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Uecomm Extends Reach to Regional Queensland with Ergon Energy
Australia's specialised broadband carrier, Uecomm, today announced it had signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with Ergon Energy's wholesale telecommunications arm, Nexium Telecommunications, for the delivery of high-speed broadband services to regional Queensland.
The HoA sets out a high level framework for the parties to negotiate the formal agreements for the delivery of those services. Uecomm and Ergon will be negotiating those formal agreements over the coming months.
If the formal documents are agreed, this would allow Uecomm to access certain capacity on Ergon Energy's existing telecommunications network to offer regional Queensland businesses cost effective high-speed broadband solutions.
According to Brendan Park, Uecomm's products and marketing director, businesses can expect to receive true broadband services from Uecomm with data transfer 10 to 1,000 times faster than the speed of services currently available in regional Queensland.
"We expect organisations such as government agencies, hospitals, schools and local councils to be the early adopters of these services," said Park. "This extended service would allow us to further provide broadband access to our clients that have offices located in major regional Queensland centres."
"Regional Queensland is a fast growing market for the telecommunications sector. Working with a local provider like Ergon Energy will enable us to take advantage of gaining an entry into this market without having to significantly invest in building a broadband infrastructure, which is in line with our strategy," said Park.
Ergon Energy's acting CEO Terry Effeney said that it was encouraging to see telecommunications carriers such as Uecomm coming on board with this initiative.
"By using some of the spare telecommunications capacity on the Ergon Energy network as proposed, carriers can offer broadband solutions at more attractive prices to businesses in the regions, said Mr Effeney. "This also helps create healthy competition among carriers which will ensure that the level of broadband services remain high and prices competitive."
The proposed high-speed data connections will enable regional Queensland businesses to have access to faster Internet, email and video-conferencing capabilities equal to that available in the metropolitan area. Companies will also be able to facilitate faster file transfer and large file transfer such as graphic and medical imaging, as well as improve disaster recovery services.
Queensland Energy Minister Paul Lucas said that Ergon Energy's fibre rollout would give telecommunications companies the chance to plug major customers into the energy company's own optical fibre communications network for competitive phone and data services in regional Queensland.
"It's great to see Ergon Energy being smart about the use of its assets, as this kind of leveraging can achieve competition and a better telecommunications outcome for Queenslanders," Mr Lucas said.
"Ergon Energy will roll out approximately 300 kilometres of fibre optic cable to service its own requirements in rings around nine regional cities and towns.
"Initiatives like this show why the Smart State doesn't begin and end in south-east Queensland."
