Adam Internet takes bite out of Adelaide blackspot funding

James Riley
Friday, 14 August 2009 14:07

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Home-grown South Australian ISP Adam Internet has won a multi-million Government contract to roll-out a Wimax wireless network to service Adelaide broadband blackspots.

The State Government will provide an initial $3 million from its Broadband Development Fund to push the project forward, while Adam Internet will also receive Commonwealth funding for each new connection it signs up in the designated areas through the Australian Broadband Guarantee.

Adam Internet is expected to put up as much as $12 million of its money to build the network, although much of that will be clawed back through the Commonwealth funding program.

South Australian Minister for Science and Technology said the project would create 110 new jobs during its construction and customer connection phase, while 75 permanent jobs would be required in the longer term.

O’Brien said about 10 per cent of residential and business properties across Adelaide were unable to access ADSL services. The full Adam Internet Wimax roll-out is expected to be completed in about 15 months.

With the full roll-out of NBN services still five to seven years away, the company expects to make a comfortable return, while preparing the way to take advantage of the NBN open access network.

Adam Internet chairman Greg Hicks said the so-called AdamMax service could “easily upgraded to take advantage of technology developments as they become available.”

The AdamMax service will be metropolitan-wide, giving the company access to more than 50,000 potential new customer premises.

Minister O’Brien said the broadband blackspot initiative would bolster the South Australian economy.

“A study by economics consulting firm, Systems Knowledge Concepts has shown that the economic benefit to the State of this initiative is estimated to be more than $87 million over five years,” Mr O’Brien said.

“About 10 per cent of residential, commercial and industrial, properties across metropolitan Adelaide are unable to use ADSL, the most common form of broadband access,” Mr O’Brien said.