In a “game changing” leap for Tasmania’s digital innovation, a Launceston telecommunications company has switched on the fastest National Broadband Network connection in the country.
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On Tuesday morning in a brick building on Paterson Street, ARTAS Architects was provided the first gigabit NBN connection in Australia by Tasmanian telco, Launtel.
The connection will give ARTAS download speeds of about 1000 megabits per second – 100 times faster than the average internet connection and ten times faster than the existing NBN maximum speed.
At the launch on Tuesday, Launtel head of technology Damian Ivereigh said it “was hard to overstate the significance to Tasmania” of the new connection.
Telecommunications providers on the mainland have been reluctant to offer gigabit NBN services due to the high cost of upgrading copper NBN lines.
But Launceston was one of the first cities to be connected to Labor’s original fibre-to-the-premises NBN.
With only a complete fibre connection able to carry speeds of one gigabit – Launceston has faster internet capacity than major mainland cities.
Along with ARTAS, two other customers have signed on to Launtel’s gigabit service and will be connected in the next few weeks.
Mr Ivereigh was optimistic the speed available in Launceston would lure more mainland businesses south.
“Mainland companies are going to be looking at Tasmania for the first time thinking this is the only place we’ll be able to get a really fast internet connection,” he said.
At about $1000 each month, the gigabit connection is not cheap.
But ARTAS national group director Scott Curran said the decision to connect to the fastest internet in the nation would save time and allow the multi-national company to expand.
“We typically have files that are a gig in size and it means we spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for that file to download,” he said.
“This is a really good opportunity for us to be able to increase our capability.
“You can have your head office in Launceston and be able to operate nationally.”
To enable one gigabit speeds, Launtel was forced to make a multi-million dollar investment and buy network capacity.
About 30 customers are needed to make the service viable.