BOOSTING PURCHASING POWER FOR BROADBAND SERVICES
5 July 2004
101/04Regional communities will be able to get better deals for broadband services under the $2.9 million first round of funding from the Howard Government"s broadband demand aggregation brokers program.
Broadband demand aggregation brokers will promote the benefits of broadband services to their communities and encourage take-up of the technology, increasing the level of demand within the local area.
The brokers will also coordinate that demand to strengthen the ability of communities to negotiate more affordable prices with a greater choice of suppliers.
The first round of funding will support brokers in 13 regional areas including:
- The Gladstone region in Queensland, including Gladstone City Council, Calliope Shire Council and Miriam Vale Shire Council. The project will form the next stage of an overall ICT Infrastructure Development Project in the region and aims to leverage infrastructure development in smaller shires;
- The Peel region of Western Australia, covering five local government authorities including the shires of Boddington, Mandurah, Murray, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Waroona. Communities in the Peel region currently do not have access to affordable broadband and dial-up connections suffer from slow rural exchanges and the project will address these issues; and
- Eighteen Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara communities in the north-western corner of South Australia and four communities in the Northern Territory, spanning an area of 104,000 square kilometres. Funding will be used to provide education about broadband services and identifying possible service providers and technologies for the region.
The demand aggregation brokers program is one element of the Howard Government"s contribution to the Action Plan of the National Broadband Strategy and forms part of the Government"s response to the Regional Telecommunications Inquiry (RTI).
The Government agreed to implement all 39 recommendations of the RTI and has committed $142.8 million to implement the National Broadband Strategy"s Action Plan.
Applications for the second round of the community- based broadband demand aggregation brokers program will be invited later in the year. More information on the program is available at http://www2.dcita.gov.au/ie/framework/broadband
A list of the successful communities to receive funding under this round is attached.
Media Contact: Carina Tan-Van Baren (02) 6277 7480 or 0439 425 373
Successful communities - Round One of the Broadband Demand Aggregation Brokers Program
New South Wales
Dubbo City Development Corp Ltd
Spanning 12 communities and comprising a population of 45,000 a demand aggregation broker will promote the benefits of broadband to local communities in the Orana region. Additional responsibilities of the broker include encouraging broadband take-up, aggregating demand and facilitating the cost effective supply of broadband infrastructure and services. Benefits of broadband to the Orana region include videoconferencing between the Western Plains Zoo and veterinarians in Sydney, the potential of establishing a virtual university and the increased practice of telemedicine.
Gloucester On-Line
The Gloucester region based around Barrington, Stroud and Krambach, covers more than 5,000 square kilometres and includes a number of towns and villages with a total population of about 6,500. The 18 month demand aggregation project will provide opportunities for residents and businesses in the townships, some of which currently have transmission speeds as low as 14.4kbps. Greater dissemination of information and online transactions for routine Gloucester Shire Council business will be able to be carried out through the introduction of broadband. As specialist health care is currently not available in Gloucester, broadband access will enable faster and more accurate diagnosis, cost effective administration and information sharing between essential services and facilities.
Queensland
Gladstone Area Promotion and Development Ltd
The project covers the Gladstone region and consists of three local government areas. The region generates approximately 25.65 per cent of Queensland"s total volume of exports. The demand aggregation project will form the next stage of an overall ICT infrastructure development project in the region. The 12 month project will build on a preliminary demand assessment which estimated a potential market size of $15.8 million of Internet and data services. Outcomes of the project include the development of a commercially sustainable business case (and associated business plan) that identifies the commercial viability of delivering broadband telecommunications services in Gladstone using demand aggregation techniques.
Eastern Downs Regional Organisation of Councils
The Eastern Downs Regional Organisation of Councils application covers the Eastern Downs region of Queensland (based around Toowoomba and including nine surrounding shires). The project will use the critical mass of the main centre of Toowoomba to leverage infrastructure development in the smaller shires to support the growth of business and industry. The broker will be expected to deploy strategies/projects relating to the development of ICT infrastructure in the region and to influence supply and investment in broadband telecommunications in the region.
Gold Coast City Council
The Gold Coast region possesses substantial rural areas that currently lack broadband access. The demand aggregation project will encompass approximately 25 communities with a population of 25,000. Independent research discovered considerable demand for broadband services with 62 per cent of residences and 76 per cent of businesses interested in getting broadband connected. The broker will provide sustainable broadband solutions by addressing demand needs and supply opportunities and constraints. This 12 month project will provide significant benefits to the region including increased community communication, business services, export enhancement, ecotourism, education and rural and farming activities.
South Australia
District Council of Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula covers a 5834 sq km area, encompassing 12 larger towns and 22 smaller townships. The region is a major grain producer and a popular tourist destination, attracting more than 180,000 visitors per annum in addition to the area"s 11,000 strong population. Benefits include enhanced medical services via the Division of General Practice and improved internet access for education, health and government services. The demand aggregation project will also enable the Indigenous community at Point Pearce to access broadband communications for community development, teaching, health and social interaction. The work of the broker will complement the Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund project Broadbanding the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia. This project will build a high-speed wireless broadband backbone along the Yorke Peninsula.
