An insight into Tasmania’s digital potential was exposed on Monday in an ABC report on New Zealand’s broadband network, a Launceston telecommunications provider believes.
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Damian Ivereigh, chief executive of Launtel, was disappointed in the low level of detail in the ABC’s Four Corners program about the National Broadband Network.
He said while the program was heavy on the politics of the NBN rollout, the program’s snub of Tasmania and its fibre network showed mainland Australia did not realise how fast the state’s internet was.
“It was almost like a bit of a pitchfork moment, rather than what can we do to fix it,” he said of the report.
On the Monday night program, Four Corners travelled to Dunedin, New Zealand, to explore its fibre-to-the-premises broadband.
In Australia, Launceston and Hobart are the only places with gigabit internet capacity – provided through Mr Ivereigh’s company, Launtel.
He said Dunedin’s take-up of super-fast broadband was a window into what Tasmania’s digital scene could be like a few years time.
“I think the biggest problem we’ve got in Tasmania is letting people know we’ve got it,” Mr Ivereigh said of the gigabit fibre internet.
While the fight between the federal government and the opposition about who is to blame for the NBN continues, Mr Ivereigh expected the Four Corners report would not change anything.
“It’s unfortunately too little too late in terms of the internet capability,” he said.
“If this had been built by 2016 as originally promised it would have made a lot more sense.”
Mr Ivereigh expected that by 2020 – when the network is tipped to be completed – the nation’s bandwidth requirements will have increased.