NZ is a broadband backwater. I’m a big advocate of waking up NZ to what it is missing in terms of broadband connectivity. What won’t help is drivel and comparisons that contain no evidence (I’m guilty of this too:-). Witness this peice in ComputerWorld with this little gem from really smart guy David Skilling:

Local companies with an overseas presence have told him broadband infrastructure is five to ten times better in China “which most people think of as a developing economy” than it is in New Zealand, and have pointed out that it’s much cheaper to get a document electronically from Sydney to London than it is from Auckland to London.

Five to ten times better than nothing? Than what? And what garbage on the cost of moving a document… on what transport? Nothing beats free and that is precisely what my Internet connection cost me in a Hotel in Shanghai. So, to get  a document from Shanghai to London costs nothing making Sydney a highly uncompetitive market? Hmmmmm… don’t think so.

What is more amazing is how the Telcos are putting-up with this nonsense. Why aren’t they correcting the facts and helping set the agenda rather than being slaughtered by competitive framing…

… this debate is getting more ridiculous by the day….