Comments on: Digital Dividend Discussion Submission

By: John Allen

John Allen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:44:04 +0000

Hi Jon,

Yes I studied your August post when developing my thinking on this issue, which for me is about ensuring that rural people get the best broadband services possible. For most rural people, the RBI will not deliver on this.

The 700MHz band is the best solution to improving rural broadband to near-urban capabilities not because it is the best technically, but simply because it is being repurposed now. Now is the opportunity for the MED to do the right thing for rural people, households and businesses.

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By: jonbrewer

jonbrewer — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:47:26 +0000

In reply to John Allen.

Hi John,

In a blog post in August I discussed alternatives to 700MHz which may be better suited to rural broadband. In particular, I think that the VHF digital dividend block is likely to be better suited, but look at the spectrum chart at the bottom – it identifies just how much spectrum there is – most of it unused.

Regards,

Jon

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By: John Allen

John Allen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:21:25 +0000

Like the RBI outcome, the MED’s preferred means of allocating the 700MHz spectrum to incumbent duopolies is short-sighted and detrimental to rural communities. An alternative, proposed at http://www.ruralconnect.org.nz/, is to dedicate the 700MHz band to fixed rural broadband use and allocate it to an infrastructure provider, similar in principle to the UFB approach, to enable open-access WttH services at a speed that will get closer to urban fibre speeds.

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