Digital Office project manager Josh Jenkins said when the Government announced its broadband extension programme to get more New Zealanders on a fibre or wireless broadband connection, Dunedin City Council contracted the Digital Office to investigate where better broadband access was needed.
The Digital Office would lobby for Outram, Waldronville, Waitati and Warrington to be selected for the Ultra Fast broadband (UFB) extension and lobby for Strath Taieri, Middlemarch and Otago Peninsula to be selected for the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI), a wireless broadband solution.
The next stage was to work with the communities to create a ''digital enablement plan'' and prove residents of the communities would use a faster connection, if available.
''It's all well and good having the infrastructure. It's just a tool. It's what you do with it,'' Mr Jenkins said.
The plans would be created with the communities in the next two months, he said.
''It is their time to step up and engage with this process to ensure they get the best chance of getting better broadband connection in their community.''
The greater the involvement the higher the chance of the community getting the better connection, he said.
Outram was involved, Waitati and Warrington were becoming involved but more interest was needed in the remaining communities, he said.
Residents could email the Digital Office at josh@digitaloffice.co.nz or contact their community board, which would be involved in the process, he said.
Outram resident Bernadette Hay said she was tired of her broadband connection being slow, or non-existent, at peak usage times.
The family struggled to watch video clips, or play games online.
Mrs Hay managed a website for her husband, watchmaker James Hay, and uploading images was extremely slow, she said.
Former Outram resident Tim Gibson, of Mosgiel, said he surveyed Outram residents on their satisfaction with the broadband connection and there was an overwhelming desire for a quicker and more reliable connection.
Inclusion in the programme would enable Outram to ''flourish and grow without limits placed by having unreliable or outdated internet services,'' Mr Gibson said.
UFB extension
The Ultra-Fast Broadband extension plans to connect more New Zealanders, by increasing the percentage of Kiwis able to access fibre technologies from 75% to at least 80%. The additional funding for this programme will be between $152 and $210 million and will come from the Future Investment Fund.
A list of additional towns to receive fibre to the premises, and the order of rollout, will be determined following a competitive bid process. This will take into account the cost of deployment, strength of consumer demand, and regulatory and other assistance from local authorities and their communities.
RBI extension
The Rural Broadband Initiative programme will be extended with an additional $100 million fund made available through extending the Telecommunications Development Levy. The Government will seek input from communities, councils and service providers, and the fund will be allocated through an open tender process.
