Laura Jackson writes in the Manawatu Standard about a device, developed in Palmerston North, which is apparently able to speed up broadband without the need to install fibre-optic cables.

In addition, the device is able to act as a backup electricity system for houses which do have fibre-optic cabling.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“The system looks like a modem, and connects with homes’ existing wiring to boost broadband speeds without having to pay the $800-plus fee for re-wiring a home with modern cables to get such fast internet.

“The wiring in most New Zealand homes is too old to cope with fast internet.

…

“For homes that do have fibre-optic cabling, it will act as a backup electricity system.

“The device will sense when the power has cut and will keep the landline phone running for up to four hours.

“”This is essential in emergencies,” Mr Jacks said. “It’s about smart technology.”

“The firm’s aim is to get the device into every home in New Zealand, he said.

“A small-business version of the model will also be available that will keep eftpos machines running, security cameras operating and alarms running.”

Helen Twose writes in the New Zealand Herald about the author of the Digital Britain report, Lord Stephen Carter’s assertion that New Zealand needs to decide how best to use the additional capacity to be provided by the government-backed ultra-fast broadband network currently being planned.

The eventual use of a broadband network can affect how the network is designed and deployed.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“Carter said the economics of large-scale residential fibre deployment don’t necessarily add up, so a leap of faith is required.

“”It’s understandable that right now the real focus is on the infrastructure.”

“He said the arrival of devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, with the rise in video conferencing and home-working technology, would boost demand for data hugely over the next few years.”

On Tuesday night I was able to go and see UPLoad 2010.  Titled ‘The Great Broadband Debate’, it covered (amongst other things) the sitrep for broadband in New Zealand, why we need that second undersea cable, and how our lives might be changed by access to the sorts of broadband available elsewhere in the world.

The venue was packed to capacity, which is always good to see (particularly in a city as small as Wellington), and the speakers were thoroughly interesting and engaging.  Of course, it wasn’t really a debate, either – everyone was very much on the same page regarding New Zealand’s need for improved access.

If you’d like to watch footage from the event, you can watch Lance here, and the evening’s live tweets (which can be read here), are a great way to quickly catch the events’ gist.

Speakers:

Steven Heath – moderator

Jordan Carter – Director of Policy at InternetNZ

Jamie Baddeley – FX Networks

Donald Clark – CEO REANNZ

Lance Wiggs – co-founder of Pacific Fibre

UPLoad2010 – Pt I

UPLoad 2010 – Pt II

A high-quality version of the adio, in both Ogg Vorbis and MP3 formats, is available here.

Note: Apologies for some of the strange sound artefacts.

Pipe dream or economy booster?

The news yesterday that a group of wealthy businessmen including Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall and Trade Me founder Sam Morgan are leading a $900 million bid to build a 13,000km fibre optic cable between Australia, New Zealand and the US has created a lot of buzz.

The prospect of an internet without data download caps is a tantalizing one – New Zealand is one of the few OECD countries where there are limits placed on the amount of data you can transfer over your broadband connection each month.

Morgan and company suggest this is creating a digital divide between New Zealand and the rest of the world. Are they right? Well, it is hard to compare New Zealand to countries such as the US and Japan which are relatively well developed with uncapped broadband services. But innovation in rich content and real-time streaming services in those countries is certainly much farther ahead than in New Zealand.

The SMC wrapped up comment from the science sector on the implications for a second high-capacity cable linking New Zealand and the US and the reaction has been largely positive.

As NZICT chief executive Brett Riley pointed out, more (and cheaper) capacity is essential for a project like the Square Kilometre Array in which New Zealand hopes to be involved. It could also help lower international connection costs for the KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education) network: as REANNZ chief executive Donald Clark said:

“More competition on bandwidth supply from Australasia to the rest of the world will ultimately result in more international research and innovation collaboration which in turn will boost New Zealand’s economy”.

Scibloggers on the Pacific Fibre plans:

Grant Jacobs: High-speed international connection? Yes please

John Nixon: The undersea connection

Peter Griffin: Bigger, faster, more productive

Answers to climate change fatigue

Scientists at the STS (Science, technology and Society) Network workshop held in Wellington this week took part in a Science Media Centre briefing on “risk fatigue” and the disconnect between the dire scenarios of climate scientists and the willingness of society to act to avoid them.

Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe of Griffith University and ESR’s Dr Karen Cronin suggest that science needs to change to better address the social implications of climate change. A more integrated approach between biophysical science and social science is what they are calling for, as well as a more detailed look at scenarios for climate change mitigation and adaptation in New Zealand and Australia beyond 2025.

You can listen to the podcast of the briefing here.

Are you on Twitter? Let us know…

From the Chilean earthquake to the moa DNA breakthrough, science news is increasingly spreading through the social network Twitter as people re-tweet stories of interest and in some cases, even break news themselves.

We are on Twitter – twitter.com/smcnz and twitter.com/sciblogsnz – and we are in the process of generating a science media list of science journalists on Twitter. Sign up to follow us on Twitter if you want to be added to the list. If you are looking for scientists and science writers to follow on Twitter here are some of our favourites: @boraz @carlzimmer @bengoldacre @davemunger and @catherineq (a Kiwi astrophysicist and NASA fanatic at the University of North Carolina!).

The Nelson Mail reports on the successful testing of a new technology to help rescue stranded and lots cavers.

