “Every morning at 6am I Skype with my business partner in Chicago. Then on Sunday night at midnight New Zealand time we have a Skype conference with the whole team – in Boston, Chicago, Lithuania, Thailand, Brisbane, and Hurunui. Our product’s been over two years in development and we are two months’ away from launch and getting a serious amount of interest. There is a lot of talk in the rural sector about value creation, but that will only happen with connectivity.”

Then there’s the human angle, Shand says. There used to be “FOMO” – the fear of missing out on what’s going on online, Shand says. These days there’s RuralFomo too – the fear of missing out on finding out what you are missing out on. Young people just need to be connected – period.

“My farm worker, Billy, he’s 23 and went to Lincoln. He’s single so he needs broadband to communicate with all his friends. No way would he have taken the job without it. And we have a lot of Wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms) helping us. They need to be connecting with the next place they are going to, making plans for the rest of their trip. None of them would come if we didn’t have good internet. And our children (10 and 7) they need it for homework and things like playing Minecraft with their friends. Our life is embedded in the internet, in a useful, healthy way.”

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23How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Emergency rescue

Taking rescue helicopters into the cloudAs more and more critical health and technical information is accessed via the internet, HeliOtago decided it needed a radical broadband transformation.

IF YOU’RE a pilot working for the Otago Rescue Helicopter, you’re kept very busy. Each year thehelicopter flies about 800 air ambulance missions (that averages more than two every day), covering an area that makes up 28% of New Zealand’s land mass and contains 6% of our population. The average mission setting off from the helicopter’s base at Taieri airfield, on the outskirts of Mosgiel, involves up to two hours in the air, flying over rugged but beautiful country, in what can be freezing conditions in winter.

But not so long ago, Graeme Gale faced a big problem. Gale is the chief pilot of the Otago Rescue Helicopter and managing director of Helicopters Otago, the commercial aviation business which operates the charitable trust-funded rescue helicopter. Increasingly, Gale found, the information his team needed to do their jobs was most easily found in the cloud or in digital form – for example electronic patient reports (ePRFs) of the people they were going to pick up, pilot flight and duty logs, and the aircraft daily log, including electronic customer details. Even the maintenance manuals required by the aviation engineers - all online.

Trouble was, HeliOtago had an ADSL connection, and whether it was pilots uploading flight logs, paramedics downloading patient info or engineers wanting wiring diagrams, tasks

came to a grinding halt. The revolving hourglass icon was an all-too-common sight on the team’s computer screens.

But the clincher for Gale to do something about his internet speeds was when he decided to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading the rescue helicopter to introduce the sophisticated equipment needed to fly missions when visibility was minimal. The “Instrument Flight Rules (IFR)” cockpit means pilots don’t need to be able to see outside the aircraft to figure out where they are going. Instead the instruments “see” the topography, and global navigation systems combine with air traffic route information, and details about weather conditions.

This innovation becomes crucial in “icing” conditions, when cloud cover is low. Helicopters can’t fly at higher altitudes in these conditions because of a risk of blades icing up. Gale reckoned the electronic cockpit would give the organisation “enhanced safety with extra capability”.

But the electronic cockpit upgrade meant exchanging large files between designers and engineers in Auckland and the installation team at Taieri. “They’d start downloading, go get a coffee, and come back and the download would still be grinding away,” Gale says. The company’s ADSL pipe just couldn’t cope and everyone felt more than a little frustrated.

Then Gale found out Ultra-Fast Broadband was running just a few hundred metres away from the base and he reached out to Chorus. A team installed fibre broadband in mid-May.

“When we first got it, everyone was saying it was the best thing to come to the hangar – ever. Now, the guys still think it’s great, but it has become the new normal for us. We went from a Model T to a supersonic jet. It has made that much of a difference.”

Electronic patient referral forms, flight logs, and those phone book sized maintenance manuals, can be accessed in split seconds rather than agonising and frustrating minutes, Gale says. Which means the pilots and engineers can get on with doing what they do best – rescuing people.

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24 How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Telehealth

It's hard to underestimate the value of a service like this to people

in rural areas.Ian Telfer, Telfer Builders

Virtual clinics save patients’ time Could 2016 be the year when telehealth finally comes of age in New Zealand?

