THE $9.8m joint communications network upgrade on King Island, announced in 2021 and completed last month, was officially launched and celebrated last week with the key project investment stakeholders.
Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland attended the launch at the King Island Golf and Bowling Club, with Tasmanian Labor Senator Anne Urquhart, Braddon Liberal MHR Gavin Pearce and King Island Mayor Marcus Blackie also attending along with collaboration partners and project deliverers Telstra.
The network upgrade includes the world’s longest superfast 10 Gbps microwave link and is labelled a “world first”. It stretches more than 100km from Mt Cowley, Victoria to Cape Wickham.
The transformation project included four new 4G mobile sites and upgrades to existing mobile network facilities across the island. The promise is improved mobile coverage, increased bandwidth, and the capacity to support high-speed data connections that are required by many companies, local users and will meet the needs of the everevolving digital highway including 5G and beyond.
The upgrade increases King Island’s capability and provides infrastructure that allows high-demand digital-reliant businesses to consider King Island as a potential business location.
Telstra Tasmania regional manager Michael Patterson said the project was made possible due to co-investment from Telstra, and Federal, State, and local governments. Mr Patterson told King Island Radio that a collaboration of this nature was not the easiest thing to achieve, but the King Island project has done just that.
“Programs such as this, where carriers and governments work together to share the cost… helps enable all Australians to keep in touch and participate in the digital economy,” he said.
Mr Blackie acknowledged the financial stakeholders, the ratepayers of King Island and the Telstra employees who had to operate in a variety of conditions.
“The bold ambitions on King Island to continue to grow, to develop and to increase our population in the immediate future… and the communications upgrade will certainly drive and facilitate our future vision,” he said.
The upgrade provides access to essential digital services, including healthcare, education skills and training. And will support connectivity for the new Regional University Study Hub, to be co-located at the King Island Community Hub. Senator Urquhart said the boosted connectivity will be an improvement for locals, business and tourism.
Ms Urquhart urged King Islanders to directly raise any connectivity and mobile issues that they may have.
“Let us know what the issues are so we can look at how we can resolve them if we need to,” she said.
Mr Pearce said King Island had been hindered by its lack of infrastructure, adding that he advocated for the island to be included when the regional connectivity program was introduced in 2020.
“It was a long hard road to secure this investment, but it was a challenge I was up for,” he said. “I knew this was King Island’s window of opportunity.”
