Mr. Peter Hendrick:

We have looked at a number of options for what we call rural extensions or very remote rural locations. The island programme is one of these scenarios where we are bringing connectivity to the islands. We have a programme to complete all of the islands. It might have been further on in our original programme plan. We may have updated the committee in March on looking at existing infrastructure that we can utilise to provide services for urban infill, adjacent infill and these rural extensions. We have run a procurement process with the telecoms industry. Two trials will commence in July for some of these services to see whether we can get connectivity to these premises.

Notwithstanding that we are undertaking these trials, what is very important is that it is not just a short-term service. If we are to utilise existing infrastructure we must be able to ensure the infrastructure will provide sufficient bandwidth for the next 25 years, or look at what point we would need to get to the premises with the national broadband plan roll-out.