Tuesday, 27 March 2018 11:55

Internet woes

Written by Rural News Group

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Federated Farmers vice-president Andrew Hoggard.

Communications and Digital Media Minister Clare Curran was scheduled to meet with Federated Farmers last week to discuss the rollout of rural broadband.

This follows Federated Farmers vice-president Andrew Hoggard saying that dealing with woeful rural-broadband coverage should not be delayed while the Government pursues the roll-out of 5G cellphone technology.

Spark and Vodafone have been reported as saying they are trialling 5G -- the next generation of digital communications.

“Meanwhile plenty of towns and the provincial hinterland are without broadband, and with patchy or non-existent mobile coverage,” Hoggard says.

However Curran told Dairy News she expects to say more about rural broadband and 5G projects over the coming months.

“Absolutely everyone should share in the benefits of new technology and we need to be improving rural access and pushing for the best technology available, and we are doing exactly that,” she says.

“The Government is prioritising rural communities as it recognises their contribution to our nation.”

She was to meet with the Feds last Thursday.

“The Rural Broadband Initiative 2 (RBI2) work is progressing in parallel with the 5G work; it’s not either-or and I want the pace of that work to increase as much as is possible.

Hoggard says when there is poor or no access to ultra-fast broadband and mobile, farming businesses and family life suffer.

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