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The federal government has opened the second round of its grant program for commercial trials of 5G technology, putting up another $20 million in total.
The Australian 5G Innovation Initiative program, which was included as part of the 2020-2021 Budget and had its first round last February, offers grants to businesses to trial commercial uses of 5G technology.
The government initially offered $20 million over the two rounds before expanding the program to a total of $40 million.
As in round one, individual grants are on offer from $100,000 up to $2 million from a pool of $20 million, with applications for round two open from now until 11 April.
The grants are available for businesses that plan to provide an offering that focuses on at least one of three areas: enhanced mobile broadband; ultra reliable, low latency communications; or massive machine-to-machine communications.
The first round had 19 projects within its remit, one of which was an underground 5G LTE development with Perth-based industrial wireless, internet of things (IoT) and enterprise communications provider Aqura Technologies, which received $1.93 million for its proposal.
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Paul Fletcher said back in February 2021, when the government released details for the first round of the program, that it was expected to encourage rapid deployment of 5G technology.
“I encourage Australian businesses across all sectors to consider how 5G can benefit them and apply for funding through this Initiative,” Minister Fletcher said at the time.
“Whether it is the use of sophisticated sensors on farm animals to provide information about their welfare in real time or using 5G in factories to monitor machinery to detect faults and do maintenance, reducing breakdowns and increasing efficiency: the opportunities are endless and I encourage all sectors to tell us how 5G can make a difference to their business.”