MATAKANA ISLAND ISN’T exactly remote. Guarding the entrance to Tauranga Harbour, you could practically hit a cricket ball across to Mt Maunganui from the southeast corner.

But getting there is another thing. The island is accessible only by boat. There’s no shop, no pub, no doctor if one of the 250 or so inhabitants needs medical treatment, no pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Yet the mainly Māori population has high rates of health problems; blood pressure, asthma, allergies, diabetes, heart disease and arthritis are prevalent. In the past, a doctor came to the island once a fortnight, but that wasn’t cost-effective. So now a doctor comes every week – by video conference. Patients make an appointment at the community centre and 'see' a doctor on the mainland. A nurse is on site to help, and prescriptions are sent to the pharmacy at Omokoroa, and then brought to the island by ferry. If a patient needs to see a doctor in person, they have head into town. But for a regular check-up, it’s an in-out 10-minute job.

Similar telehealth clinics are appearing all around the country, allowing people in remote communities to access a doctor, or sometimes even a specialist, from the nearest medical centre.

But why not from home? These days anyone with a smartphone and a broadband connection can have a Skype conversation, so why would someone needing a routine check-up have to travel to get it, particularly if there’s no hands-on component? That idea is the starting point for New Zealand’s first “virtual health service”, launched in May by the Waikato District Health Board. Patients sign up with their local hospital, download the HealthTap app, and then if their doctor or specialist has registered with the system (and it’s appropriate for their particular

treatment) they can choose to have a video conference call or text chat from home or work, rather than travelling to hospital.

“Over 60% of people in the Waikato DHB district live in rural locations and all too often patients are travelling long distances for a short consultation,” says DHB CEO Dr Nigel Murray. “Offering patients the option of a virtual visit will help give everyone access to our services no matter who they are or where they live.”

One of the beauties of the system, says Darrin Hackett, executive director of virtual care and innovation for the DHB, is it's based on consumer-grade technologies – smartphones, tablets, laptops, plus the sort of clever health apps already being designed by scientists and technicians all around the world: bluetooth weight scales, oxygen and BP monitor apps, fitbits. Not only does this make virtual healthcare more affordable, but it also means in many cases people are using technology they are already familiar with.

The first clinicians to come on board were in dermatology, and already patients are reaping the benefits. Builder Ian Telfer used to have to travel two-and-a-half hours from Whitianga

to Hamilton four times a year for a specialist consultation about his itchy skin condition psoriasis. That was basically a whole day away from work for a 15-minute appointment. Now he sees his dermatologist via video conference.

“It’s hard to underestimate the value and importance of a service like this to people who live in remote areas,” Telfer says. “I sat down at home at the end of my working day and switched on the iPad and that’s how we did the consultation. It took no more than 20 minutes.”

Next up will be cardiology and renal specialists, Hackett says. One goal is to move 30% of hospital outpatients visits out to people’s homes or GP surgeries.

The potential benefits for patients who find it hard to get to appointments are obvious. But the service is also designed to meet NZ's looming demographic healthcare challenge.

“From around 2020, we have a scenario where there’s increasing demand, a significantly decreased workforce and more expensive treatments,” Telfer says. “We recognise we have a short window to make significant change, and part of that is moving services closer to home, and also giving people the tools to make good choices and become more engaged with their own care.”

The message from the Government is the same. Its 2016 Health Strategy involves five key themes for health delivery into the future: people powered; closer to home; value and high performance; one team; and smart system.

The potential is endless. Imagine renal patients on home dialysis with an iPad on the side of their machine so they can access information about their treatment and talk to a clinician if they are having trouble. Or someone who’s been injured talking to a district nurse, showing them the wound on the screen. How about cardiac rehabilitation being done at home by video conference? Or end-of-life care being provided in a patient’s own bedroom, rather than a hospital, but with frequent “visits” from a GP or specialist; all backed up by a 24/7 cover from a team in a regional emergency department?

2016 / Issue 2

25How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Plunket

Keeping Kiwi kids well in the cloudMOST PEOPLE’S MENTAL image of a rural Plunket nurse has a weighing scales and a Plunket book in it. But it probably doesn’t have a tablet and a smartphone. That’s all changed.

