Labour is sceptical about the Government's announcement that $300 million will be spent on getting broadband to rural areas.
Communications Minister Steven Joyce yesterday announced that the money would get faster internet access through a mix of public and private funding to most of the 25 percent of people who live in rural areas.
The Government was expected to announce how much it would spend next week and Mr Joyce said no private partners had been approached yet.
Labour MP Clare Curran said questions remained over how the Government would achieve its plan.
Ms Curran sought clarity over how much of the $300m would be funded by the Government and whether it was on top of the existing $1.5 billion allocated to rollout broadband to 75 percent of the population.
"What proportion of the $300m is public money? And where is the new money coming from?" she said.
There were also serious concern the Government was lining up Telecom to lead the rollout of rural broadband and possibly the rest of the country, entrenching its position as a monopoly.
That would be a "disaster" for New Zealand's communications industry, she said.
The rural announcement follows the Government's $1.5b ultra-fast broadband investment initiative announced earlier this year.
Using public-private partnerships the government wants to deliver ultra-fast broadband to 75 percent of New Zealanders within 10 years.
That 75 percent was based in the 25 biggest cities and towns. It wants 25 percent of those living in rural areas to have access to broadband soon as they are coping with speeds that are not good enough.
Over 80 percent of rural households should have broadband access of at least 5 megabytes per second (Mbps) and the remainder at speeds of at least 1Mbps within six years, Mr Joyce said.
Ninety-three percent of schools will receive fibre, enabling speeds of at least 100Mbps and the remaining will have at least 10Mbps.
Providing rural schools with fibre would effectively provide faster broadband to the surrounding communities, he said.
