A new report claims regional Australia is embracing e-commerce, which the federal government believes will be a driving force behind improved telco services for the bush.
"We're not saying there is no such thing as the digital divide, but there has been a turnaround," a spokesperson for the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston told ZDNet.
The "E-commerce Across Australia" study - commissioned by the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) - claims that regional Australia is increasingly recognising that e-commerce is of significant benefit.
In response to a Telecommunications Service inquiry, fronted by Tim Besley - which found flaws in the service reliability, fault repairs and Internet access fees in telco bush services - the government believes the latest findings of technology take-up in the bush will encourage improved telco services.
"Demand drives rollout in services, increased commercial pressure will make it more viable to improve Internet services and broadband access in remote areas," his office said.
Directly attributing the take-up of the Internet in regional areas to the government's Networking the Nation initiatives - set up to promote e-commerce - the spokesperson told ZDNet that the projects have increased awareness of the benefits of the Internet throughout the country.
"The demand has now increased through the awareness that the Networking the Nation projects have provided. In the past, areas outside the metropolitan areas didn't believe there were benefits".
The report refers to the government's initiatives to promote e-commerce as being positive in light of the recent statistics released by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), showing an increase in the take-up of computers outside metropolitan areas.
ABS statistics revealed that 51 percent of households in regional communities now have computers, a 21 percent jump in the last three months.
"Farm Internet use is up dramatically and regional use of computers in households is roughly the same as in the city," the spokesperson said.
