The Government says $300 million needs to be spent getting rural New Zealanders connected.
It wants 25% of those living in rural areas to have access to broadband soon, Communications Minister Steven Joyce announced today.
He said the $300m would be a "mix of public and private funding" and the Government was expected to announce how much it would spend next week.
Mr Joyce said no private partners had been approached yet.
Many rural households were coping with dial-up speeds which was "not good enough in the 21st century", he said.
Over 80% of rural households should have broadband access of at least five megabytes per second (Mbps) and the remainder at speeds of at least 1Mbps within six years, Mr Joyce said.
Ninety-three percent of schools will receive fibre, enabling speeds of at least 100Mbps and the remaining will have at least 10Mbps.
"Providing fibre to the vast majority of rural schools will effectively deliver the capacity to provide faster broadband to the communities they serve.
"Enabling rural cell phone towers to be connected to fibre will also improve mobile phone services in rural areas."
The Government was working "with urgency" to deliver higher speeds in rural areas, he said.
Internet NZ spokesman Jordan Carter said today's announcement filled a "worrying gap".
"New Zealanders' reliance on dial-up has been an embarrassing component in international comparisons of internet access and had limited the economic and social development options."
However, further details on the initiative were needed, Mr Carter said.
The rural announcement follows the Government's $1.5 billion ultra-fast broadband investment initiative announced earlier this year.
Using public-private partnerships the government wants to deliver ultra-fast broadband to 75% of New Zealanders within 10 years.
That 75% was based in the 25 biggest cities and towns.
