fixing the digital divide€¦ · the digital divide and drive regional economic development with...

FIXING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE Connecting communities in regional Victoria

Published by Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions 1 Spring Street Melbourne, Victoria 3000 Telephone +61 (0) 3 9651 9999

March 2019

© Copyright State Government of Victoria 2019 This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.

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ISBN 978-1-76090-005-2 (Print) ISBN 978-1-76090-006-9 (pdf/online/MS word)

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 02

THE NEED FOR DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY IN REGIONAL VICTORIA 03

OUTLINE OF INITIATIVES 04

OUTLINE OF INITIATIVES MAP OF VICTORIA 16

Digital connectivity is fundamental to people’s lives. It underpins the economic and social development of communities, breaks down barriers of cost and distance, and opens up exciting opportunities for Victorian business to compete on the world stage.

People living in regional Victoria often have less positive digital experiences to those in the city. In some regional and rural areas, a lack of connectivity can make it hard to do business, access information, make mobile phone calls or use education and lifestyle tools like social media.

This digital divide is unacceptable. All Victorians deserve to have access to the same digital services – no matter where they live.

This is why the Victorian Government is investing significantly to improve digital connectivity in regional Victoria through our Connecting Victoria plan. Connecting Victoria is a series of significant infrastructure and capability investments designed to ensure better digital connectivity for everyone in regional and rural Victoria. To date, Connecting Victoria investments include:

$44 million to reduce mobile black spots by constructing 193 new mobile towers that will provide new coverage over 6,000 square kilometres for 24,000 businesses and households.

$18 million to fix mobile coverage on the Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Seymour and Traralgon V/Line commuter routes by delivering 75 regional trains fitted with new mobile repeater technology, 35 new mobile towers and 69 new carrier base stations (constructed by Vodafone, Telstra and Optus) along these routes.

$8 million for public Wi-Fi pilots in Ballarat and Bendigo (now to be extended to Shepparton and Geelong) that have been used more than 4.6 million times since their establishment in 2015.

$7 million to pilot new higher-quality broadband networks designed to retain and attract businesses in Morwell, Geelong and Horsham; addressing gaps in the NBN.

$7 million to increase the competitiveness of regional industries through innovation, including the development of localised digital plans for each of the nine Regional Partnerships and funding the Digital Innovation Festival and SummerTechLIVE expansion into regional Victoria.

$27 million for digital agriculture including $12 million to trial internet enabled on-farm technologies in four regions around Birchip, Maffra, Tatura and Serpentine.

2 CONNECTING VICTORIA – AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

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THE NEED FOR DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY IN REGIONAL VICTORIA

Digital technology can lift and transform regional industries and communities. Informed and targeted government interventions and partnerships with industry can boost regional business productivity and workforce digital capabilities. Better digital capabilities will support the competitiveness of regional businesses and make the regions better places to live.

The role of the Commonwealth Government

1 Digital Australia: State of the Nation. The 2017 Edition, EY Sweeney

The Commonwealth Government has the critical responsibility for ensuring the adequacy of telecommunications infrastructure across Australia.

The World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index measures the ability of countries to exploit opportunities associated with information and communications technology. In 2017, Australia dropped two places on this index – to 18th out of 139 countries. A recent EY report describes Australia as “caught in the shadow of other countries that have a similar level of economic maturity but which are well ahead in terms of digital infrastructure. As the thirteenth largest economy in the world, with an AAA rating across all major rating agencies, the ability to keep up relative to other countries is an emerging vulnerability”.1

Successive Commonwealth Governments have invested significant funding and effort to address the regional digital divide. Despite these efforts, the quality of Australia’s digital infrastructure has slipped compared to international peers and the divide persists.

The Commonwealth Government has generally pursued regional telecommunications development at a national scale using a single set of rules. These broad-based policy and program levers have been useful in altering the telecommunications landscape to encourage investment and competition. However, this approach is not able to coordinate public and private investment effectively to meet the varying priorities of diverse communities and user groups.