When Cynthia Keay heads off on home visits in her lower Northland patch, almost all her records are stored, not in paper files, but in the cloud. And when she does her Well Child checks on her babies and preschoolers, all her measurements and notes are added to the child’s electronic record (although they are still put in the Plunket book too!)

Cloud-based files mean Keay doesn’t have to make the 40-minute round trip from home in Taipuha every day to the regional centre in Paparoa to pick up details of the babies on her list. And once at a client’s house she’s got all the child’s details at her fingertips. Which is handy, since leaving something essential in the office might mean a two-hour drive to fetch it.

But it’s not just digital access to Plunket files which has revolutionised Keay’s role, she says. It’s access to the wider resources on the internet.

“I can show parents all sorts of websites that we can use to back up the information and education I am giving them. Most of my clients are accessing health and parenting information online themselves, but the resources they find aren’t always scientific or evidence-based. And it’s awesome to be able to introduce them to online groups they can connect to.” For example,

Plunket has local Facebook groups, and chat sessions on topics like sleeping and settling. Or Keay might show clients with maternal mental health concerns an app or site on postnatal depression like mothershelpers.co.nz.

“One thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes I would like to connect a family with another health agency or community group, or a budgeting or counselling service, and they might be reluctant. But if you say ‘I’ll show you this website and you have a look’, I find they are much more likely to be OK with the referral.”

A Plunket nurse showing up with a tablet or smartphone also changes a client’s perception of the service, Keay says. “We aren’t the archaic nurse with a pencil and paper, but more modern and up with the times. And that makes the interaction a bit more open. My clients are excited that Plunket is using technology to engage with them.”

Mobile broadband access also makes it possible to do an “opportunistic” Well Child check, Keay says – for example if she turns up at a home to see one baby, and another baby is there on a visit. That can save a future trip to the second family. And when new families move into the region, Keay can access their Well Child notes instantly, rather than waiting up to a month for paper files.

She estimates around 70% of her clients have some sort of access to mobile broadband. But while coverage has improved dramatically over recent months, “there are frustrating little black spots all over the show.”

In the future, parents will be able to access their child’s records through a patient portal, Plunket says, and one day Well Child records will be available to other health professionals.

“You will turn up at the hospital, and your Plunket record will go with you.”

Mental health (where hands-on treatment is often not needed) is another area where virtual care might make a significant difference, says Dr Jo Scott-Jones, an Opotiki GP and chair of the Rural Health Alliance. At the moment it’s difficult and expensive to provide high quality psychological services in rural areas, he says. However, there’s evidence from overseas that telehealth can make a big difference to outcomes for patients by allowing them to have far more regular contact with a clinician or counsellor.

Another health authority taking an innovative approach is Gore Health, which is trialling a range of mainly broadband-based healthcare technologies to connect rural patients with the care they need. CEO Karl Metzler has big plans for using telemedicine in the future.

“We are looking at setting up a digital follow-up fracture clinic. Let’s say there’s a guy with a broken leg. At the moment, four out of five

People powered

Mā te iwi hei kawe

Closer to home

Ka aro mai ki te kāinga

Smart system

He atamai te whakaraupapa

One team

Kotahi te tīma

Value and high

performance

Te whāinga hua me te tika o

ngā mahi

All New Zealanders

live wellstay wellget well

people with a return fracture appointment have to go to the fracture clinic in Invercargill - that’s a two-hour round trip for what might be a 10-minute appointment. The plan for telehealth is that a specialist in Invercargill would work with a medical officer in Gore to review the fracture over a monitor. No one has to travel; everyone is saved a huge amount of time and money.”

Another area with big potential is opthalmology, he says. There’s a real shortage of ophthalmologists in the southern DHB regions, meaning patients must travel to Dunedin.

“We have a very busy emergency department here – 6000 visits a year, and we have a lot of people with foreign bodies in their eyes. With cameras, eye imaging technology and a digital platform, specialists could assess the problem without the patients having to make the two-hours-each-way trip to Dunedin.”

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26

IMAGINE YOU ARE a year 13 student in a rural area, say Tapanui (between Dunedin and Invercargill) or Kaitaia in the Far North. You want to study accounting, or Samoan, or chemistry, but your school doesn’t have a teacher in those subjects. Correspondence School has always been an option, but increasingly now you will study in a normal class, only your teacher and fellow students will come from all over the country, and your lesson will be conducted via the internet.

