The Roper Gulf Region communities will benefit from a multi-million dollar technology upgrade, thanks to a collaboration between the Local Council, Telstra, Calibre One and CouncilBiz.
The upgrade of network connections across Council Sites within the Region will provide opportunities to modernise service delivery, upgrade systems from paper to digital and increase options for local workers to enhance their digital systems skills. Many remote areas have been enduring unreliable telecommunication systems for a long time. The reliability issues have held organisations back from upgrading their processes and systems to more efficient digital systems.
Roper Gulf Regional Council has worked closely with the Service Providers to bring modern, metro-like infrastructure into our remote and regional communities. This infrastructure upgrade paves the way for better connectivity to regional centres and web-based applications by connecting all offices to optic fibre services.
With such modern infrastructure available to these sites, the technology upgrade will provide Council staff with the equipment needed to deliver services more efficiently.
Access to such advancements allows for better connection over the over 186,000 square kilometres of the Region with upgrades such as conferencing via computers and desk phones across their remote and regional locations. Greater range of reliable communications can greatly reduce travel costs and allow communities for frequent access to the Council’s elected members and decision makers.
Having this modern technology and infrastructure available in our remote and regional areas will enable the possibility of offering free, moderated, access to information through public internet hotspots. With the possibility of covering our sites with point-to-point wireless technology, Council can enable these internet hotspots at almost any location necessary – Libraries, Pools and public spaces alike.
“Connectivity across our locations is key, with such a dispersed workforce and constituent base, communication using video, audio and data is becoming more critical than ever,” said Roper Gulf Regional Council Mayor Judy McFarlane. “Our current connectivity has been a significant drain on our resources for some time”.
The series of updates the collaboration is looking to implement are some of the latest available on the market. Leading the way in cost efficiency without compromising on Cyber Security.
The greater digital connectivity across 50 sites will ultimately serve as a foundation upon which Council can continue to develop and build upon for years to come. Council strives to provide increasingly better technology to the region since opening as a Shire, and as technology continues to develop, Roper Gulf Regional Council will continue to improve upon the equipment used in day-to-day operations as well as continually look towards the future to gauge what new and exciting technology can potentially bring to the Region and subsequently the constituents.
The project broke ground in July 2019 and Roper Gulf Regional Council is looking forward to the completion of the update of all services and deployment of the network by the end of the calendar year.
Quotes from General Manager (NT) Enterprise, Brad Hatton:
“Improving connectivity into the regional and remote areas of the Northern Territory improves the lives of everyone in these regions. Initiatives like this are new and exciting ways to extend coverage which will enable new and exciting ways for the regional council to communicate and collaborate”.
Quotes from Chief Executive Officer Calibre One, Steve Wemyss:
“Calibre One has made significant investment to be 1 of 27 partners in Australia working with both Microsoft and Telstra in delivering a unified communications solution through Microsoft TEAM’s. The TEAM’s platform is Microsoft’s fastest growing application in its history, and for good reason”.
“Roper Gulf not only needed a network that could handle this type of traffic, but also a platform that extended across desktop, boardroom and mobile, it needed to be one click simple and provided a great experience for users.”