Victoria’s nine Regional Partnerships have identified a number of digital connectivity issues affecting their regions and which contribute to the digital divide, which include:

• concerns around the NBN rollout in terms of both coverage and technology choices, as well as affordability and service quality for regional users

• ongoing issues with mobile coverage and quality of services

• the availability of public Wi-Fi networks to provide alternative connectivity to existing services

• the provision of enabling infrastructure to support adoption of emerging technology like the Internet of Things

• digital literacy issues and the availability of resources to help address them.

While these issues are shared across regional Victoria, their relative importance varies from place to place. This highlights the need for the Commonwealth to adopt a more flexible approach that evolves in line with technology developments and which can respond to different community priorities.

This role is especially important across regional and rural Australia where the digital divide is most pronounced and where the market is less responsive. In thinner markets the role of government is enhanced and there is a greater need for partnerships with industry and across governments for effective policy coordination.

The Commonwealth can also help address the digital divide and drive regional economic development with broad support to lift digital literacy and skills. This will enable citizens and businesses across the regions to realise the full benefits offered by the digital economy.

The Commonwealth also has a critical role to play in establishing a regulatory environment that fosters better information provision. There is a persistent need for more consistent, informative and comparable data from industry to support activities of consumers, communities and government in understanding and addressing their digital priorities.


OUTLINE OF INITIATIVES

The role of the Victorian Government

The Victorian Government has a role in strongly advocating to the Commonwealth Government to ensure it meets its responsibilities to address regional Victorians’ telecommunications needs.

To support this role, the Victorian Government in partnership with regional communities is developing a detailed understanding of place-based telecommunications issues across the state. This information will better inform all levels of government as well as industry on digital gaps, region by region, to enable more efficient investment decisions, develop partnership opportunities and to prioritise locations most in need.

The Victorian Government has demonstrated its willingness to play a complementary and constructive role with the Commonwealth Government, such as through co-investing with the Commonwealth and industry for new mobile infrastructure and strongly advocating for better Commonwealth policy.

The Victorian Government is also investing in pilot infrastructure projects across a range of digital technologies, places and industries that can demonstrate alternative technology and market solutions to those currently adopted by the Commonwealth. These activities are also demonstrating the existing and emerging unmet needs of regional communities and are important to guide regional advocacy to influence Commonwealth program development.

State-led initiatives can also encourage development of Victoria’s tech industry and broader digital economy by supporting skills development and improving collaboration across Victoria’s tech ecosystem.

Compact size and lower infrastructure costs mean Victoria has a potential competitive advantage for better digital connectivity compared to other states. But more needs to be done to take advantage of this opportunity. This is why the Victorian Government is working to generate greater economic and social value from existing private and public digital infrastructure.

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The role of the Regional Partnerships

The Victorian Government’s nine Regional Partnerships give regional communities a greater say about what matters to them, including their digital futures. Each Regional Partnership includes a diverse membership drawn from local communities, businesses and across government. Regional Partnerships are actively engaging with their communities on digital priorities to build on existing strategies and plans as well as harnessing fresh ideas from local contributors.

Regional Partnerships are each creating a digital plan to identify and document their digital needs and priorities. This work is revealing a common set of telecommunications adequacy issues affecting regional stakeholders, but also differences between regions. These findings will be used to advocate to the Commonwealth on future policy and program directions, and provide a sound body of evidence for state, local and industry action.



Greater mobile coverage for regional Victoria

Mobile coverage

Mobile coverage is a significant problem throughout regional Victoria. Limited coverage can cause public safety issues, particularly in fire and flood prone areas, as well as restrict economic development and social opportunities.

The Victorian Government has committed $44 million to improve mobile coverage. This has secured a total infrastructure investment of $151 million for Victoria and 193 new mobile towers being built in areas with poor or no mobile coverage across the state. This activity brings together private investment and Commonwealth Government funding, while working in partnership with the telecommunications industry.

The new mobile towers are expected to provide new 3G/4G mobile coverage over almost 6,000 square kilometres for more than 24,000 households and local businesses. The new mobile towers will vastly improve mobile coverage for regional Victorian residents, businesses and visitors, ensuring they have access to quality mobile communications at all times.

