Federated Farmers have commented on a lack of increased funding in the 2010 Budget for Rural Broadband
“We are enthusiastic about the prospect of broadband but remain concerned Government is still prioritising urban over rural. While Federated Farmers lobbying won more funds for rural broadband, it’s still inequitable to what’s being committed to urban broadband."

Opinion

The Government have allocated $1.5Bn for urban broadband (around $436 pp) and $252M for rural broadband (around $439 pp) over six years.  Considering that rural broadband is, by its very nature, considerably more expensive to provide than urban broadband, and that the 14% of New Zealanders living in rural locations contribute 66% of the country's merchandise exports, we agree with Federated Farmers that this is inequitable.  We think that the investment in rural infrastructure, such as rural broadband, should be on the basis of equal access to broadband rather than equal government funding.

What do you think?