Press Releases

Agile Ends "Broadband Backwater"

20 October 2004

South Australia's Yorke Peninsula expects to attract businesses and residents to the region once Internet age telco Agile Communications starts an aggressive 12-month broadband rollout by turning on an always-on high-speed Internet service at Yorketown in November.

Agile will progressively deploy broadband services in at least three other townships in the region. After a three-year pioneering project in SA's Coorong region, Agile will give Yorke Peninsula residents access to broadband Internet services at the same price as in Adelaide.

The Yorke Peninsula is a major grain producing area as well as SA's third largest tourist region. Although no more than 45 km from Adelaide by water, the peninsula's communications infrastructure is akin to a remote Australian region.

Yorketown - at the foot of the leg-shaped peninsula - will be the first town in the region to benefit from Agile's broadband communication services. The availability of broadband services is expected to attract businesses and people to the picturesque region.

District Council of Yorke Peninsula Broadband Project Officer Andy Cheel said broadband would open a new era for the region. "The value to the community will be enormous," he said. "At the moment, there's no broadband in the area being addressed. Some businesses that wanted to come into the region have decided not to because there's no affordable high-speed communications. Some people from Adelaide with homes in the area, who want to live and work from their homes, don't move here because of the lack of broadband."

"The availability of broadband for education, for health, for local government services, for business economic development and for the individual will offer an enormous advantage."

Agile will deliver broadband services to residents, farms, and businesses utilising a combination of new wireless and wired broadband communications infrastructure. Agile is partnering on the project with District Council of Yorke Peninsula, which has obtained seed funding from the South Australian Government and from the Federal Government.

Managed by the District Council of Yorke Peninsula, the broadband project will see Agile create a high-speed wireless broadband backbone along the Yorke Peninsula with 'tails' to towns including Maitland, Minlaton, Yorketown and Warooka. The project is funded by the Australian Government's Co-ordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund (CCIF), the South Australian Government Broadband Development Fund (BDF), the District Council of Yorke Peninsula and Agile Pty Ltd.

Agile managing director Simon Hackett said Yorketown would cease to be a 'broadband backwater' from November. "The established carriers have neglected regional Australia because of its low population density," he said.

"The problem is that broadband is not just about technology, it's about economic development in regional areas. The revolution of the Internet is that the 'distance tax' disappears from communications. With bootstrap funding for infrastructure rollout, areas such as the Yorke Peninsula can have first-class broadband on a commercial basis."

Agile will draw on its extensive experience of delivering broadband services to the Coorong region, south east of Adelaide, where it has halved the cost of phone calls since 2001. Since last year, Agile has also deployed ADSL broadband services ahead of Telstra.

Business and residential customers in the Yorke Peninsula townships concerned will have access to broadband data and low-cost voice call services through ISP's in the region as well as via Internode, Agile's Adelaide-based ISP partner.

Residents in the area will receive further information as the project deployment proceeds.

For further information about the Yorke Peninsula Network click here.

For information regarding Agile's Broadband rollout to the Yorke Peninsula and other areas click here.

About Agile and Internode

Agile Communications (http://www.agile.com.au) was founded in 1997 with a mission to create innovative new broadband infrastructure for the benefit of regional and metropolitan customers. It has created a national broadband and voice services network, interlinked with its innovative regional microwave-based broadband backbone regional services networks.

Internode (www.internode.on.net) is a leading Australian broadband services and Internet services provider. Based in Adelaide, it is a premier provider of business-class Internet access and professional services to organisations throughout Australia.