The Victorian Government continues to prioritise better mobile coverage by allocating an additional $11 million in the 2018-19 State Budget to improve mobile connectivity for regional Victorians.

The Victorian Government is keen to continue to work with the Commonwealth to improve mobile coverage and leverage Commonwealth funds. The Government calls on the Commonwealth to continue to commit funding to address mobile coverage issues beyond what has already been announced.


Legend:

Victorian Mobile Black Spots Project tower

Melbourne

Ballarat

Geelong

Bendigo

Seymour

Traralgon

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Regional rail connectivity

Victoria’s five busiest commuter regional rail routes are the Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Traralgon and Seymour lines. Together they cater to more than 18.8 million passenger trips each year. But mobile service on these routes is often poor, which is why the Victorian Government committed $18 million to the Regional Rail Connectivity Project.

An Australian first, the project is a partnership between the Victorian Government, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone to significantly improve mobile coverage and connectivity along these busy commuter routes. Due for completion in late 2018, the project involves installing new mobile repeaters across V/Line’s 75 V/locity trains, and constructing 35 new mobile towers and 69 new mobile base stations to improve the trackside mobile signal for all trains on those routes.

The project aligns with the Regional Partnership priorities for connectivity – both digital and transport. Regular commuters spend up to 20 hours on regional trains each week. Better connectivity will give them more options on how they use their travel time. The Regional Rail Connectivity Project is expected to boost productivity for regional business commuters, delivering an estimated extra $20 million to the Victorian economy each year.

The Victorian Government is very aware that other regional rail routes are also affected by mobile coverage issues and is currently investigating ways to extend this project to other sections of Victoria’s regional rail network.

The Victorian Government would welcome Commonwealth funding programs that can be flexibly applied to support mobile coverage improvements such as these, targeting rail and transport networks.



Public Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi is an increasingly important part of digital connectivity in public places. Free public Wi-Fi services offer an option for businesses, students, commuters and visitors to conveniently access information, or use tools for education and lifestyle such as social media or video calls. These Wi-Fi networks also overcome cost barriers for some users and therefore improve digital inclusion.

The Victorian Government has already invested $11 million in public Wi-Fi networks, including regional deployments in the CBDs of Ballarat and Bendigo. The Victorian Free Public Wi-Fi network is the largest free outdoor Wi-Fi network of its kind in Australia. It provides over 600,000 square metres of coverage in the pilot locations, including central Melbourne. The Bendigo and Ballarat services have been used over 4.6 million times since they were established in 2015.

These pilots are now being extended as part of an additional $7 million investment through the Connecting Regional Communities Program. The Government’s new free public Wi-Fi networks for the City of Greater Geelong and City of Greater Shepparton are currently being implemented. Victoria’s free public Wi-Fi deployments are a combined effort of Victorian Government, local government and the private sector.

Enhanced broadband

Business demand for more effective digital connectivity is increasing rapidly. To attract innovative, digital businesses and increase the digital capacity of existing businesses, regional cities and towns may need to provide higher-grade digital services than those currently available from existing networks and standard NBN infrastructure.

The Victorian Government is piloting models for providing enhanced, business grade broadband services in designated areas of regional towns. A $7 million investment through the Connecting Regional Communities Program will initially trial solutions in Morwell, Horsham and North Geelong.

The project will help enable regional businesses to compete more effectively with metropolitan, interstate and international businesses, as well as help attract business investment and position regional areas for job growth.

Victorian Government consultation with the Regional Partnerships is expected to reveal other priority locations that would benefit from public Wi-Fi and enhanced broadband initiatives. The Commonwealth Government can help address these local community priorities through the implementation of more flexible place-based funding programs, recognising that infrastructure and technology needs vary from place to place.

Additionally, if the NBN cannot keep pace with the technology demands of different users, especially regional business users, then the Commonwealth must ensure its regulatory approach enables innovation and competitive entrants to fill the gaps in service offerings.

