Rural Australia needs more initiative in sustaining development and innovation through the use of Telecommunications technology, such as the use of internet and a focus on availability.
Fortunately, the Australian Communications Consumer Action formed a coalition, along with other 14 organisations that advocate better telecommunications services, particularly for remote and regional areas.
According to CRN, the Regional, Rural and Remote Communications Coalition is a combination of other like-minded groups like the Country Women’s Association, AgForce Queensland, National Farmers’ Federation or NFF and the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association.
Teresa Corbin, chief executive of ACCAN spoke about the coalition’s goals that aim to give spotlight to the various concerns of consumers, businesses and communities regarding the lack of access to a fast and reliable Internet connection, especially in remote and rural areas.
Ms Corbin said, “2017 must be the year of delivering real improvements to digital connectivity in the bush.”
Furthermore, ACCAN stated the five fundamental outcomes that they hope to achieve. And though Ms Corbin said that these are “ambitious,” they are very achievable as it reflects the changes needed in the rural communities.
These outcomes are:
- A universal service obligation that is technology neutral and provides access to both voice and data;
- Customer service guarantees and reliability measures to underpin the provision of voice and data services and deliver more accountability from providers and NBN;
- Long-term public funding for open access mobile network expansion in rural and regional Australia;
- Fair and equitable access to Sky Muster satellite services for those with a genuine need for the service, and access which reflects the residential, educational and business needs of rural and regional Australia; and
- Fully resourced capacity building programs that build digital ability, and provide learning and effective problem solving support for regional, rural and remote businesses and consumers.
With the National Broadband Network (nbn®) accelerated rollout and a new satellite internet launched late last year, these five outcomes are more than doable.
The nbn®’s Sky Muster satellite brings better satellite internet connectivity to regional Australia. To get onboard Sky Muster, call Activ8me today 13 22 88 or visit: https://activ8me.net.au/internet/skymuster