Party leader John Key yesterday promised a taxpayer investment of $1.5 billion over six years in high-speed Internet technology if National wins this year's election.
Within a year of taking office, Mr Key would convene negotiations with telecommunication companies to thrash out their role in contributing the remainder of the estimated $4 billion it would cost to meet National's broadband target.
National wants to see the copper wire network upgraded to a fibre cable network. That shift would greatly improve upload and download times, with Mr Key predicting economic benefits of between $2.7 billion and $4.4 billion a year.
‘‘New Zealand has already fallen behind our global competitors when it comes to broadband,'' Mr Key said.
‘‘We've delayed the big decisions and put off investment for long enough. Every year that goes by with us languishing behind other countries is another year of missed opportunities.''
Mr Key said broadband was as important to New Zealand's economy as roads and railways - infrastructure areas the Government already invested billions of dollars in.
His deputy, Bill English, has previously downplayed the need for public money to be spent on broadband, but yesterday Mr Key said better Internet access has passed the ‘‘national interest'' test.
‘‘If it were left solely to the market we would be extremely surprised if fibre to home is rolled out any time in the foreseeable future. That's because the business case for it initially probably wouldn't support the investment but over the medium term it will make a tremendous difference for the New Zealand economy,'' Mr Key said.
Communications Minister David Cunliffe said National's plan would cement Telecom in as the dominant fibre network provider. The party's plan amounted to a state subsidy for a monopoly firm, Telecom, Mr Cunliffe said.
‘‘The only logical bill partner is the incumbent, Telecom. The Crown will need to get a return on that capital and it will also be the case that Telecom will want to get a return.
‘‘That means that they will have to sell access to the network that they alone control, and it is the terms of that access that will be difficult for the rest of the market to believe will be truly competitive.''
Mr Cunliffe said Labour's policy would be unveiled in due course.
Telecommunications companies said regardless of which party was in power after the election, faster broadband was in the best interests of New Zealand.
Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said the company thought Mr Key's idea was worthy of further exploration, and that the company had talked about possible public-private sector partnership in the area for some time.
‘‘If this proposal is a way of putting some more money in the pot overall and helping to extend things further in more innovative ways, we are happy to look at some of the potential there.''
Telecom has already made a substantial investment in faster Internet, and has a four year $1.4 billion ‘‘cabinetisation'' programme under way.
Vodafone corporate affairs general manager Tom Chignell said all companies subscribed to a vision of broadband driving economic growth, and his firm would support moves towards that by whatever government was in place.
‘‘We are certainly of the view that fibre has a big role to play in that future, but we also believe mobile technologies do too, so we see fibre and wireless being the enduring technologies going forward.''
However, consumer demand would need to be high for Mr Key's plan to succeed, Mr Chignell said.
‘‘If enough people aren't going to take it up, it's going to be difficult for anybody really, be it other parties or the government, to make business sense of this.''