Which sounds great, and is certainly a better option than not being able to take a subject you may need later on. But until recently, the reality of slow, unreliable broadband in most rural schools made these distance classes a bit hit-and-miss, says Mina Pomare-Peita, principal of Te Kura Taumata o Panguru, an 83-student, 100% Māori, year 1-13 school in Northland.

“With online learning, each video conference class is scheduled at a particular time each week. But our internet used to drop out all the time, and if it dropped out during that class, that was it for the week, and that was frustrating and not effective learning.”

Since her school got connected to high speed RBI fibre broadband via the N4L Managed Network (the NZ schools’ fast broadband programme) in May last year, however, the connection problems have disappeared, Pomare-Peita says, and the quality of video and audio during the lessons is far higher. “Now it’s like having the teacher right there, so attendance is better and buy-in from students is great.”

Online education: bringing big city choice to rural schools

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How broadband is transforming rural NZ | Online education

Carolyn Alexander-Bennett, e-Principal of online learning community FarNet, and an online NCEA level 3 accounting teacher, agrees. She says until the advent of N4L, the technology connecting teachers to their students all over the country was often clunky and unreliable.

For example, because internet speeds were slow, teachers couldn’t see all the students at the same time – only the one who was talking. Now it feels and looks more like a real classroom, Alexander-Bennett says. Second, there was a wide difference in sound and picture quality depending on where the students were and how good their connection to the network was. Sometimes the picture would flicker or pixelate irritatingly, or there would be an annoying time lag with the audio. Often teachers couldn’t use their computers to show content during the lesson because outdated equipment or slower speeds meant not all students could see it.

That’s all changed, and more and more students are opting for online learning to deliver the classes they want. This year, for example, Te Kura Taumata o Panguru offers mandarin for all year 9 and 10 students, plus NCEA level 2 maths, and level 3 biology, all delivered from teachers outside of their school. And remember the school has fewer than 90 students. Meanwhile, Panguru staff teach Introduction to Te Reo Maori and NCEA level 1-3 Māori classes for the wider cluster.

Increasingly, Alexander-Bennett says, online education doesn’t need a dedicated video

conferencing bridge. Instead students can just join a class via their own devices and free platforms like Google Hangouts and Zoom. That means in theory, students could be part of a lesson even if they were at home sick, away on holiday, or representing their school at a sports tournament.

The South Island online education joint cluster NetNZ has already moved to Google Hangouts, and this has given schools far more flexibility, says Jen Rodgers, principal of Cheviot Area School, 110km north of Christchurch.

“Online learning was becoming frustrating because the video conferencing bridge was getting cluttered and you couldn’t use the technology for two classes at the same time. Now we’ve got reliable broadband and all the classes are being run through Google Hangouts, so you can have multiple classes at the same time, and students can also “pop in” for a quick two-minute hangout with their teacher when it suits them. Often a face-to-face chat is really useful.”

Ease of access means online education is growing. There are now upwards of 160 New Zealand schools offering online courses - languages, sciences, business subjects and more. And there are more than 2000 students taking advantage of the online classes, normally when their school doesn’t offer a subject they want to do, because there are too few students to make up a class, or if they have a timetable clash.

“For example, a school in Katikati approached me recently because they want to get a Tongan and Samoan programme going for students who

2016 / Issue 2

27

want to keep up their indigenous language. So their students will join our programme from next term.”

The ubiquity of devices, even in lower decile schools, is playing a huge part in levelling the playing field between urban and rural schools, Pomare-Peita says. Every senior student at Panguru has a phone, which means they can share their work with their teachers, and access the internet from home, even if they don’t have an internet connection. And that means no excuses about their assignments.

“I say to them ‘Gone are the days when you think you can’t access your work from home. If I can use my thumb to write long emails at home, so can you.’”

Another huge advantage of working online through a document sharing platform like Google, rather than using pen and paper, is that teachers can give comment and learning support quietly and confidentially, says Rodgers. And that’s particularly important with students who struggle with learning.

