Be quick off the mark, says Conroy

THE race is on – and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy came to Grafton yesterday to help explain what will be needed to win.

The prize – to be one of the first regions in Australia to be upgraded in the National Broadband Network rollout. It has already begun in Tasmania.

Senator Conroy told telecommunication leaders at the Grafton Regional Gallery that councils, educators, medicos, artists, government agencies and business groups would need to work together if the Mid-North and North Coast region was to be considered as an early contender. He said the Federal Government would begin taking submissions to decide which region should be next in the rollout from December.

In a nutshell, the ambitious plan involves delivering high-speed fibre optic cabling (40 times faster than 512kbps) to 90 per cent of Australian homes – with the remaining 10 per cent of communities getting upgrades to their satellite networks to increase speed.

Senator Conroy told the gathering of many possible applications of the high speed connections including hospital-to-hospital patient diagnosis (quickening treatment and saving on airlifts), and real-time bushfire footage analysis.

Work on the region’s approach is well under way.

Member for Page Janelle Saffin started consultation with Southern Cross University and the Northern Region Organisation of Councils on the issue – months ago.

The group appearing to be taking the lead in the region is known as DIRECT or Digital Resilient Communities made up of representatives of SCU, Coffs Harbour City Council (CHCC) and general community members.

Professor of Information Technology at Southern Cross University’s Coffs Harbour Campus Peter Croll said a portal (website) had been set up on the issue with the help of CHCC and called for anyone interested to post their submissions to the site.

Professor Croll encouraged people to use the site to explain their intentions and needs for high-speed broadband ( www.chcc.nsw.gov.au/direct).