Page 3334 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 18 September 2013
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Industry access to the NBN is supported through a range of grants programs and business advisory services, including Innovation Connect, of ICon, and the Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre. The government also supports leading-edge research and ICT innovation through funding NICTA and a number of other funding programs.
The ACT government recognises the importance of a ubiquitous, reliable high speed broadband for the ACT community and businesses and will work closely with NBN Co and the new government on the NBN rollout plans. More than 14,000 homes and businesses in Gungahlin can now connect to the NBN via fibre to the home. More than 50 per cent of homes and businesses around the Gungahlin town centre have signed up for the NBN, with retail service providers such as Telstra, Optus, iiNet, which was TransACT, and so on. This is one of the highest take-up rates in the country. Indeed, high speed broadband demand in Gungahlin has outstripped supply, with some customers having to wait at least 10 weeks to be connected.
The ACT government has secured federal government funding of $1.3 million for three Australian government digital economy programs that aim to maximise the benefits of the national broadband network. The digital enterprise program helps small to medium-size enterprises, or SMEs, and not-for-profit organisations maximise the opportunities from digital engagement. Targeted group training sessions and one-on-one advice assists participants to use the NBN to improve existing business processes and better achieve organisational goals.
The ACT digital enterprise centre based at the Canberra BusinessPoint facilities provided by the Canberra Business Council conducts training in cooperation with a digital hub at the Gungahlin library. The centre administers a dynamic training program for SMEs and not-for-profit organisations to enable them to use and develop high speed broadband applications and functionality to diversify and innovate. In its first five months of operation, the digital enterprise centre managed by the Canberra Business Council has organised 17 events for 152 business people and 55 one-on-one sessions for the business community.
The digital hubs program will help communities to gain the digital literacy skills needed to exploit the benefits provided by the NBN. The ACT government has established a state-of-the-art digital hub at the Gungahlin library and a dynamic NBN training program to improve digital literacy, user confidence and knowledge of NBN functionality for the benefit of the Canberra community. Since its launch in February 2013 the digital hub has provided 113 free community group training sessions and 384 individual sessions involving more than 600 members of the community.
The digital local government program helps local governments improve their online service delivery and encourages further innovation in online service delivery. The ACT government will establish the Canberra digital community connect using the broadband capability afforded by the NBN. The ACT government proposes to extend its existing online community consultation platform—time to talk—into a real-time interactive video platform for the Canberra community. Current technology trends suggest there will be an increasing demand for online consultation to include video engagement with government.
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