Bay man backs $900m broadband plan

12th March 2010

Hawke's Bay businessman Rod Drury is backing a project to build a $900 million broadband connection between New Zealand, Australia and the US.

Lower internet prices and unlimited downloads for home connections are predicted to be the result of the new high-speed link, which would have five times the capacity of the existing connection, part-owned by Telecom.

The project would build a 13,000km high-speed link within three years.

Mr Drury has joined the Pacific Fibre project with some of New Zealand's best-known businessmen, including high-flyers Sam Morgan and Sir Stephen Tindall.

Mr Drury, who owns the software-as-a-service accounting system Xero, is a long-time critic of New Zealand's broadband links.

"People love to live and work here, but we're not playing on the global stage," he said.

Another Pacific Fibre founder, Mark Rushworth, said businesses loved high-resolution multi-party video conferencing.

"And grandparents expect to be able to Skype video their grandchildren - and that, too, will be in HD [high definition].

"But mostly we want to be on a level footing with the rest of the world."

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said he was delighted with any move to improve international connectivity and hoped it would result in bringing the price of data caps down.

The do-it-yourself approach came about after a talk between Mr Drury and Trade Me founder Sam Morgan late last year.

Mr Drury said: "I think we're doing it for the right reasons which allows us to build something that ... really makes a difference."

Mr Rushworth, a former Vodafone executive, said 90 per cent of New Zealand's internet traffic was to the US.

The commercial project was now seeking customers and financial backers.

It was too early to give an estimate of price for the service.