Under the Federal Government’s Broadband Development Network program, managed in Tasmania by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism in conjunction with the TECC, both organisations will be collaborating with local government in ensuring that the state’s broadband priorities are progressed at the regional and community level.

Given the commitment of the Tasmanian Government to commercialise its optic fibre network as an open access wholesale network, the potential exists to deliver high and very-high capacity broadband services which are currently not available in Tasmania. This will open up tremendous regional development opportunities for the Tasmanian local government sector and compliments the LGAT 2008 Waves of Change Conference theme.

The focus of the Broadband Development Network project on regional broadband opportunities will help support local government and communities to increase their understanding and access to broadband infrastructure and network rollout opportunities, as well as identifying and documenting priority areas for new and/or improved broadband services.