Initiative 6: Telecommunications

The Telecommunications initiative was designed to investigate whether, and if so, to what extent the telecommunications infrastructure and services available to the ICT sector inhibited their growth. Ovum Pty Ltd was commissioned to undertake the study.

Ovum's final report outlined the current status of telecommunication services in Tasmania and their impact on the development of the ICT sector. The consultant concluded that the best opportunity available to Tasmania was the potential to deploy optical fibre as part of the domestic reticulation of gas together with the deployment of additional optical fibre capacity across Bass Strait as part of the BassLink project.

The report provided the impetus for the Tasmanian Government to take action to ensure that it capitalised on the opportunities presented by the domestic reticulation of gas. For example, laying of the optical fibre cable in the same trench as the gas pipeline.

The Ovum report also contributed to the establishment of the Tasmanian Research and Education Network (TREN), which is part of the Australian Research and Education Network (AREN). The Tasmanian Government has reserved at least 2.5Gbps capacity on the major backbone connecting North, South and North-West Tasmania with the Bass Strait optic fibre cable for use by TREN. This substantial increase in bandwidth will support Tasmanian’s competitive advantage in the areas of oceanography, informatics and health research.

A copy of the Ovum report can be found at www.development.tas.gov.au/intelligent/intelligentinfo.html