“I’ll walk into an NCEA classroom and there are kids with their laptops open and they are learning on Google Docs, and the teachers are giving them feedback or feedforward individually and privately via comments and messaging. No one else can hear what’s being said.”

It’s the same at Panguru.“Students can share their work with me and

ask for feedback or feedforward. I’ll send them a message digitally and say ‘Can you just come into my office,’ and they’ll look over my shoulder while I go through their writing,” says Pomare-Peita.

Has it made a difference to student achievement? Absolutely, she says.

“If you could see what I see; where the lights go on, and children see themselves as independent learners because they have built capacity as digital learners. It’s so satisfying. When I see the results for Māori boys, I know what success looks like. You can see it in their eyes when they can share work and ask for feedback... It’s a huge achievement.”

21st century learning: (From top left, clockwise) Mina Pomare-Peita, principal, Te Kura, Taumata o Panguru; Remarkables Primary School; Jen Rodgers, principal, Cheviot Area School; Aoraki/Mt Cook School; Northland principals gather at Panguru to discuss using digital technology.

MASTERING THE EDU-JARGON E-LEARNING Using internet-based resources in the classroom.

ONLINE LEARNING Classes made up of students from different schools taught by one teacher via the internet.

NET CLUSTER When schools join together to offer online learning. Mostly each school offers one teacher/subject and in exchange their students get to attend any classes offered by the other schools in the cluster.

N4L (Network for Learning) The Government’s $211 million managed network programme to connect every state and state-integrated school in the country to fast broadband. More than 766,000 students and teachers (96% of eligible schools) are using the network.

RSBI (Rural Schools Broadband Initiative) The Government's UFB and RBI initiatives cover 97% of the country's schools and 99.7% of NZ students. RSBI uses point-to-point wireless or satellite to get 10Mbps (or faster) broadband to the remaining schools.

thedownload.co.nz

28 Opinion | Move fast and break things

Face the fear or face the consequencesConnectivity is changing the world of business and no sector is immune to ‘the great disruption’. So, says Frances Valintine, founder of Tech Futures Lab, you’d better get moving if you want to stick around.

AT THE RISK of sounding like a soap box preacher, I am nervous.

This isn’t the excited type of nervousness you feel as you try something for the first time. This is a deep-set, pit of the stomach nervousness that comes with the realisation that New Zealand businesses are continuing to operate like it is 2010.

This is the era of exponential technologies where winner takes all. Fast followers lose and data is king. This is the year of automation, the development of intangible assets, machine learning and cybersecurity.

While a continued and absolute focus on the financial return to shareholders may feel like a responsible approach, you are playing with fire. A lack of business commitment to continued progress will soon become the riskiest endeavour imaginable. There will be no chance of a replay and no opportunity to be a successful late entrant. While you sit at your board table arguing the virtues of your new CRM system and the success of your social media channel, an entire industry of fast-moving, highly agile start-ups are moving rapidly into your domain.

These are not start-ups in the traditional sense. These are not teams of inexperienced entrepreneurs, but rather deliberately curated teams of experts headed by proven leaders who have their eyes on a new prize.

The ‘prize’ these new disruptive leaders seek is easy to find. What they want to do is take away business from the legacy companies who continue to trade on ‘what was’, and who see the future as a reflection of the past.

These new business disruptors are stealth operators who launch and thrive in any sector – from professional services to infrastructure, retail to education. These disruptors are superbly skilled at gaining advantage by stripping away the constraints of infrastructure, dated assets and legacy thinking.

The leaders in these new exponential businesses build all companies as though they are software companies. They use online platforms to connect customers to services and products are connected end-to-end via distributed digital channels.

They invest in automation, in data analytics and highly-skilled staff. They are free from the

burden of tradition and the weight of stagnant or redundant skills. They are well resourced, have progressive boards, and they play the first mover card in every situation.

While we sit in this fine land of Aotearoa, these disruptors know no boundaries. They will find refuge, customers and love in any global location. They will be flexible, affordable and adaptable. While you fire up your database, your clients will already have jumped ship to the challenger and left you in the dust.

Wake up New Zealand. There is little to see while you keep your head in the sand. There is no prize for being the fastest to fall or the easiest to topple. As stated by the NZ Institute of Economic Research, nearly half of the jobs in New Zealand are at high risk of automation. Why are we pretending it will affect everyone else but not us?

