29.10.2020NBN Co updates the Australasian Committees for Cities & Regions Network Meeting, October 2020
On Monday October 19 the Committee for Melbourne facilitated a meeting of the 20 Committees for Cites and Regions organisations in Australia and New Zealand.
Priorities were shared for our collective Road to Recovery and Committee for Melbourne member NBN Co briefed the forum on the priorities of the national Broadband network in the current crisis.
Gavin Williams, Chief Development Officer, Regional Development & Engagement at NBN Co, spoke about the importance of digital connectivity and how NBN had played such an important role keeping people connected through COVID-19 restrictions, allowing people to work from home, run their businesses online and enable remote education.
“If ever we needed a national broadband network – it was this year,” Gavin said pointing out that the network had been supporting data requirements over 100% more than pre-COVID levels for a total of almost 7.5 million customers.
Gavin explained the recent NBN CO announcements to bring forward the next phase of planned network investment to help meet future demand for higher speed broadband services. It is clear that economic recovery will in part by driven by digital enablement and innovation.
NBN Co announced the first 130 of 250 Business Fibre Zones – with 25 of these in Victoria. These are in regional and metropolitan areas and include suburbs like Box Hill, Caufield, Hawthorn, Mornington, St Kilda and Chadstone and towns like Geelong, Shepparton, Ararat, Bendigo, Warrnambool and Wangaratta.
What this means is that businesses within these zones will have access to Enterprise Ethernet, allowing speeds of up to 1000MBps at significantly reduced wholesale prices.
And in the areas not initially captured under the Business Fibre Zones, NBN Co has committed $300 million to work with local councils and state governments to identify opportunities to extend business-grade services in regional and remote areas of Australia and $50 million to work with local communities for areas outside capitals.
NBN Co is actively engaging with local leaders in cities and regions based on the aligned motivations to drive the digital economy and support Australia’s road to recovery.