Speaking at the Korea-Australia-New Zealand (KANZ) Broadband Summit in Tasmania, NBN Co's stakeholder relations spokesperson, Cassandra Scott, and the New Zealand government's manager of communications and IT policy at the Ministry of Economic Development, Brad Ward, both shared their experiences of rolling out a national broadband network, with both saying that affordability was important to the success of these kinds of projects.
"Wherever we look, it is access to affordable telecommunications infrastructure that really does make a difference," NBN Co's Scott said.
"There is a deliberate incentive for access seekers to have access to wholesale prices as well as access to the user interface."
Ward agreed, saying that the New Zealand government views reasonably priced services as being vital to the uptake of its national fibre broadband network.
"There are a lot of questions around what is government and industry's role in demand and uptake, and what does industry do to incentivise uptake," he said.