Even organisations associated with technology are peddling fast against progress. As an example, the value of mobile messaging app Whatsapp per employee at the time of its sale to Facebook in 2014 was $345.5 million. Compare that to tried and tested international telco Vodafone and you get just $1.4 million per employee, according to Gartner.

Timing is everything in this fast moving world. The average lifespan of a company on today’s S&P index is just 15 years. It wasn’t that long ago that companies were around for decades.

While the scale and rate of progress may all feel overwhelming, there is no argument left that justifies ‘fear of failure’ as a just reason for sitting still.

If we are bold, innovative and responsive we can be a remarkable country of progressive global contributors and creators who lead on the world stage. We can contribute to and build a robust economy that provides the very best options for the future.

Make today the day that you sit down with your team to develop a growth mind-set, freed from the burden of risk and the past.

Make today the day when you reward and encourage innovative thinking and the adoption of new technologies that increase productivity and provide a competitive edge.

Make today the first step of your tomorrow business. Your future you and your employees will thank you for facing the fear.

Frances Valintine is founder and chairperson of The Mind Lab by Unitec, a public-private partnership which aims to educate children and teachers about digital technologies. In January 2016 she founded Tech Futures Lab, a technology education programme aimed at business leaders.

2016 / Issue 2

29/rant | Worst Business Decision Ever?IL

LUST

RAT

ION

WA

DE

WU

The pipes, the pipes are callingAs the old phrase goes, if you can’t beat ’em, sell ’em high-speed internet access. And that’s what Fairfax Media has decided to do, announcing the launch of a retail service provider called Stuff Fibre. So are the naysayers right when they say you can’t make money from broadband? Or does this move show that the system is working?

IN THE SPACE of a few days Fairfax Media found itself in court with Sky over fair use rights for the Olympics, and its parents over the ditch announced a loss of almost $1 billion and said it was likely to reduce the print editions of The Sydney Morning Herald and other Aussie papers. Meanwhile, the Commerce Commission is still brooding on the implications of the proposed merger with NZME here in New Zealand.

Not a lot on there then. So why not mix it up a bit by starting up a fibre-

only retail service provider too? And so on a frosty Tuesday morning, Fairfax Media announced the launch of Stuff Fibre to an equally frosty reception from many in the telco industry.

The usual suspects jumped on Twitter to decry the obvious insanity of such a move, and you might be forgiven for thinking that Fairfax had made

the Worst Business Decision Ever. But scratch the surface and it doesn’t look quite so barking.

For a start, Stuff Fibre is a joint venture, with some serious telco knowledge being brought to the table by a team of ex-Vodafone folk. You’d have to assume they would have some sense of the economics and technology involved with running an RSP and still think they can turn a buck.

Then there’s the fact that content and connectivity is consolidating all over the place – the potential Voda-Sky behemoth being the prime example here in New Zealand. But it’s hardly a new model, as cable TV providers the world over will tell you. Or Spark, with Lightbox, for that matter.

Then there’s the issue of ease of entry, a sign that the wholesale broadband market is working properly. If new entrants from adjacent

industries, such as Trustpower and Stuff Fibre, are joining international RSPs like MyRepublic in starting RSPs in New Zealand, it probably says there’s money to be made from the right business model and the barriers to entry aren’t what they used to be. And, just maybe, the right business model doesn’t have all the legacy cost structures of a traditional telco.

We are all searching for the right evolution to stay relevant and profitable. Simon Tong, CEO of Fairfax, describes Stuff Fibre as an option play – in essence, let’s give it a shot and if it flies we pat ourselves on the back, and if it dies we kill it quickly.

Fairfax is hardly alone in giving new things a shot as revenue from its traditional sources – advertising and subscriptions – dwindles. So maybe we should applaud the move, or at least see how things play out before declaring it the Worst Business Decision Ever.

Ever feel the need to have a bit of a rant about something that’s going on in our industry? Now’s your chance – every issue, The Download will turn over a page to an anonymous ranter to let us all know what’s on his or her mind. Think that could be you? Drop us a line at steve.pettigrew@chorus.co.nz. The only rules are: You can’t write about your own organisation; you can’t be named; the language has to be suitable for prime time; nothing defamatory and nothing personal. Otherwise, rant away.

thedownload.co.nz

30 The Benchmark | Numbers, facts and metrics

WHAT KIND OF FAST BROADBAND IS GOING TO WORK FOR ME?

