David Burns (Telstra)
Telstra is working alongside the Victorian government to increase internet speeds for over 1,600 government schools in the state with a combined investment of $100 million.
The agreement will see Victorian government school’s bandwidth speeds increase to a minimum of 1Mbps per student, with bandwidth ranging from 40Mbps to 3Gbps and schools receiving an aggregated bandwidth of 870Gbps.
In addition, the project will also deliver “equitable connectivity”, according to the telco, as part of what it calls a shared bandwidth bank, with Telstra claiming that metropolitan and regional students across the state will have the same connectivity performance.
The rollout has already started, with work completed at over 7,00 public schools.
“Telstra’s connectivity has proved crucial for Victorian students learning from home during COVID lockdowns and now they’ll have access to high-speed broadband whether they’re in classrooms in Melbourne or country Victoria,” said Telstra Enterprise Group executive David Burns.
Telstra will be contributing $40 million to the investment pool in capital works, with its key focus on improving connectivity in regional and rural areas that are unable to achieve increased broadband speeds.
“Telstra’s $40 million investment in high-speed broadband connectivity won’t just benefit Victorian schools, but the wider community, by laying the critical groundwork for flow on benefits to 4G and 5G mobile networks,” Burns added.
The telco has previously worked to overhaul internet services in schools, which includes its work in NSW announced last year to upgrade speeds for over 2,000 schools, which over 5,200km of fibrre expected to be used.
Telstra’s work with Victorian schools follows it renewing its agreement with the federal government’s Department of Defence for critical network and telecommunications services delivery in a new deal worth over $1 billion.
