IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

IBM and IBISWorld have released a report titled “A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050”, which claims Australia is entering a hyper digital era, where high-speed broadband will play a critical part in changing the way people live and work, and reconfigure the Australian economy.

NBN Co said the NBN would be rolled out using fibre and fixed wireless technologies to Bendigo south and surrounds, Mount Helen, Yarraville, Seddon, Werribee and Avenel.

More than 41,000 homes are already connected to the NBN.

Yesterday, as reported by iTWire, the government touted the decision by ICT solutions company, Data#3, to open its new integration centre in the Melbourne suburb of Braeside, creating an additional 25 new jobs in Victoria.

And, today it announced new initiatives to exploit the opportunities offered by broadband and the NBN, trotting out projects designed to bring a range of e-services to special groups like the elderly or to communities in regional areas of the state.

The study of potential productivity gains from train-based wifi internet on V/Line services is being conducted by the not-for-profit organisation Ballarat ICT and is supported by V/Line, the Victorian Government, Regional Development Australia and the City of Ballarat.

Researcher Dr Timothy James said the five-minute online survey was one step in building the business case for internet on Victoria’s regional train network.

The Regional Cystic Fibrosis e-Health and Tele-monitoring Programme is a new pilot project being funded by the Victorian Coalition Government’s Broadband Enabled Innovation Programme. This programme is being managed by Monash University.

Maßgebend ist das Federal Communications Commission's Internet Policy Statement, mit dem die Regierung verhindern will, dass einzelne Unternehmen Inhalte blocken oder die Übertragungsrate nach eigenem Ermessen drosseln. Die Richtlinien sehen vor, das den Kunden mindestens ein Downstream von 768 Kbps und ein Upstream von 200 Kbps geboten werden muss.

Laut einer Studie des Wissenschaftliche Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste (WIK) bleibt die Bundesrepublik beim Breitbandausbau unter ihren Möglichkeiten. So wollen die internationalen Spitzenreiter Australien und Singapur Bandbreiten von bis zu 100 Mbit/s bei einer Netzabdeckung von 90 Prozent und mehr realisieren – hier wirken die deutschen Pläne mit ihren 50 Mbit/s bei einem angestrebten Abdeckungsgrad von 75 Prozent, nach Angaben der Studienmacher, vergleichsweise mickrig.

The national broadband network (NBN) telehealth pilot program will more readily connect healthcare providers with patients, especially in regional, rural and outer metropolitan areas.

A telehealth pilot is being trialled in an area of NBN coverage – with first round of services to be operational by July 2012.

From snowy mountains and sun-baked deserts to the steamy tropical north, Australia has begun wiring its vast expanse with a high-tech broadband network in a giant project being closely followed abroad.

Workmen are already digging trenches in island state Tasmania, the first step in a US$37 billion scheme which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calls Australia's biggest ever infrastructure venture.

I sat at a roundtable held at the Australian High Commission in Singapore yesterday with a trade delegation from Australia, made up of organisations including peak industry bodies the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and the Communications Alliance and iiNet, an Australian internet provider.

The plan is to connect businesses and homes across Australia with a “super-fast broadband network”, in a project spanning ten years.

“Current target is to complete all 10 network facilities centres by mid-2012,” explained Russell Perry, Director, Marketing & Customer Insight, Emerson Network Power, the company that has been awarded the contract.

Australia is gunning to be ranked in the top five OECD countries by 2020 for broadband connections to the home and for the number of businesses using online opportunities as part of the Government's freshly launched National Digital Economy Strategy.

Australia currently ranks 18th in OECD broadband connection rankings with 23.4 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Launching the strategy at the Cebit conference, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy said: "maximising the benefit of the digital economy requires action by all levels of government, industry and the community as a whole.”

Australians in rural and remote areas will gain access to fast and affordable broadband services under government plans to design and build two new satellites that deliver high-speed broadband services to communities outside major cities and towns.

These two satellites, being supported by fixed wireless and fibre networks of the National Broadband Network (NBN Co), will deliver universal broadband coverage across the entire Australian continent, and external territories for the first time.

AMA Federal President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said faster broadband would make it easier for doctors in rural and regional areas to consult with city colleagues when diagnosing and treating patients.

As part of its "call to arms" the ACS also announced the establishment of a National Telecommunications Special Interest Group and an alliance with the Telecommunication Society of Australia to address the critical issue of delivery of remote services. Speaking at Wireless World in Sydney, ACS communications technologies board director, Professor Reg Coutts, said infrastructure was needed to support telecommuting, video conferencing and data exchange.

Telecommunications is a national issue and therefore requires government involvement; this is not unique to Australia but applies to all jurisdictions. Unfortunately over the past 10 years, policies have been concentrated on getting the government out of telecommunications.

The funding has been awarded to the SkyConnect satellite network, which will increase bandwidth to NT educational institutions and health clinics and enable remote health and education applications.

Austrade, in partnership with the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR), will take delegates to Japan, Korea and Singapore to gain business insights towards the development of Australian national broadband network applications and services.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion with representatives from the Singapore Government held at the Australian High Commission, Peter Kambouris, Business Development and Commercialisation for the Federal Government’s lead research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO), said that several areas of the Australian economy would be impacted by the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network (NBN).

A report from the US has revealed Australia has become the Third World of broadband developed nations, ranking 26th out of 30 countries for its transfer speeds.