Fixed

WHERE CAN I GO FOR INFORMATION ON BROADBAND PERFORMANCE?

Chorus broadband checker

www.chorus.co.nz/ broadband-checker

Check to find out if you could be on better broadband.

National Broadband Map

broadbandmap.nz

Broadband coverage and networks across NZ using data from network operators.

Glimp

www.glimp.co.nz

An independent site that compares broadband options based on some simple questions about where you live and how you use broadband.

Truenet

truenet.nz

Comcom-funded independent company providing measurement and reporting of broadband performance from a nationwide panel (see page 29).

FTTH: Fibre to the home

Fibre allows you to do more online in less time with minimal or no disruptions. Fibre transports huge amounts of data at speeds not seen in any other broadband connection type. Fibre performance doesn’t degrade over distance, so your broadband speed is consistent no matter how near or far your home or business is from the exchange or cabinet. Plans up to 1 gigabit (Gbps) are available.

VDSL: Very high bitrate digital subscriber line

VDSL is the best broadband service available on the copper network. It significantly improves broadband speed over short distances. To get the best from VDSL2 you need to live or work 1km or less from the cabinet or exchange housing the electronics. About 80 percent of Chorus’ lines are within reach of VDSL with sustained speeds of up to 70Mbps possible.

ADSL: Asymmetric digital subscriber line 2

ADSL2 is also a copper broadband technology. It delivers faster speeds that ADSL1 for distances up to 2km but its performance can be influenced by a number of factors like how far away you are from the cabinet, the devices you are using, the quality and age of your modem and your home wiring. Sustained speeds of up to 24Mbps are possible.

HFC: hybrid fibre co-axial

Vodafone’s cable broadband network is available in Wellington, Christchurch and the Kapiti Coast. Hybrid fibre coaxial uses a combination of optical fibre to a cabinet and coaxial cable to the home to deliver broadband services. Plans up to 100Mbps are available.

KEY: $: price range around $49/month; $$: $80-$100/month; $$$: $100-$200/month; Mbps: megabits per second; Consistent: consistent experience regardless of time of day or number of users

FIBRE CABLE VDSL ADSL2

CONSISTENCY

CAPACITY

COST

RETAILERS

COVERAGE

80+ Vodafone 80+ 80+

75% by 2020 (urban) Wgtn & Chch (urban) 80% urban & rural 98% urban & rural

Uncapped/Capped

$

Uncapped/Capped

$

Uncapped/Capped

$

Uncapped/Capped

$

CONSISTENT CONSISTENT CONSISTENT CONSISTENT

PEAK SPEED

2016 / Issue 2

31

WHAT KIND OF FAST BROADBAND IS GOING TO WORK FOR ME?

Wireless

WHERE CAN I GO FOR INFORMATION ON BROADBAND PERFORMANCE?

Broadband Compare

www.broadbandcompare.co.nz

The new kid on the block, comparing broadband plans from 71 ISPs.

ISP Spotlight

internetnz.nz/ispreview

InternetNZ service compares ISPs on criteria like billing info, filtering, back-end technology and what they tell the Government about you.

Ookla

www.speedtest.net/

US-based Ookla runs more than 5m broadband download speed tests a day worldwide, but takes the top 10% of results (not the average of all tests).

Retail Service Providers: Spark, Vodafone, 2Degrees

The major players’ websites have price information and options to check what broadband you can access.

ADSL: Asymmetric digital subscriber line

ADSL is the most basic broadband connection available on the copper network. It delivers around 2Mbps (but up to 8Mbps) for distances up to 6km from the local cabinet. ADSL is mostly found in smaller rural communities where new cabinets are yet to be installed.

Mobile broadband: broadband through 3G or 4G network

Mobile broadband uses wireless cellular networks to provide broadband connections suitable for mobile access. The technologies in use today fall into two categories - 3G (third generation – slower) and 4G (fourth generation – faster). Mobile broadband can be used in the home using a modem with a 3G or 4G SIM card.

