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Barossa Light
The community broker worked collaboratively with Internet service providers (ISPs), all levels of government, the Barossa and Light community and sectoral leaders to encourage broadband infrastructure investment totalling $3.2 million.
The broker identified clusters of business with compatible telecommunications requirements, and matched them with the best solution to improve communications technology throughout the region.
To successfully develop broadband markets where there may have been pockets of existing or potential demand which were either too small or too isolated to be attractive to suppliers, the broker held information and community awareness sessions. These were vital in identifying local champions to help to drive the project.
More than 900 registrations were collected from across the region, which dramatically altered how prospective investors perceived the region's broadband market.
That level of interest dramatically altered how prospective investors perceived the market. The result was a commitment from Telstra to install broadband enabling infrastructure (digital subscriber line access multiplexer or DSLAM) in six regional townships.
The Barossa Light Regional Development Board (LRDB) continued to coordinate demand outside ADSL coverage to create an attractive region-wide business case. It asked Internet service providers to express an interest in bringing metropolitan-comparable broadband services to the entire Barossa and Light region and effectively eliminating black spots.
All the companies who responded did not believe the region's broadband market would support the type of infrastructure needed to deliver a quality region-wide broadband solution. To make the region's market commercially viable BLRDB partnered with Amcom and gained additional funding of $596 500 under the South Australian state government's Broadband Development Fund (BDF).
The funding contributed to the Barossa & Light Broadband Connectivity Infrastructure Project, worth $2.9 million.
Besides increasing coverage, the BLD Broadband Demand Aggregation Broker project created an attractive opportunity for another telco/ISP to enter the region's market. This will be vital to the long-term sustainability of the region's economy.
Achievements
- Seven exchanges have been ADSL-enabled in the region.
- One wireless provider (Amcom) who also provides DSL services.
- The project has also leveraged $596 500 from the SA Government's Broadband Connectivity Infrastructure Project to build a $2.9 million project to deliver affordable region wide broadband services.