Mapping Broadband - an Investment Superhighway

Date: 12 January 2009

The State Service Commission's National Broadband Map is being used by central government, local government and the business community as a resource for broadband planning and investment. Users can zoom in and out around the country and check out whether a suburb or town has got access to broadband - and what type of connection is available.

This transparency of broadband demand is necessary to provide a basis for the assessment of commercially sound and sustainable high-speed broadband infrastructure investment. By using the map to identify areas where better broadband network infrastructure would be beneficial, particular regions or sectors can pool their demand to create stronger business cases for such a service. This is called demand aggregation and can result in greater benefits than if users enter into individual contracts.

Demand aggregation provides potential investors with greater certainty when assessing an opportunity and thereby also encourages competition. The ability to visualise regional demand for services like broadband and then present this as an investment opportunity highlights an important economic use of geospatial information.

In November Telecom followed the likes of Telstra and Vector and added information about its fibre optic networks to the developing map - much to the interest of Telecom's rivals and curious punters in the street. Telecom's move signals a shift in attitude towards making data freely available via the web. Agencies are beginning to recognise the value of making publicly available government data accessible to everyone - allowing other's to use and add value to the data (see Lawrence Millar's (New Zealand Government's Chief Information Officer, State Services Commission) comments).

Users can either visualise the information through the standard Google Maps application provided - and/or can use the underlying information via their own applications. Making the underlying code available via an open source licence is particularly useful for dealing with large and complex data on top of the Google application.

Data can be extracted in several common formats for integration with other systems. This is important when comparing the map's data with the existing data of a group or organisation. The Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN) is one such organisation.

KAREN provides telecommunications links between New Zealand's research, education and innovation sectors. By easily integrating the map's data with its own information and systems, KAREN can identify education sites that are near to its existing and planned broadband network facilities.

The State Services Commission was a finalist in the New Zealand Open Source Awards and has been continually developing the interactive map of New Zealand's broadband infrastructure.

Any further questions, please contact the State Services Commission via help@broadbandmap.govt.nz.