Dunedin Gigatown opportunities 'squandered'

Dunedin's Gigatown victory is set to save the city $15 million, but an independent review has found some opportunities were squandered.

The findings came as a staff report presented to this week’s Dunedin City Council economic development committee meeting reviewed GigCity activities since 2015.

Dunedin was announced as the winner of Chorus’ Gigatown competition in November 2014, granting it an accelerated fibre roll-out, subsidised gig-speed pricing and community funding.

Enterprise Dunedin economic development programme manager Fraser Liggett, in a report to this week’s meeting, said Chorus estimated subsidised gig-speed internet by itself had saved Dunedin consumers nearly $9 million so far.

By next June, when Chorus’ subsidised pricing was now due to expire, the figure was expected to be more than $15 million, he said.

There had been other benefits, too, including the distribution of $2.5 million in GigCity-related activities since 2015.

That included a $200,000 Gig Start Fund, which supported 11 start-up companies, and a $500,000 Gig Community Fund, distributed to 23 organisations.

A network of 15 gig-speed Wi-Fi hot spots had also been rolled out across the city, and the GigCity living hub had been launched inside the Dunedin City Library.

In August 2017, the Digital Community Trust also commissioned consultants MartinJenkins to carry out an independent review of GigCity activities.

The final report underscored the economic benefits and the "national and international recognition" for Dunedin following the win.But the report also noted stakeholders’ concerns, including that the focus of efforts had been on winning the competition rather than on what would come next.

"In some cases there was a perception that more could have been done to take advantage of opportunities set out in the plan."

There was a "general view" that progress had been slower than expected, but also that expectations were "probably too high".

There was also concern at a lack of "strong leadership" within the DCC, coupled with a lack of funding, resource and collaboration, as well as concerns about the role of the Dunedin Digital Trust.

The report made a series of recommendations, including that the council take the lead in adopting smart technologies, to encourage the same culture across the rest of the city.

Mr Liggett’s report also noted the Digital Community Trust had, in September, decided to disestablish.

Cr Andrew Whiley, a trust member, said the candid report by MartinJenkins covered matters "warts and all", and "definitely shows we didn’t get everything right".

"But I tell you what — we got a lot right."

Cr Christine Garey said the benefits were wide-ranging and had been noticed overseas, including in Bendigo, Australia, which sent a delegation to Dunedin after the city’s GigCity story featured in Australian media.

"We are leaders and we are doing some really exciting things here."

But there were still concerns to be tackled in GigCity, including issues of data security and privacy in the age of big data, Cr Aaron Hawkins believed.

Deputy mayor Chris Staynes agreed, but said the city still needed to take advantage of its position before gig-speed fibre spread around the country.

At the moment, Dunedin was among just a handful of cities worldwide with gig-speed free public Wi-Fi, he said.

"We are in a pretty amazing position ... it’s a significant advantage for us over the next couple of years," he said.

chris.morris@odt.co.nz