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Joyce: Public needs to see the benefits of UFB
Fri, 17th Sep 2010
FYI, this story is more than a year old

After talking about the Commodore 64 and what computers used to be like, Communications Minister Steven Joyce (pictured) said he was interested in taking bets about what the technology landscape will look like in 30 years’ time.

“I don’t think we know what it will be actually like but this is the exciting part,” he told Huawei’s UFB Technology Summit in Auckland today.

Joyce’s keynote speech made the point that New Zealanders now need to see what ultra fast broadband can do for them.

“This is where the discussion needs to move to,” he said. “By necessity it’s been all about the pipes at this point and who’s going to do it and how it’s going to be done and how it’s going to be dealt with."

Joyce said that it’s important to publicise the ideas and possible services that could arise following the introduction of fibre into New Zealand. 

“We need to start testing the imaginations and testing the possibilities and most of all publicising those for people and getting some more excitement in terms of actually what they’ll see and what they’ll do. I think this is really, really important.”