The fibre mountain New Zealand has to climb

This graph published by the OECD neatly illustrates both the challenge and the opportunity for Crown Fibre Holdings and the companies now building the fibre network.

New Zealand's Ultrafast Broadband network is a government supported project that aims to connect 75 percent of the population to fibre by 2019. For now that means people living in cities and the larger towns. A separate programme is underway to improve broadband performance in rural areas.

Early days

It's still at an early stage with only a handful of connections completed. For now we are woefully behind almost every other modern economy.

In December 2012, just 0.65 percent of New Zealand broadband connections were fibre. This compares with 67 percent in Japan and a OECD average of 14 percent.

New Zealand is already moving up the table. By the time the UFB network is completed we should be in the top half of this chart.