By RICHARD PAMATATAU

A year of development in high-speed internet services has failed to lift New Zealand's broadband penetration. Reports by the International Telecommunications Union and the OECD put us on the bottom rungs of the international ladder.

In the ITU internet report Birth of Broadband, issued in September, New Zealand placed bottom out of 30 countries ranked by broadband subscribers per capita and 28th by the percentage of internet subscribers who use broadband.

In the OECD report released in Paris last month, the country ranked 23 out of 29 economies surveyed, two places behind Australia, and a rank lower than when the preceding survey was published six months ago.

Access to high-speed internet is seen as a key requirement for productivity growth and social development, though some countries have paid more attention to it than others.

Regulatory pressure and the Government's Probe initiative is stimulating investment in broadband infrastructure but the impact is yet to register.

Broadband customers across the OECD countries should climb to 82 million by the end of this year but New Zealand shows no sign of gaining on the rest of the pack.

Continued @ New Zealand News