The technology, which uses a satellite link to allow broadband internet access in rugged and inaccessible New Zealand terrain, gave rescuers better access to information, and an improved likelihood of finding people who are lost.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“Mr Thompson said LandSAR had recognised the enormous potential value of the technology. It allowed rescuers to have access to email, the telephone network and websites that provided up-to-date information on mapping, aerial photos and weather.

“Mr Thompson was the first in New Zealand to develop a system that was fully portable. Rural communications provider Farmside sponsored the development. Two caving rescuers from Western Australia also attended.”

A new survey questions whether fast broadband supplies productivity gains over slow broadband, although it’s clear that both provide a productivity leg-up over dial-up.

The survey, conducted by Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, found that while there were gains when companies initially adopted broadband, no change ocurred when they switched to fast broadband.  However, the paper’s authors have said that there could be multiple reasons for this, and an industry commentator has also said that productivity increases may not come directly from faster access to broadband, but from the way such systems would change business models.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“But the paper’s authors cautioned that the finding that a move to fast broadband from any other form of broadband had no estimated impact should be interpreted with care.

“At least four explanations could account for the result, they said.

“Among those, the firms may have only recently adopted fast broadband and were yet to achieve the full productivity benefits. Also, the productivity benefits of moving to fast broadband may only be relevant to a small proportion of firms for now, so the full future benefits may not be apparent in the existing data.

“Industry commentator Paul Budde said the outcome of the Motu study did not come as a surprise.

“High-speed broadband linked to an open network would open the infrastructure to other sectors and it was those sectors that would provide improved productivity, Mr Budde said.”

If the Government’s multibillion dollar plan to deliver high-speed internet access 75 per cent of the population has been a little thin on detail to date, some revelations today point to how the scheme will work in general.

Communications minister Steven Joyce has called for submissions on his plan, which allows for a state-owned Crown Fibre Investment Co. to have overall responsibility for the network, working with telcos to build an open-access, dark fibre network.

As the minister puts it in the report issued today: “Dark fibre” refers to fibre optic cable which has been laid in the ground (or on poles) but which has not yet been made active. Fibre is made active by adding optical electronics at each end, to provide a working service. ISPs and other telecommunications providers can purchase access to dark fibre, add their own electronics, and then use it to provide a retail service.

In theory a wide range of players can get involved here at a regional level and lines companies are likely to be very keen to get involved. The timeline on the project calls for submissions on it to be in by April 27 and for proposals from telcos to be lodged by October. the CFIC is likely to make an initial call on its preferred participants by January. The plan calls for the country to be split into 25 contestable regions, with Auckland the largest covering over a quarter of the population. The other regions include:

Computerworld sums up the main policies of National and Labour in this week’s issue.

Broadband is obviously the dominant one with National’s $1.5 billion plan to fund a national fibre optic network in conjunction with the private sector the centre-piece of its ICT policy. Labour has its own plan which involves contestable funding for broadband schemes that do not specify which technology should be used and is more regionalised in its approach.

This Infotech article suggests the electricity lines company may be best positioned to partner with the Government to realise National’s fibre plan – rather than existing telcos.

The other ICT issues seem to be falling into fairly neat boxes this time around – education is a big one, with a clear need to address the skills shortage and the waning interest in science and ICT at primary level.

Then there’s the R&D tax issue. National plans to scrap the 15 per cent R&D tax credit that was introduced on April 1. The Waikato Times editorial today slammed that plan and you can see why.As the editorial explains:

“25 per cent of the research undertaken in New Zealand takes place within organisations in Hamilton, employing around 1000 research scientists (one of the highest ratios of scientists per capita of any city in the world).”

Much of the research undertaken in the Waikato will also take advantage of the Fast Forward fund set up by the Government to boost funding of primary sector R&D programmes. National will axe that too, but in favour of different forms of funding, outlined here.

As the Waikato Times also points out, cutting the R&D credit also goes against what the rest of the world is doing:

“The share of gross domestic expenditure on R&D in this country has changed only slightly over the past decade. At 1.16 per cent of GDP (about half the OECD average of 2.26 per cent), New Zealand is in the bottom third of countries.”

As the election nears and National’s $1.5 billion broadband plan is touted by John Key as the best enabler of the digital economy in New Zealand, the Government has unveiled its revised digital strategy for the country out to 2015.

In this podcast of this morning’s Beehive press conference, Cunliffe explains why he thinks Labour’s plan to stimulate broadband is better than National’s and outlines some of the community and business initiatives the Government plans to undertake to kickstart broadband uptake in key sectors.

The Digital Strategy 2.0 document is available for download below. More information here.

To speak to an expert on broadband and ICT, contact the Science Media Centre on 04 499 5476 or smc@sciencemediacentre.co.nz

Ahead of the release of the revised Digital Strategy later this month, David Cunliffe explores how the New Zealand economy as a whole will benefit from investment in ICT infrastructure at the Digital Future Now forum.

Some excerpts:

“If we embrace ICT and lose the great Kiwi knocking machine, we’ll continue to be worldclass.”

“No one on earth has as much to gain from the death of distance.”

“ICT is something that is now fundamental to every business process.”

Podcast available below:

To speak to an expert on ICT and broadband infrastructure and the digital economy contract the Science Media Centre on 04 499 5476 or smc@sciencemediacentre.co.nz