New Zealand's seen as being behind the times when it comes to internet data usage and limits.

The speed of broadband has been criticised by Stephen Fry whose internet slowed to dial up speed once he had exceeded his data allowance.

TUANZ chief executive Paul Brislen says the industry itself has complained about the state of the network.

But he says finally moves are underway to improve it, with the ultra fast broadband project and the rural broadband roll out.

Mr Brislen says our data usage limits are also a problem.

"A lot of countries don't, the US, the UK, they either have no caps or what they call soft caps, which is just don't spend too much, or they have very high data limits," he told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.

In Australia, for example users can get 1000GB of data, while in New Zealand one of the best plans offers 120GB.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams says the limits have been a problem in the past but that's all about to change.

"I think the industry is agreeing that as the Government rolls out its ultra fast broadband and rural broadband plans, that's exactly the sort of improvement we're going to see, that's why we've committed $1.5 billion to making to happen," she told Mike Hosking.

But Ms Adams is refusing to decide on internet data caps before the ultra fast broadband rollout is complete.

"With the UFB rolling out and coming live on stream you're going to see quite a different market, it would be foolish of us to jump ahead of that."

She says in some cases we will end up with world leading access.

Meanwhile faster broadband in New Zealand will bring in billions of dollars over coming years.

Telecommunications company Alcatel Lucent has released an economic benefits study showing the roll out will add five billion to GDP over 20 years.

Alcatel Lucent New Zealand CEO Andrew Miller says there are countless industries, such as health, education and business that will also benefit from doing things more quickly.

Photo: stock.xchng

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