Broad appeal for local NBN rollout | Coffs Coast News | Local News in Coffs Coast

EXCITED: SCU academic Professor Peter Croll.

IT was a day Professor Peter Croll will never forget.

The Southern Cross University academic has been the driving force behind the region’s NBN submission success.

He believes with education, the health sector will be the biggest beneficiaries of the technology windfall initially.

“The NBN network will be particularly important for health in relation to research trials, remote consultation, video conferencing and live medical procedures,” Professor Croll said yesterday.

“This allows potential for medical procedures to be done by specialists from any location in the world bringing medical expertise to rural locations.”

Prof. Croll said under the digital economy, a high speed communication network will not only enhance services but revolutionise the way they are provided to the community.

“I think it’s also advantageous for larger businesses and corporations to relocate to this area to receive the same infrastructure they expect in metropolitan areas,” he said.

“The roll-out into Coffs Harbour is expected to commence next year and from there it’s planned that NBN will be an eight year program nationally.”

Coffs Harbour mayor Keith Rhoades singled out one other key individual who helped bring about yesterday’s big announcement.

“A great deal of the credit for achieving this result must go to the Federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, who was instrumental in co-ordinating the councils and businesses regionally and lobbying in Canberra for an early roll-out for the North Coast,” he said.

The new sites are:

Victoria – Bacchus Marsh, South Morang (Melbourne);

Queensland – Brisbane (inner north), Springfield Lakes, Toowoomba;

NSW – Riverstone (western Sydney), Coffs Harbour;

South Australia – Modbury, Prospect;

Western Australia – Victoria Park (Perth), Geraldton, Mandurah;

Northern Territory – Casuarina; and

ACT – Gungahlin

Why Coffs Coast wants broadband

THE National Broadband Network (NBN) submission made by the Regional Futures Institute and Southern Cross University outlined in great detail how and why our region would benefit from early access to the new technology.

Here’s a sample of what the experts and academics put to government to help achieve yesterday’s goal.

The National Broadband Network presents our regional businesses with an opportunity to grasp a long-term advantage over their global competition.

Our small to medium business enterprises understand the value of doing business in the digital economy and they are eagerly awaiting the connectivity the NBN will bring to enable them to transform and expand their organisations.

Our traditional agribusiness sector is on the verge of shifting into new niche markets and increased use of monitoring equipment for sustainable land management.

Manufacturing is a well established and growing sector that will be able to convert the connectivity into improved productivity, adopt more collaborative and consumer focused products as well as increased access to markets.

The emergent and burgeoning sector of environmental management holds enormous promise for increased growth and collaboration in the merger of technology and green skills.

The creative industry sector provides a host of opportunities to stimulate employment, economic growth, and healthy communities in the context of rapid population growth.

Tourism is a major contributor to the regional economy and the NBN will enable a host of new opportunities for regions and operators to attract new visitors, expand their experiences and

diversify the range of business services.

The digital economy is central to the finance industry’s product and service delivery models, and this is especially critical for locally based providers as they compete with the major banks.

And the case to base the roll-out from the Coffs Harbour Education Campus . . .

The Eastern Regional Corridor would see numerous benefits from the location of a Regional NBN Co-ordinator at the Coffs Harbour Education Campus (CHEC) as:

Southern Cross University is committed to the NBN with the construction of a state-of-the-art research and demonstration Broadband Hub as part of the newly announced $10 million upgrade of facilities at CHEC;

Coffs Harbour is centrally located halfway between Sydney and Brisbane with this central location offering easy access to almost anywhere in the State via road, rail or air;

There is an existing and well established collaborative environment with local government, businesses and industry sectors which is working to ensure that e-Business is on the agenda;

The Coffs Harbour Education Campus provides a non-competitive and open environment for industry to access and it is the main campus for Information Technology education and research;

Coffs Harbour Education Campus is a collaboration between three education sectors – Southern Cross University, TAFE and Secondary School with support from local gov’t;

The campus is home to the Coffs Harbour Innovation Centre and Technology Park.