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Internet New Zealand is urging the government to regulate quickly if the country is to catch up with other OECD countries on broadband uptake.
The latest figures see New Zealand ranked at 22nd out of the 30 OECD countries with 8.1% of the population having broadband access. New Zealand's placing is unchanged from a year ago.
Internet New Zealand executive director Keith Davidson predicts New Zealand would need 980,000 subscribers to be in the top half of the OECD next year.
He says the government is falling well short of its targets and needs to act for the sake of an internet-reliant economy.
Davidson says the government needs to force the splitting of Telecom into separate wholesale and retail divisions to entice more competition.
Telecom said in February that broadband customers had doubled in 2005 to 279,000.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said at the time that improving broadband uptake is a key economic priority because internet services here are slow and inadequate.
