Isolated towns enjoying benefits of NBN

It has been reported that several isolated towns in Tasmania are continuing to enjoy the benefits of the National Broadband Network, having been plugged into the new technology since the middle of last year.

According to a recent report several isolated towns in Tasmania are continuing to benefit from being linked up to the National Broadband Network, which they have been plugged into since the middle of last year. When the service was first installed in Tasmania the three towns, Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point, were chosen because they were isolated and they were said to have an aging population.

By installing the service in these towns officials believed that they would be able to monitor any problems and issues, as the towns posed a number of challenges such as the age of residents and their isolated location. It has been reported recently that the towns have benefitted hugely from the NBN and are continuing to reap the benefits.

Patrick Bakes, the principal of the Circular Head Christian School in Smithton, said that his students had been given some real opportunities as a result of the technology. He said: “Instead of saying we can only use a textbook or only use a very limited webpage, you’ve now got all of the multimedia that comes packaged with the internet. Anything that helps them access the technology effectively enhances learning, so the NBN is doing that. But the great potential of the NBN into the future is for schools like ours that are separated from large parts of Australia can use video technology to make face-to-face contact with other schools, other students, other industries.”

Andrew Finch from the Department of Education said that there were more schools to be connected but the department wanted to be sure that the network met “whole-of-government communications” before agreeing to installation at the other schools. He said: “Issues such as filtering of inappropriate content and viruses and access to the secure Government network are important prerequisites which need to be covered before those schools can move to the NBN.”

Source – Business Spectator