Cell phone and Broadband coverage
Broadband: The planned Chorus upgrade in Moores Valley took place late last year. A number of people commented about getting increased speed, although one said there had been a decrease (we think it may be due to a surge in people using the internet in peak time since the upgrade). One of your Brookfield Lane neighbours reported getting much better speeds, and I hope that you’ve noticed a positive change as well. Would be interested in your feedback. For those living within half a km or so of the cabinet, VDSL is available, but it doesn’t appear that Brookfield Lane is able to take advantage of that due to distance.
At this stage, it doesn’t appear that Chorus has any immediate plans to further upgrade the Wainuiomata Rural area broadband service, but WRCA is keeping in touch with Chorus and will continue to lobby for improvements to the service.
Mobile: As you’ll know from the minutes, the Government is currently rolling out 2 RBI/Mobile Black Spot initiatives. The Stage 1 rollout has been underway for some time, and Stage 2 is currently going through a submission process following an increase in funding to the original RBI. Note: the total increase in funding for Stage 2 is $100K for broadband and $50K for mobile blackspots, so it’s isn’t a huge amount. The money comes from a levy that the Government places on service providers (which ultimately is paid for by us as subscribers).
WRCA learned about Stage 2 by chance and approached Hutt City Council to put in a Registration of Interest (ROI) submission for consideration. This was declined, which we were all gutted about, especially since HCC hadn’t informed any of its rural residents (not just Wainuiomata) of the ROI submission process and was one of only 3 local authorities in the country that declined to put one in. We were unable to change HCCs mind and the closing date for ROI submissions passed.
WRCA learned (again, by chance) that there was a further opportunity for local authorities to put in a Digital Enablement Plan submission as part of the Stage 2 process, and we approached HCC again on behalf of members. This time HCC agreed to put in a DEP submission. I asked members if they would like a copy of it but at that stage, because the broadband upgrade hadn’t taken place, not many requested it as it’s a 6Mb file. Let me know if you want me to send it through and I’ll be happy to do so. It should be noted that Wainuiomata is the only HCC area for which a DEP submission was made. This is, we believe, a direct result of WRCA’s continued engagement with Council over the issue.
Unfortunately, because the additional funding is limited, the criteria for submissions to be considered was very tight. Essentially the area had to be either a State Highway and/or a popular tourist area, and each submission will be in competition with the rest of NZ. For Wainuiomata, this meant the area standing the best chance of success was Rimutaka Forest Park/Baring Head area, which receives in excess of 100,000 visitors a year and growing, especially with the Baring Head area opening up and becoming part of the East Harbour Regional Park. On this basis, HCC agreed to put in a DEP based on the visitor number data and the fact that access to emergency services in the area was limited because of no cellphone access. This is in no way indicative that Moores Valley shouldn’t be considered, but it couldn’t compete with the Rimutaka Forest Park area on visitor numbers – and HCC felt that this is what will sway a decision by service providers to bid for a submission area – hence the DEP focus on that.
The WRCA committee worked with HCC on the submission by contacting and obtaining written support from many emergency services to help boost the chance of success. DEP submissions closed in October and service providers (e.g. Spark, Vodafone etc) are now being given the opportunity to view ROI and DEP submissions and bid for those they wish to pursue. The Government will then make a decision as to which areas and suppliers will receive the funding. This will not be known until later this year.
Meantime, WRCA is aware that the competition for RBI/MBSF funding is high and the chances of success are therefore not guaranteed. The Committee made a decision to approach service providers directly (i.e. outside of the RBI process) to try and obtain mobile coverage for Moores Valley and Coast Road areas. So far we have had a response from Vodafone and are awaiting replies from Spark and 2 Degrees. The latter have been delayed due to the holiday period, but we expect to hear from them in the near future.
Vodafone has indicated that it is unable to assist in the short term, i.e. the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 financial years as it has already committed funding to existing projects. However it has registered our case for future consideration and, meantime, is willing to help locate suitable sites for cellphone infrastructure in both areas. This is about to start and will be an ongoing WRCA task over the next few months. If you are aware of any particularly good sites in Moores Valley, ones that would give the best coverage to as many people as possible, we would love to hear from you. Vodafone did indicate that if rural residents could obtain funding for cellphone towers, then it could look at the prospect from a commercial point of view, which would probably speed up the process. With the average cost per rural cellphone coverage at $350K per tower, this would be a huge ask, and massive fund-raising will be required to make this happen. I’m not sure we have the capability of raising that amount of money, but if the community is willing to look at this, it’s a possibility.
This isn’t going to be a quick process, but the WRCA committee is engaging with the right people and we’re working extremely hard on behalf of members to try and make mobile service happen in our rural areas. We can’t guarantee success, but we’re giving it the best shot we can. The committee agrees with you about the need for mobile service over here. HCC does too, and that’s why it has agreed as part of the DEP to assist wherever possible, including contributing to the resource consent process, should its DEP submission be successful. It also needs to be recognised that both DOC and a private landowner (also a WRCA member) have generously agreed to explore making land and access available in the Coast Road area for cellphone tower infrastructure. Once potentially potentially suitable sites in Moores Valley Road have been identified, we can consider approaching landowners to see if they would be willing to make a similar commitment. But there’s a lot of work that needs to happen before we get to that stage.
Hope this explains where we’re at with this issue. If you have any other suggestions that might help, please let us know as we’d be very happy to incorporate them where possible. Please get in touch if you don’t feel I’ve adequately covered your questions.