The Victorian Government has already established the largest free outdoor Wi-Fi network of its kind in Australia.

But there’s more to do.



Digital agriculture

Digital agriculture represents the next frontier for agricultural productivity, sustainability and profitability. Estimates indicate that Australia’s agriculture sector could increase its gross value of production by $20.3 billion through unconstrained digital agriculture.

At the heart of the change is the Internet of Things – the interconnection (via the internet) of computing devices embedded in everyday objects that enables them to send and receive data.

Mobile and internet connectivity in the agricultural sectors can provide farmers with valuable information on weather conditions, disease control and new methods of maximising crop yield, and enable livestock tracking. However, many Victorian farmers currently find it difficult to access and use quality digital infrastructure and services. In many locations farmers are unable to connect to the internet and adopt digital technologies.

The Victorian Government has allocated $12 million to conduct four Internet of Things trials in regions around Birchip, Maffra, Tatura and Serpentine. This is part of a $27 million commitment to digital agriculture. The purpose of the trials is to assess the contribution that the Internet of Things makes to farm performance within the dairy, grains, sheep and horticultural (fruits, nuts, berries) sectors.

Trials will investigate issues from network level to on-farm devices. Farmers participating in the trials will partner with the Victorian Government to identify and select internet connected devices, sensors and other objects to assist with tasks like monitoring and predicting plant and animal health, and various other real time farm inputs and processes. These devices will improve decision making for farmers, and potentially save time and labour and boost farm performance.

The trials will help stimulate competition in the AgTech and telecommunications markets and improve the competitiveness of Victorian farms on a global scale.

Victoria’s food and fibre sector accounts for almost five per cent of gross state product, comprises around half of the state’s exports and employs around 190,000 people. Agriculture is the backbone to the sector, producing a variety of grains, fruit, vegetables, animal and niche products for processing, packaging and sale. Digitalising farms will mean these products can be grown smarter, quicker, safer and healthier – improvements that are good for producers and consumers.

In addition to appropriate connectivity, digital literacy, skills and agreed data sharing practices need to be addressed for Australia to fully realise the benefits of digital agriculture. The Commonwealth should provide strong leadership in these areas bringing together all tiers of government, as well as industry and research bodies to work together in order to effectively address these barriers.

Tatura trials (Horticulture –fruits, nuts, berries)

Maffra trials (Dairy)

Serpentine trials (Sheep)

Birchip trials (Grains)

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Focus regions and sectors for Victoria’s IoTThe following four regions and associated agri sectors have been selected by the Victorian Government as the focus of its IoT Trials.



Supporting Victoria’s digital economy

Access to digital technology skills and capability is vital to ensure the ongoing regional competitiveness of regional businesses, create new jobs and regional emerging industries.

While many regional businesses already use digital technologies, further support in this area will encourage innovation and increase their capabilities and competitiveness. Businesses at the forefront of digital adoption can succeed not only in their home market but can also disrupt and displace anywhere. This is why the Victorian Government is now implementing a range of digital economy initiatives around the state.

SummerTech LIVE

Deeper and more effective partnerships between the tertiary education and business sectors will help build the workforce capability and skills required for regional businesses to thrive in the digital economy. The Victorian Government is improving student professional skills and accelerating technology adoption and innovation by Victorian SMEs through the SummerTech LIVE program.

SummerTech LIVE has already been piloted in Gippsland, Ballarat, Geelong and Bendigo in partnership with Federation University, Deakin University, La Trobe University and local SMEs. Through SummerTech LIVE Victorian SMEs are building new relationships with tertiary institutions, increasing their collaboration and innovation.

Digital Innovation Festival

As regional Victoria is embracing digital technologies, the Digital Innovation Festival, or DIF, is helping drive innovation and increase the competitiveness of regional industries.

DIF is a “grass-roots” style of festival that encourages local organisations and individuals to host digital innovation events in regional Victoria. These events showcase the unique talents and ingenuity of Victoria’s regional and rural communities.

