Govt picks two ISPs for rural areas - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Govt picks two ISPs for rural areas

By Staff writers, ZDNet Australia
June 21, 2004
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Govt-picks-two-ISPs-for-rural-areas/0,130061791,139151106,00.htm

Two Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were recently approved to be the providers for the Australian Government's Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS).

Broadcasting Engineering Services (BES), trading as e-wire, and the Regional Broadband Services (RBBS) were the two ISPs picked for the broadband rollout.

BES is a Western Australian company offering cable broadband services to greenfields land developments in the regions around Perth. Roll out of the services to areas in the south-west will start from July 2004.

BES initially installed Hybrid Fibre Coax cables (HFC) in greenfield land development sites for the reticulation of free-to-air television services. The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts said this same network will be used to deliver a "broader range of services."

RBBS, on the other hand, is a Canberra-based start-up company that delivers high speed, two-way, broadband Internet services nationally through a Direct to Home (DTH) Satellite Service to people living in regional, rural and remote Australia.

The RBBS will supply services through a ViaSat Surfbeam two-way satellite terminal modem and provide a one metre satellite dish and associated receiver/transmitter equipment.

The AU$107.8 million HiBIS program is the government's answer to the Regional Telecommunications Inquiry in improving access and broadband services in regional and rural areas.