Access to broadband internet services has improved in the past three years with only 12% of homes with internet using dial-up access, new figures show.
However, the majority of those who live in the rural sector and rural organisations say there is a urgent need for improvement.
Twenty-one percent of all rural internet users access the service by dial-up, a figure that has halved since 2006.
But Federated Farmers and Rural Women New Zealand say that needs to improve further to ensure that the rural sector is not disadvantaged.
Rural Women New Zealand says it hopes the Government will consider subsidising the cost of wireless and satellite access to broadband.
The group says it has been heartened by Communication Minister Steven Joyce's response in the past week to that proposal and his promise to have the Ministry of Economic Development look into it.
