IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

In March communications minister Stephen Conroy and prime minster, Julia Gillard, chose a retail store in Perth to announce that they would release, at the end of May, a National Digital Economy Strategy.

They promised that: "The National Digital Economy Strategy will provide the framework that will enable industry and business to build on and take full advantage of this world class infrastructure [the NBN]."

While the recently published results of the House of Representatives investigation into the role and potential of the NBN were predictably split along party lines, the reports from both the majority and the minority stressed the importance of the demand-side activity of the NBN.

The consultation was like many others Professor Boyce conducts at his practice in Lismore, northern New South Wales, but with one big difference: the patient was almost 2000 kilometres away in Cairns.

Later contributions by Nikola Tesla and others formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power systems, which helped usher in the second industrial revolution. Their work paved the way for subsequent "game changers" such as lighting, heating, communication and more recently computing.

According to the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development: "In the same way that the construction of electricity grids and transport links spurred innovation far beyond the dreams of their builders, high-speed broadband networks are a platform for progress."

Expected NBN upload speeds of one megabit per second in remote areas will make the real-time streaming needed for electronic health and education delivery impossible, Indigenous Remote Communications Association manager Linda Chellew says.

"Most services requiring real-time streaming applications won't work with a slow upload,'' Ms Chellew said.

The NBN has been designed to offer uniform wholesale pricing, which means the cost for companies accessing the network should be the same whether the consumer lives in inner-city Sydney or in Cobar.

However, the NBN business plan, released just before the Christmas break, suggests uniform pricing only relates to the service from a customer’s home to one of the network’s 120 exchange points.

Dr Ash Collins, a GP based in Temora in regional NSW, said that his practice had been using telemedicine over the last 18 months over a 100 kbps link. Although this was already delivering benefits, and had saved patients about 160 500 km round trips to see specialists in major metropolitan areas, higher internet speeds would improve the quality of care.

Associate Professor Geoffrey Brooke-Cowden from the University of Notre Dam has been in negotiations for several years to establish the trial that will allow patients to a have a face to face consultation with a general practitioner in another town.

He says he has been negotiating for funding with indigenous groups and the state government.

Keith Besgrove, First Assistant Secretary of the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, told at the Cisco Live conference in Melbourne that they would soon carry out e-health projects in certain regions and a trial to reduce the number of type two diabetes patients in Townsville.

National Broadband Network (NBN) trial sites in Townsville, Queensland and Armidale, New South Wales are in the process of rolling out separate trials over the NBN designed to help Townsville type two diabetes sufferers and, in Armidale, offer remote access to TAFE courses.

Speaking at the Cisco Live conference in Melbourne, Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy First Assistant Secretary, Keith Besgrove, said the Townsville trial, which is scheduled to run for 18 months, would involve in home monitoring via video of the type two diabetes patients in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Health. The trial is due to commence within the next two months.

The Federal Government must do a better job of publicly clarifying the objectives of its National Broadband Network (NBN), attendees at the Communications and Policy Research Forum 2011 have heard.

Speaking at the forum in Sydney, Canadian broadband researcher Catherine Middleton of Ryerson University, said there was a disconnect between the NBN as ‘infrastructure’ and the way that it was being promoted to the public.

About 6600 homes and businesses in NSW have been added to the high-speed broadband rollout list.

They will join the 131,500 premises already able to access the NBN across Australia.

The latest rollout should take about 12 months to complete.

The Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia says "crucial IT communication issues" need to be understood in the context of continuing reliance on satellite in remote areas excluded from the National Broadband Network.

Patients in remote parts of Sweden are seeing doctors more promptly, owing to the country’s nationwide broadband policy.

Countries such as South Korea and Japan have seen soaring broadband take-up rates, but Sweden was one of the first countries to develop a comprehensive broadband policy focused on delivering community benefits. Sweden’s broadband take-up now rivals the Asian early-adopters, but it also has the most "digitally connected economy in the world", according to a World Economic Forum report.

The Digital Hub will assist in training communities and helping local people and businesses take advantage of the opportunities the NBN offers.

From the federal government’s $23.6 million NBN Digital Hubs and Digital Enterprise programs, Adelaide City Council will receive $630209 to establish a Digital Hub at the Grote Street Library.

Earlier this week Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan launched the National Broadband Network in Townsville. This is the first place in Queensland to benefit from the NBN rollout and Conroy said that both businesses and residents in the area would benefit hugely from access to the NBN.

Mr Swan also commented on the NBN rollout in the area, stating: “The launch of the NBN today is yet another example of how the Gillard Government is delivering for North Queensland. The NBN will significantly support growth and create business opportunities for Townsville with its diverse regional economy and strengths in mining and agriculture.”

The high-speed internet will become the lifeblood of towns like Birdsville and Bedourie, Diamantina Shire chief executive Scott Mason says.

It will boost economic growth, education and health care.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) will deliver faster satellite broadband, but the council is planning to put its own money up to get fibre optic links for the region.

The CSIRO today released a paper called Caring for the last 3 per cent: telehealth potential broadband implications for remote Australia which is intended as a framework to help clinicians determine which telehealth applications can be safely deployed in which areas after giving due consideration to bandwidth and latency issues.

Six remote Queensland towns have proposed building their own redundant 1,350 kilometre fibre link to allow residents and visitors to the area to benefit from high-speed broadband services.

Led by Barcoo Shire mayor Bruce Scott and Diamantina Shire mayor Rob Dare, the project would serve a consolidated stable population of 700 people and a transitive population of approximately 100,000 garnered through tourism and transportation as part of the towns' cattle industry.

The proposed link would interconnect with Telstra backhaul that ran between Quilpie, Longreach and Mt Isa.

Regardless of which broadband network we end up with, telehealth – which promises to deliver a consistent level of care to patients through remote access to medical care – will be among the biggest beneficiaries.