Barossa and Light Regional Development Board
The Barossa and Light Region covers an area of more than 2,000 sq kms and has a population of more than 30,000 people. The demand aggregation project will extend the limited broadband services currently available and re-establish equity of access particularly for the 1000 small to medium enterprises currently without broadband services. The six month project will maximise access to online education and training services and enable education providers to expand nationally and internationally as well as enhancing expansion of local tourism. Access to broadband in the region will allow relocation of head offices currently based in Adelaide to the region as well as ensuring that households outside the small radii of Tanunda and Nurioopta benefit from access to broadband services.
Victoria
Loddon Mallee Health Alliance (LMHA)
Covering 25 per cent of Victoria, the region encompasses four regional centres (Bendigo, Echuca, Mildura and Swan Hill) and some 41 rural towns. As part of the Victorian Health SMART program, LMHA has received funding towards broadband connectivity for the Acute Health and Primary Health Care Sectors within the Loddon Mallee region. LMHA has also received a grant from the Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund to extend a health-based broadband Wide Area Network to 32 communities in the Loddon Mallee Region. The scope of the 18 month broadband demand aggregation project is to make use of the broadband connections to the hospitals in the regional and rural towns as Points of Presence (PoP) for further expansion of broadband services into the wider community, targeting other health organisations such as GP"s, the education and business sectors and the community in general. Benefits and outcomes projected from the program include improved clinical outcomes, reduced medication errors and reduced drug wastage, faster decision-making, less time taken in following up test results, faster patient discharge, reduction in redundant pathology tests and savings in travel costs.
Western Australia
Peel Development Commission
The five local government authorities of the Peel region of Western Australia comprise the Shires of Boddington, Mandurah, Murray, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Waroona. With a population of 80,000 and growing at twice that of the rest of the state, the 18 month demand aggregation project aims to promote the uptake of broadband services in 5 local government areas. The major benefits of the demand aggregation project include increased competition, improved information access and increased access to online services. The project will build upon the NTN funded Linking Councils and Communities project that is designed to assist Western Australian local governments in developing their online services capability.
Connect South West Association Inc
The Connect South West proposal covers 12 local government areas in the south west region of Western Australia which include Harvey, Dardanup, Bunbury, Capel Donnybrook-Ballingup and Manjimup. A broker will be employed to educate individuals and small businesses on the benefits of broadband access, raise awareness, aggregate demand and then approach a telecommunications provider with a business case for infrastructure deployment. The introduction of broadband services will bring significant and tangible benefits to these communities. These benefits include an e-library project that will provide all libraries across the region with the ability to access resources such as borrowings and databases held in the regional library in Bunbury.
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder
The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder covers the Esperance-Eastern Goldfields Country Zone of the Western Australian Local Government Association, which includes nine local government authorities where the characteristic focus is mining. The area covers some 991,637 sq kms which is approximately one-third of Western Australia and has a population of approximately 64,000 people which is typical of the rural and remote conditions in WA. The demand aggregation will primarily be targeted at the mining industries, tourism, local government authorities, Australian and Western Australian government departments and small businesses. The ultimate goal is the development of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for mining companies in the region by utilising the existing Access to Broadband for General Practitioners initiative as an "anchor tenant" to support the delivery of other services in the region, which will benefit mines, schools, remote localities and the region as a whole.
Combined State/Territory
Murray Regional Development Board Inc
State: New South Wales / Victoria
The demand aggregation project covers the region of activity of the ICT Committee of the Murray Regional Development Board and comprises 17 Local Government areas along the Murray River including towns such as Albury, Wodonga, Jerilderie, and Corryong. Specific industries in the grain-handling, irrigation, transport, viticulture and forestry sectors have already been identified. The project will focus on the major towns and cities in each local government authority across the region (particularly those with Council Offices and/or significant health infrastructure), smaller towns and villages, isolated areas and remote farms. The project will build on a current alternative Customer Access Networks (CAN) Demonstration Project (a cross-border, wireless voice and data infrastructure project being built in Albury-Wodonga).
Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Media (PY Media)
State: South Australia / Northern Territory
This project is centred on 18 Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara communities in the north-western corner of South Australia and four communities in the Northern Territory, spanning an area of 104,000 sq kms. Communications is a crucial issue in these communities where a competitive telecommunications environment does not exist. The demand aggregation broker will educate the local population on the benefits of broadband, assess current levels of demand and identify possible broadband service providers and technologies for the region. Broadband access will allow the development of a fully integrated patient information recall system, fundamental to the health care of a transient population and access to medical professionals off the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands. A similar system will be implemented to improve the continuity and accessibility of education.
