BROADBAND IN OTAGO: A USER-DRIVEN APPROACH
This is a user-driven initiative. It started with the vision of people in rural Otago towns, particularly in the education sector. The Trust reasoned that there was no need to wait around for someone else to decide what Otago should get or when. That approach, together with the response from Telecom, has made it happen. Well before the rest of New Zealand, rural towns in Otago will have access to the latest broadband services.

SO WHAT IS BROADBAND ANYWAY?
The term “broadband” describes the range of frequencies that can be transmitted and received through wires or using radio waves. The human voice uses a very narrow range of frequencies. If you want to receive and send data (rather than just voice) using this same narrow band of frequencies, it will be relatively slow. This is what you are currently doing when you access the internet using your normal telephone line and modem. If, however, you can use all the available broad band of frequencies, you can transfer large amounts of data at high speed. And that data can be converted into words, computer files, pictures (including video) and sound. Cities in New Zealand have been getting access to this technology, but towns large and small looked like missing out. The reason is straightforward enough: the costs mean that it is not a commercial proposition for communications companies to supply the technology at a price that people would want to pay. But now people in most rural Otago towns will have access to exactly the same services at exactly the same prices as people in the major cities.
Welcome to a wide interconnected world!

WHAT WILL BROADBAND BE USED FOR?
There are two immediate uses for broadband: fast internet access and teleconferencing. But it will be up to users to think of innovative applications for this new technology. When electricity was first installed, people could have had no idea what we now plug into a power socket. Broadband is a bit like that. It doesn’t actually do anything until you attach something to the end of the line and then send or receive something in digital form. And we don’t really know how this potential will be used. What we do know is that this is like building roads or installing power lines. This is new infrastructure. If we don’t get it, we will get behind. And we know that innovative Otago people will put it to work right away!

FAST INTERNET ACCESS
Are you an internet user but sick of dialing up, slow downloads, broken connections, or not being able to use the phone because the children are on the net? Broadband fixes all of that. The commercial product that this initiative has enabled is Telecom’s “Jetstream” range. The technology behind Jetstream is DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). What it does is upgrade telephone exchange equipment so that the broad band of frequencies that wires carry can get through to the user. These exchange upgrades will enable the provision of a 512 kbps (kilobits per second) service, which compares with a modem speed of 56 kbps. You will be able to talk on the phone at the same time as you surf the internet, paying only for one line.

WHAT SOME SCHOOLS ARE GOING TO DO
One of the most exciting immediate applications of broadband is what nine high schools are going to be doing next year. The schools are: East Otago High School, Kurow Area School, Maniototo Area School, Dunstan High School, Cromwell College, Mt Aspiring College, The Catlins Area School, Roxburgh Area School, and Lawrence Area School. These nine schools have joined together to form a private network which will be used for three primary purposes. One use will be to communicate with each other at no extra cost. This could just be a phone conversation, but it could also be the transfer of data for administrative purposes, or sharing computer records, software, or other resources. Access to the network could be given to others, eg. parents or Boards of Trustees. Another use will be shared high speed access to the internet. Once again, access can be given to other schools and other users. The third use will be to create “virtual classrooms” through the use of videoconferencing. The high speed data transfer offered to this project means high resolution video, the nearest thing to sharing a classroom. As a result, all nine schools will be able to offer a greatly enhanced range of subjects, because teaching resources will be shared. This project will be the first of its kind in New Zealand. The Correspondence School will be participating, and we expect other organizations to join over time. This is a separate project from the provision of broadband, and will cost over $500,000. The Community Trust will provide $220,000 and the Ministry of Education $100,000. The schools will pay the rest. Schools can be expected to make these facilities available to other users outside of school hours. So do you want a virtual meeting with others in Otago? Book at your local school.

THE STORY BEHIND THIS PROJECT
The Community Trust of Otago has significantly supported Technology - mostly ICT - in schools since 1997. An initial $2 million for secondary schools was followed by $1.6 million for primary schools and a further $2 million for secondary schools announced early this year. The donations are provided on a 2 for 1 basis and require schools to have appropriate programmes in place. Before the latest grant, the Trust commissioned a study by the School of Education at the University of Otago. This was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Technology Project to date and to guide future policy. The Trust’s main desire is to ensure that ICT equipment is integrated properly into the teaching and learning processes. A recommendation of the university study was that the Trust be willing to additionally support special projects, and this recommendation was adopted. In discussion with schools, it very quickly became obvious that a prime need would be to upgrade connectivity for secondary schools outside Dunedin. (The Trust immediately recognized that this would also fulfill another Trust objective, which is to assist economic development). The problem was that telecommunications providers were seeing provision of broadband services outside metropolitan areas as simply not commercial. The Trust engaged in discussion with both BCL and Telecom and received formal proposals from both. Underlying the discussions was the idea that the Trust would partially underwrite the provision of services. A contract with Telecom was subsequently signed. It will ensure the provision of enhanced services in all rural Otago high schools by December 1. At the least 10 of the 13 relevant exchanges will receive full xDSL broadband services. The cost to the Trust will reduce as customer numbers increase.

DETAILS OF THE COMMUNITY TRUST - TELECOM ARRANGEMENT
The contract between the Community Trust and Telecom will make available full Jetstream services to all customers connected to and within about 7km of the following exchanges: Alexandra, Balclutha, Cromwell, Kurow, Milton, Oamaru, Oamaru North, Palmerston and Wanaka. These towns will have access to an ADSL service at a guaranteed data transfer rate of 512 kbps. In addition, The Catlins Area School, Lawrence Area School and Maniototo Area School will be connected via frame relay at 256 kbps, giving these schools a considerably enhanced service. All rural schools will receive a special payment rate that allows an open-ended quantity of data transfer within their private network and with the internet. Residential and commercial users in the towns with full services will receive exactly the same range of Telecom products at exactly the same prices as NZ’s major cities, eg. Jetstart at $24.95/month for home users. The contract between the Community Trust and Telecom provides for an underwrite sum of $236,000 to be paid by the Community Trust at the time of installation of the services. If 30 Jetstream customers are signed up at each exchange by 1 June next year, the Trust will receive a full refund. Lower levels of take-up will generate lower levels of refund. Although there is a commercial contract underpinning this initiative, it has very much acquired the character and spirit of a joint initiative rather than a supply contract.

THE NEXT STEP
The community Trust has always viewed this initiative as a first step. Already the Trust is approaching providers to discuss the next step: provision to towns with primary schools that have not been included so far. The Trust will take the same approach as before: discuss what would be required to mitigate the commercial risk and thus make the commercial provision of services viable. The Trust is hopeful that the success of the first stage will enable a rollover of the underwrite and use of the same money to go further.
And after that? The Telecom solution means that users within about 7km of an enabled exchange can use the service. But technological advances and the possibility of accepting a slightly lower guaranteed level of service offer the promise of extension beyond that.
What the Trust will be doing is simple: trying to keep Otago ahead of everyone else.