New national high speed broadband network has been signed - Sept 07
On 9 September, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan, announced that the funding agreement for a new national high speed broadband network has been signed with OPEL Networks, a joint venture between rural group Elders and Optus.
The new scalable national OPEL network will include the very best mix of technologies, including:
- a new state of the art wireless broadband network, with 1,361 new wireless broadband WiMAX sites being rolled out across the country;
- a further 312 exchanges will also be enabled with very fast ADSL2+ broadband for the first time (with an additional 114 exchanges being enabled by Optus on a fully commercial basis); and
- 15,000km of fibre optic backhaul to extend the broadband highways that link rural areas back to major city centres.
Source: www.minister.dcita.gov.au/media/media_releases/new_opel_project_underway
