Rural areas ‘a cellular sinkhole’
Rural Marlborough businesses are becoming increasingly anxious over the lack of broadband and cellphone connectivity.
Winemaker Ruud Maasdam, who lived in the Waihopai Valley, said the area was a ‘‘cellular sinkhole.’’
Maasdam said the lack of a reliable fast broadband connection in the Waihopai Valley prevented him from communicating with European clients late at night.
He had installed two satellite dishes to feed off Farmside internet provider but was still subject to slow delivery and limited data if he wanted to skype.
The connectivity rate is between 4-5 megabytes per second, he said.
‘‘As a Marlborough winemaker with a story to tell to the rest of the world, we need better connectivity than what we have.
‘‘The further you go from the Blenheim urban area, the harder it is to tell our story to the marketplace.’’
Fast broadband connectivity and cellular coverage was essential to get the rural economy in the region ‘‘firing’’, he said.
There are also health and safety issues involved. ‘‘If we have a staff member injure themselves in a remote location, we cannot afford the delays from being contacted to getting emergency services to them.
‘‘We urgently need the infrastructure in the ground to a provide us with a good data pan to be able to run our businesses.
Awatere Valley farmer/ vineyard owner David Turnbull said similar issues occurred the further distance away from State Highway One.
‘‘The cellphone coverage was good nine kilometres from the highway on Marama Road, but go a further five kilometres or more and it is dead,’’ he said.
Turnbull had installed a landline at a vineyard because of the lack of cellphone coverage, and subscribed to internet providers Farmside and Dashnet to retain connection through radio link at the vineyard and farmhouse.
‘‘A lot of work such as frost protection depended on weather and climate readings which we are not able to access on as mobile out in the vineyard,’’ he said.
‘‘There is no fibre optic cable for fast broadband installed on Marama Road which is disappointing.
‘‘There are large businesses in the valley from vineyards to cropping which rely on a good internet connection but no one wants to listen to us.’’
Chorus spokesman Nathan Beaumont said recent rural broadband upgrades to Waihopai Valley had improved connectivity speed to residents from 1-5 megabytes per second up to 20Mbps depending on the distance from the cabinets.
‘‘This is the fastest service over Chorus’ existing copper network,’’ he said.
There were more upgrades planned to cabinets in Waihopai Valley between January and March 2016 but at this stage Awatere Valley was not included in the company’s RBI (rural broadband initiative) plans, he said.
‘‘Before the cabinet upgrades, residents and businesses in these areas could generally only access broadband speeds of between 1 and 5Mbps,’’ Beaumont said.
‘‘However, during peak times, those speeds would likely slow considerably.’’
Vodafone were regularly reviewing network plans but were not planning any new rural broadband sites in the Awatere Valley, a spokeswoman said.
‘‘There could be an opportunity for improved coverage in the area under the next Rural Broadband Initiative 2 programme,’’ she said.
Marlborough District Council support services manager Dean Heiford said it was not known yet how much the region would receive from the Government’s $350 million funding by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to improve the rural broadband service.
The funding included $220m to extend ultrafast broadband, $100m for rural broadband, and $50m to improve cellphone ‘black spots.’
Given the size of the Marlborough population compared to the rest of the country, the region could receive up to 1 per cent of the total funding.
A MDCsurvey earlier in the year answered by 1000 respondents identified 500 residents with very poor to poor broadband connection, and 750 with cellphone black spots.