75% of New Zealanders to get 100Mbps fiber by 2020

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Taking a page from the Australian broadband playbook, New Zealand has decided not to sit around while incumbent DSL operators milk the withered dugs of their cash cow until it keels over from old age. Instead, the Kiwis have established a government-owned corporation to invest NZ$1.5 billion for open-access fiber to the home. By 2020, 75 percent of residents should have, at a bare minimum, 100Mbps down/50 Mbps up with a choice of providers.

Crown Fibre Holdings Limited is the company, and it's wholly owned by the government—for now—and the company's mission couldn't be any clearer. Two of its six guiding principles include "focusing on building new infrastructure, and not unduly preserving the 'legacy assets' of the past" and "avoiding 'lining the pockets' of existing broadband network providers."

The New Zealand government set up the company late last year, but the government won't install and own the network by itself. Instead, Crown Fibre will partner with local companies across New Zealand to roll out fiber. Those companies will have to invest their own money as well, but in return they become part of the national dark fiber open-access system envisioned by Crown Fibre.

More:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/75-of-new-zealanders-to-get-100mbps-fiber-by-2020.ars

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New Zealand's detailed shared fibre rollout plan:

http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/70609/Invitation-to-Participate.pdf

Gov website: http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/ContentTopicSummary____41902.aspx