High-Speed Broadband Access - Vision

Wellington City Council has adopted a vision to promote development of high-speed broadband internet access throughout the city. It is working towards achieving this vision by 2012.

Vision Statement

Aerial view of Courtenay Place

The Council’s vision statement says:

“By 2012, all of Wellington city will have affordable access to an interactive and open broadband network capable of supporting applications and services using integrated layers of voice, video and data, with sufficient two-way capacity in the city, and out to the world, to meet the ongoing information and communications needs of the city’s residents, businesses, investors and institutions.”

Key Components

Lambton Quay shoppers

Key components of the vision are:

• speed combined with affordability, allowing economic and social development
• high level coverage providing customers with the service required
• open access for private providers, regulated according to market power
• cost recovery or cost-plus-margin basis for public sector providers

• achieving the vision by 2012
• symmetrical upload and download capacity for interactive use
• direct connection and data exchange between networks.

Guiding Principles

Since March 2007, the Council has been investigating how to achieve the broadband vision.

Five guiding principles will determine the Council’s role in achieving this vision:

• to intervene in the broadband market to the least extent necessary
• to focus on initiatives and policy changes
• to encourage services rather than infrastructure competition
• to leverage ownership and management of Council assets
• to leverage existing Council expertise and experience in managing Rights of Way (RoW) and infrastructure networks.

More Information

Nicola Old
Project Coordinator

Related Links

• Annual Plan 2007/08
• Enabling Economic Transformation Through Broadband report (124Kb PDF)
• Information & Communications Technology Policy
• News Release - 1 March 2007

Department Details:
Strategy