A Federated Farmers rural connectivity survey has been challenged by wireless internet providers on how representative it is of farmers’ cellular and internet links.
The report says that a third of farmers surveyed reported a decline in their cellular coverage in the past year, despite internet service providers frantically erecting additional towers under the government’s Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) initiative.
The annual survey suggests mobile coverage for many rural users is standing still or even falling behind where it was a year ago.
The survey also found that just over half the 1200 farmers surveyed had download speeds of 20Mbps or below, and 20% of farmers were still only experiencing 1-2 “bars” of signal on their phones, with the majority of that 20% regularly experiencing dropped calls.
But Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPA) CEO Mike Smith said the negative results of the survey failed to gel with his experience on the ground in hooking up rural users to both cellular networks and the internet.
“There is a bit of a repeating trend in this survey. You will not get mobile coverage everywhere, and I wonder if it’s the same areas coming up every year.”
Over the past three years the RCG, which consists of the big three providers Spark, Vodafone and Two Degrees, had installed 350 new cell towers by August. The target is to have 500 towers up by next December.
Smith said at some point the government and telco funding would cease for tower construction, and emerging “voice over” internet technology is starting to provide a means of filling in the gaps towers would not be able to achieve economically.
“We have clients up the Rangitata Gorge who can now make cellphone calls using Wi-Fi internet. Two Degrees have had it for a number of years, Vodafone launched this year and Spark have just gone live with it in the last month, although it’s not on iPhones yet.”
This technology can represent a $10,000-plus investment for a farm property. But Smith said it may also prove an easier funding option to install such tech for a rural community to share, providing the last link, rather than erecting another costly cellphone tower for relatively few users.
“You could also argue that in some areas where populations are growing the increased use is outstripping the investment.”
Federated Farmers telecommunications chair Richard McIntyre agreed that the increased use of newly installed infrastructure could be hamstringing rural cellular performance, but predicted this may only get worse, despite the investment.
“The sector has a fair few challenges ahead of it and in order to meet those we need to have connectivity similar to what urban users have.”
He pointed out that despite 5G’s arrival, a third of farmer respondents reported only 2G or 3G connectivity, and only a third had 75%-100% coverage across their farm.
Smith said Vodafone intends to switch off its 3G network in a year’s time, but this will have a positive impact on 5G provision to rural users.
“It means they can just focus on 5G and 4G services, freeing up the spectrum and delivering it further.”
Both Smith and McIntyre highlighted the winners in rural connectivity stakes tend to be those farmers who regularly review their internet-cellular agreements and are not afraid to hunt out and shift to better technology.
Of those farmers reporting super-fast speeds of over 100Mbps, 70% had been with the provider less than a year. In contrast, of those reporting speeds of less the 5Mbps, 43% had been with the provider for over 10 years.
“It says you never know what is out there until you look. But it also suggests for some users there simply is no other choice to go looking for,” McIntyre said.
Both also welcomed the shake-up satellite technology has given the rural market.
The survey found satellite broadband use has increased 35% on last year to account for 19% of users, equal to high-speed copper, with wireless broadband accounting for a steady 52%.
Smith was confident the rural connectivity landscape would look even more robust in a year’s time, with significant gains in backhaul infrastructure coming since WISPA providers have been incorporated into network systems.
This year’s budget included $60 million for rural internet upgrade, accompanying the additional $47m in Rural Capacity Upgrade announced in February, with the entire expenditure to be rolled out over the next three years.
A further $15m is destined for a Remote Users Scheme, targeting particularly remote locations with no coverage at present.
