The Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) is the Government's response to concerns that its $1.5Bn ultra fast broadband investment for urban areas will create a "digital divide" between urban and rural New Zealand. Spending $252M on providing high speed broadband to around 14% of our population and businesses that account for 66% of our merchandise exports may not seem quite equitable but it will go a long way to meeting the internet needs of our rural areas (see "We're an Internet-connected community!")

The government's objective is to enable broadband speeds of at least 5MBps to 97% of households. That's around 20 times faster than dial-up! It is the difference between driving down the motorway at the legal limit and walking. That difference enables movie and music downloads, free phone and video calls, and sharing pictures and videos on social networking sites. For farms and businesses, that speed will improve productivity and business development opportunities which will enable more enterprises to stay in rural areas. Which means that more Franklin residents can live and work in our local communities. Wow, no more walking on the motorway!