Satellite

Satellite broadband is a form of high-speed Internet service that telecommunications satellites in Earth orbit to provide Internet access to customers. Typically covering areas where fibre, copper or cable is unavailable. Long delays required to transmit data between the satellite and the ground stations tend to cause a sluggish performance experience.

FWA: Fixed wireless access

Fixed wireless broadband is a type of high-speed Internet access where the connection to the service provider uses radio signals rather than cables. Services typically require line-of-sight between the customer and the ground station and is tied to one physical access point – roaming is not available.

Variable: service varies by technology depending on a range of factors; Uncapped: no limit on data used; Capped: services will slow connection if cap reached or require fees for further data use.

ADSL FIXED WIRELESS MOBILE BROADBAND SATELLITE

CONSISTENCY

CAPACITY

COST

RETAILERS

COVERAGE

5+80+ 30+ Spark, Vodafone, 2degrees

Almost 100% urban & rural98% urban & rural Specific locations 98% urban & rural

Capped

$$$

Uncapped/Capped Capped Capped

$ $$ $$

VARIABLE CONSISTENT VARIABLE VARIABLE

PEAK SPEED

thedownload.co.nz

32 The Benchmark | Numbers, facts and metrics

TOP 20 SPEEDSTERS: WHO'S GETTING THE FASTEST BROADBAND IN NZBroadband speeds have rocketed ahead in the last 18 months, with every region in the country experiencing double-digit growth in average connection speeds between January 2015 and June 2016.

PORIRUA, ROTORUA, AUCKLAND CITY AND PALMERSTON NORTHsaw broadband speeds increase by

80% or more.

TOP SPEED

DUNEDIN has seen average broadband speeds increase

255% AFTER WINNING THE CHORUS GIGATOWN COMPETITION IN NOVEMBER 2014

The average connection speed in Dunedin is now

151MBPSfour times higher than the next fastest region, Auckland’s North Shore, at 36Mbps.

Connection speed Jan-15 Connection speed Jun-16 % change

DUNEDIN

PORIRUA

NORTH SHORE

ROTORUA

AUCKLAND CITY

PALMERSTON NTH

WAITAKI

MARLBOROUGH

MASTERTON

TAUPO

TIMARU

ASHBURTON

PAPAKURA

LOWER HUTT

WELLINGTON

FRANKLIN

NELSON

MANUKAU

NAPIER

WAITAKERE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Dunedin has experienced a massive increase since November 2014

% CHANGE IN CONNECTION SPEED JAN 2015 TO JUN 2016

CONNECTION SPEED (MBPS)

15015

40%30%

10

20%

20 25

60% 70% 90%50%

30 35

80%

40

100%

45

300%

Households and businesses in Auckland’s Manukau region have the

HIGHEST MONTHLY AVERAGE DATA USAGE in the country –

155GB13 regions use more than 100GB a month on average

Marlborough experienced the highest growth in data usage in the country, up

169% between Jan 2015 and Jun 2016.

Next up are MASTERTON 144% WAITAKI 137% DUNEDIN 130% ROTORUA 129%

Half of all districts saw data usage at least

DOUBLE

OUR INSATIABLE DESIRE FOR DATANew Zealanders are using more than double the amount of data they used at the beginning of 2015. In some regions, the average growth for households and businesses is well over 100%.

2016 / Issue 2

MARLBOROUGH

169%

INVERCARGILL

126%

DUNEDIN

130%

TIMARU

128%

ROTORUA

129%

NAPIER

125%

HASTINGS

119%

TAUPO

123%

NELSON

121%

MASTERTON

144%

UPPER HUTT

112%

P. NORTH

122%

HOROWHENUA

115%

TASMAN

114%

LOWER HUTT

118%

PORIRUA

116%

WAITAKERE

113%

PAPAKURA

118%

FRANKLIN

122%

JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERGChorus is forecasting average monthly household data usage on its network will hit 170GB by June 2017.

That’s up from just over 100GB in June 2016, an increase of 64%

WAITAKI

137%

Average monthly data use per

connection in JANUARY 2015

KEY

Average monthly data use per

connection in JUNE 2016

G I G A B Y T E SG I G A B Y T E S

getbetterbroadband.co.nz