The developer of Telecom's 4G LTE network says businesses are not capitalising on the opportunity for generating wealth and efficiencies from the development of technological platforms.
Alcatel-Lucent is building a trial 4G network in Wellington for Telecom.
New Zealand is ranked 13th in the firm's global innovation index.
The firm's general manager of business market development for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Richard Fraser, says that's an improvement but there is still work to do.
He says that as a country New Zealand is good at laying the foundation for innovation but not at realising the GDP outputs from that.
"We're good in terms of the infrastructure we've put in place and the business environment we work within," Mr Fraser says. "We're not good yet at generating wealth and prosperity and efficiency from those tools as a country."
Mr Fraser says adoption of fast networks is needed, along with collaboration within industries using those networks.
Also needed, he says, is the uptake and generation of applications that allow supply chains and consumers to work together and businesses to reach out to new consumer groups - something that would help New Zealand's ability to export.