Broadband rollout to 1600 Vic schools underway

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 23 October 2005 17:51

Your IT - Home IT

Work has started to provide broadband Internet services to more than 1600 Victorian Government school under the Victorian Government's $89 million VicSmart initiative funded in this year's State Budget.

Education services minister, Jacinta Allan, said the upgrade process had been accelerated and would occur in two phases. All schools will have a broadband connection of at least 2Mbps by the end of 2006; and, by the end of 2008, all Victorian schools will be provided with a 4Mbps fibre connection.

The minister for information and communication technology, Marsha Thomson, said: "Earlier this year the Bracks Government aggregated its telecommunications demand and obtained the best overall telecommunications deal in Australia, cutting telecommunications costs to Government by $200 million over five years...This increased broadband use will see Telstra, as the Government's broadband supplier, invest more than $100 million in infrastructure across the state, which will benefit all Victorians."

The VicSmart Broadband initiative is part of the Bracks Government's $1.5 billion ICT investment in Victorian schools in the past five years. This has included a $1million trial of interactive electronic whiteboards; a $6 million program to provide every government school with a secure wireless network; a $23 million initiative to improve the computer to student ratio and to install computer networks in schools; a $30 million ICT support program for specialist technicians; notebook computers for teachers and principals valued at $22.4 million a year; $7 million ICT grants to schools for computers and IT infrastructure