Plugging rural Queensland into global telecommunications

Communications in Australia's isolated rural communities could be as accessible and developed as in any major city, if a project promoted by University of Queensland engineers can attract seed funding.

The project is being promoted by the University's technology transfer company, UniQuest Limited to provide fully integrated telecommunications packages for individual communities in outback regions.

Mr Ray Whitehead, a senior project manager (consulting and research) with UniQuest, said the seed funding sought was modest, under $100,000, but the project had the potential to revolutionise telecommunications in outback Australia.

'Success with pilot projects would not only be of enormous benefit to rural Australia, hooking every community up to the very latest telecommunications technology available, but it would also provide Australia with an export commodity likely to have huge market potential in India, Africa and parts of Asia,' Mr Whitehead said.

Mr Whitehead said the proposal would result in the development of a detailed business plan and then, with further funding, the establishment of three pilot sites, drawing on an amalgam of expertise and developments within the University.

He said key engineers involved in the project would include Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department Associate Professor Marek Bialkowski who headed the development of a flat direct broadcast satellite replacing large-dish antennas, and Professor Mike Cherniakov who has extensive experience in rural and remote communications systems from 20 years in this field in Russia.

'Basic telecommunication services to low-population areas are heavily subsidised by higher-density areas which means, in Australia, the cities pick up the tab for the bush,' Mr Whitehead said.

'This Rural Communities Initiative project would result in improved communications infrastructure in remote regions, the development of knowledge-based industries in those areas, diversified rural economies, and development of a communications product potentially worth millions to Australia.

'A cost centre could instead contribute to the national accounts.'

Mr Whitehead said 300 recognised rural centres in Queensland and 2000 in Australia could benefit from the initiative.

'We envisage that after each telecommunications system is put in place, and the structure of each community service provider is established, management and ultimately ownership could pass to local organisations and the local community,' Mr Whitehead said.

The community intranet initiative is based on a wired community connected to a local area network with the local community service provider delivering an integrated service comprising video, data, voice, and electronic commerce.

Major duplex trunk links with wireless base stations would be either microwave or fibre and consumers, such as large property owners, would link to the base via duplex wireless trunk or establish their own base stations.

This initiative could extend and enhance current Government initiatives such as Connect-Ed and Queensland On-Line, he said.

'The cornerstone of the project is the establishment of local organisations that can aggregate leading-edge telecommunications, multimedia, internet and television services into a highly localised and customised service for the target community,' Mr Whitehead said.

'The community service provider will eventually supply the entire community needs for telecommunications and television, including development of a community intranet and local system of electronic commerce, that can be linked into the wider electronic commerce market.

'When fully developed every resident would have an email address and an on-line presence.

'Because of the deregulation of the Australian telecommunications market we believe we have a three-year opportunity window to develop the system and package it for export.'

For further information please call Mr Whitehead, UniQuest, telephone (07) 3365 3802