This festival has already supported a number of exciting events across regional Victoria, such as Gippsland’s first tech conference Binary Shift, Ballarat Hackerspace workshops and the Bendigo Invention and Innovation Festival. The Digital Innovation Festival also activates regional and rural co-working spaces in Castlemaine and Wodonga to support digital professionals, startups and SMEs.

Sponsorships and events

The sponsorships and events program is building momentum across regional Victoria around digital technology, involving businesses of all sizes and sectors, educational institutions and students, local governments, community groups and individuals. It is activating major events such as Pivot in Geelong and BuzzCon in Ballan.

These and other digital economy initiatives are being implemented to stimulate innovation in regional digital economies. They encourage collaboration among diverse stakeholders and sectors, and help regional business increase digitalisation, uptake and maturity. They also help regional Victorians develop skills and capabilities required for jobs of the future, and attract digital technology and related investment into regional Victoria.

As the nation’s tech and knowledge capital, Victoria has a strong interest in digital economy preparedness and encourages the Commonwealth to contribute more in this area. The Commonwealth has not delivered its Digital Economy Strategy proposed in 2017.

Victoria encourages the Commonwealth to expedite delivery of this strategy, with an emphasis on addressing the digital divide and supporting regional citizens and businesses with initiatives that will:

• accelerate growth, productivity and innovation through increased digital adoption

• build digital literacy and future skills to support resilient regional economies capable of responding to and capitalising on digital disruption

• support displaced workers and industries to transition into new opportunities

• support the development of leading capabilities in emerging areas of technology.

Digital plans

Businesses and households in regional communities experience the digital divide in various ways. Gaps in the availability of digital connectivity services and skills vary from place to place, across regions and within them. One of the biggest requirements is comprehensive information that enables regional communities to identify and resolve their most significant gaps.

As a step to empowering regional communities, the Victorian Government is helping develop localised digital plans for each of the nine Regional Partnerships. These will provide an evidence-based blueprint to improve digital connectivity in each region.

Digital plans bring together mapping and analysis of digital skills, broadband infrastructure, mobile coverage and other emerging technologies such as networks for the Internet of Things. This is being combined with information on the location of businesses, business precincts, transport routes and tourism sites to develop a digital supply and demand profile for each region.

This is the first time that such a comprehensive and detailed place-based analysis of digital needs has taken place. The digital plans will provide an evidence base that regional communities, industry and governments at all levels can use to identify and understand both existing and future requirements.

The first plans will establish a benchmark and framework for assessing and responding to regional digital needs that can be further developed in future.

Government communications infrastructure

The Victorian Government has significant telecommunications related infrastructure in many parts of regional Victoria, such as fibre optic networks, wireless towers and business premises. As well as this telecommunications infrastructure, existing infrastructure like light poles, tram poles and fixed waste-bins may also be used to improve regional access to digital infrastructure.

The Victorian Government has created a database of government telecommunications infrastructure and a tool to better understand telecommunications supply and demand, and is developing principles for third party access to government infrastructure.

These initiatives will make it easier for industry to locate and access existing infrastructure so they can reduce operating costs and duplication of effort. The Victorian Government is facilitating commercial provider access to government infrastructure for the duration of the Connecting Regional Communities Program infrastructure trials as part of its forward-looking commitment to partnering with industry for the benefit of all regional Victorians.

The Commonwealth Government should seek to maximise the impact of its policy and program activities by leveraging state infrastructure assets wherever possible to increase the benefits for regional communities from public investments.



Legend:

CRCP AgIoT

Free public Wi-Fi

CRCP Enhanced Broadband

• Victorian Mobile Black Spots Project tower

• Regional Rail Connectivity Project

To come:

• 9 Regional Partnership Digital Plans

• $11 million Victorian Mobile Project Round 4

• Digital Innovation Festival & SummerTech LIVE

Connecting regional Victoria overview

OUTLINE OF INITIATIVES MAP OF VICTORIA

CONNECTING VICTORIALevel 36, 121 Exhibition Street, Melbourne 3000 T 1800 551 927 economicdevelopment.vic.gov.au/connecting-victoriaD

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