Serial Entrepreneur Bevan Slattery today called on the Federal Government and Federal Opposition to take urgent action to secure Tasmania’s telecommunications future by supporting his plan to build a new secure, stable optic fibre connection to the mainland.
Telstra’s massive 1 March outage was devastating for Tasmanians, including Tassie small businesses who were left high and dry without critical phone, internet, TV and even some emergency services.
“We are hearing reports that the outages have cost the Tasmanian economy in excess of twenty million dollars and even services in Hobart’s hospital were out, impacting patient care.
“It’s time for our politicians to no longer treat Tasmanians like second class Australians”
Mr Slattery today announced at the nation’s leading telecommunication conference, Commsday Congress in Melbourne that with a $30m federal commitment HyperOne could fast-track building a new, secure, hyperspeed fibre optic cable as part of their fibre network build – to finally give Tasmanians the connectivity they have been asking for.
“With a commitment from the federal government, we can bring forward fibre construction to Tasmania. We can start now and have it built and operating in 2024,” he said.
“Tasmanians cannot and should not have to wait until 2027, at the earliest, for new fibre connectivity to their state. Recent Telstra outages have shown that new connectivity links are urgent for Tasmania now.”
Mr Slattery also committed to dedicate 400Gbps of this to AARNet to help foster research and innovation in Tasmania- creating more high paid jobs for locals. “
400Gbps of new fibre for AARNet is a gamechanger for research in Tasmania. Secure fibre can bring so many new, exciting innovations and jobs. It’s time to get this done now.”
For further information:
Hon. Kate Jones – kate@soda.co
0475 961 199
PR Archives: Latest, By Company, By Date