Townsville to maximise NBN opportunities

The Queensland Treasurer and Minister for State Development and Trade, Andrew Fraser, recently announced the appointment of a Digital Business Development Officer to help Townsville businesses prepare for the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

Fraser said John Williams would work on the ground with Townsville businesses, economic development organisations and NBN Co to maximise opportunities for the region, adding: “Townsville will be the first cab off the rank in the NBN rollout as one of five NBN first release sites.

“Three thousand premises, including more than 270 businesses in Townsville suburbs, will be the first in Queensland and some of the first in Australia to receive an NBN connection.

“An NBN connection will offer up to 1 gigabit per second data speeds - 167 times faster than an average ADSL broadband connection and 17,500 times faster than dial-up.

“While the NBN will enable us to have faster internet, the real game changer is its ubiquity. It will allow us to have a truly borderless digital economy where people will be able to do business anywhere in the world. In other words, you’ll be able to live in Townsville and build a global business.”

The Member for Mundingburra, Lindy Nelson-Carr, said Williams was a local Townsville resident who had previously worked for the North Queensland Small Business Development Centre: “Williams’ work will play an important role in ensuring Townsville businesses maximise benefits from the NBN and explore opportunities for the region, including online business and cloud computing. Technological change together with globalisation has created a new global digital economy powered by technology, fuelled by information and driven by knowledge.

“The digital economy is being driven by computers, smartphones, game consoles, social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter, intelligent sensor networks and other related devices most people come into contact with every day.

“Queensland’s ICT industry will play a key role in assisting all other industry sectors to realise the benefits of NBN.”