Federal Broadband Minister Senator Stephen Conroy recently joined industry leaders and visionaries at a high level conference held by the City of Whittlesea to showcase the potential of the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) and how it will transform community life.
The ‘National Broadband Network – Possibilities and Practicalities for Local Government Conference’ saw Senator Conroy outline the program vision and answer questions from conference attendees.
Whittlesea Mayor Councillor Mary Lalios said the conference was aimed at Local Government leaders, economic development professionals, planners, engineers, developers, policy makers and anyone interested in getting the most out of the Federal Government’s $43 billion investment in community infrastructure.
It was a fitting event for the City of Whittlesea, which was the first council to mandate developers to install council owned conduits to stimulate carriers to invest in fibre optic infrastructure in 2000. The municipality now has 8,000 lots with these conduits.
“This was a ground breaking conference and a terrific opportunity for everyone involved to find out what the future possibilities, opportunities and realities are,” Councillor Lalios said.
The NBN is expected to cover over 90 per cent of the population and will transform the way communities and individuals communicate, receive services and carry out business.
“We are working together with Federal, State and Local Government to leverage the best possible outcomes to benefit our communities,” Councillor Lalios said. “It was great to be recognised by Senator Conroy as a leader in this field.”
The conference built on the progress Council has already made on introducing fast broadband networks for the local community in the City of Whittlesea.
“Those Local Governments that attended the NBN conference realised the value of those opportunities to their local communities,” said Council’s Manager Organisation Development Brad Wynter.
The conference heard from experts such as Lou Zacharilla, cofounder of the Intelligent Community Forum, who outlined what the major cities in the world are implementing to get the most out of the information economy using broadband.
