Plans for a new ultra high-speed fibre broadband network straddling Otago and Southland, costing tens of millions of dollars, have been unveiled.
The network would provide the physical infrastructure allowing rapid speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) for 150,000 people from Bluff to Wanaka, including Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown.
The project would be developed by Aurora Energy Ltd - a Dunedin City Council-owned company - as part of a consortium also including Southland companies Electricity Invercargill and The Power Company.
However, the exact scale and timeline depends on the success of a bid by the consortium for part of the Government's $1.5 billion ultra fast broadband (UFB) investment initiative.
One Dunedin technology company has already questioned the plan, telling the Otago Daily Times the hurdle they faced was not high-speed regional connectivity, but a "bottleneck" restricting connections between New Zealand and overseas clients.
Details of the consortium's plans for Otago and Southland were confirmed yesterday in a press release by Aurora chief executive Grady Cameron, of Dunedin.
Contacted by the ODT, he said a bid would be placed in time to meet the Government's January 29 deadline.
The aim was to deliver efficient fibre broadband internet infrastructure, helping boost economic growth, across Otago and Southland, he said.
The new network would take advantage of the consortium's existing network of electricity lines across both regions, with a "significant" proportion of the fibre to be installed above-ground, he said.
The network would provide the physical infrastructure and open access to anyone wanting to use it, including internet service providers and others.
A commercial fee - yet to be determined - would be paid to the consortium.
Customers should benefit from a cheaper, faster and less restricted service, he said.
"Fundamentally, there should be significant benefits and huge efficiencies," he said.
The new network would be an extension of the trial high-speed fibre network operated in central Dunedin by Aurora, trading as Flute, Mr Cameron said.
The Government would consider rival bids and select preferred partners to work with the introduction of ultra high-speed broadband across the country, subject to further negotiations, he said.
The Government wanted to promote the introduction of ultra fast broadband to 75% of New Zealanders over the next decade, with funding based on shared investment, Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce said late last year.
However, Mr Cameron said the Otago-Southland consortium hoped to obtain 100% funding for its network from the Government.
The exact scale and cost of the network would depend on the Government's contribution, which it was hoped would be "in the tens of millions" of dollars, he said.
"What we are hoping is the Government is going to fund it all. Time will tell. We have got a significant process to go through and obviously it's not just us that wants that. So does everyone else across the country," he said.
Areo chief executive Luke Reid, of Dunedin, said he supported the consortium's plans, but cautioned the problem faced by some businesses - including his own - was not connection speeds within the region.
Rather, it was limited capacity on international cables linking New Zealand to the rest of the world, he said.
"The problem is that we're physically isolated from the rest of the world, and the international network links we have now are a bottleneck. So getting a fast local connection is like putting F1 tyres on a Morris Minor and expecting it to go 300kmh."
Mr Cameron would only say he was aware of the issue, and agreed it was one that "needs to be addressed".
He said the "major competition" to the consortium's bid was expected to come in the form of a national bid from Telecom.
The consortium expected to know if its bid was successful by the end of the year, he said.
