November 5, 2020
Kingaroy’s transformation project – which began recently – could herald a new era of high-speed internet connectivity for the town’s CBD if an exciting project being explored by the South Burnett Regional Council comes to fruition.
The “dark fibre” project could offer a maximum data transfer rate of an incredible 100Gb/sec although, more realistically, the project would be aiming for 10Gb/sec initially.
It was discussed briefly by South Burnett Mayor Brett Otto at the KCCI breakfast in Kingaroy on Thursday morning.
“If we get that one day it will mean that we have 10Gb/sec into the main street of Kingaroy,” Mayor Otto said.
“That will be a first. ”
SBRC CEO Mark Pitt said later Council was working with QCNFibre – a State Government corporation jointly owned by Powerlink and Energy Queensland – to explore the possibility of extending the State Government’s fibre optic network to Kingaroy.
At the moment, the cable terminates at Tarong Power Station.
Excitingly, the network is also connected to the international broadband submarine cable at Caloundra which provides the fastest international connection point from Queensland and east Australia to Asia.
Mr Pitt said Council was working with QCNFibre to see how the Tarong cable could be linked to Kingaroy.
“We might be able to do it with a microwave link in the short term,” he said.
The most costly part of the project would be “the last mile in the ground” within the Kingaroy CBD which is where the Kingaroy Transformation Project (KTP) comes in.
“While the KTP is under way we will lay all the conduits for the dark fibre through the CBD,” Mr Pitt said.
This will mean it will be much cheaper to actually add the fibre optic cabling at a later date.
“Over the next two to three years, we will put all the conduit in the ground,” he said.
As well as attracting new businesses to town, the project could also provide high-speed connectivity to a whole range of government departments based in Kingaroy, including the police and Kingaroy Courthouse.
It could also be extended to Kingaroy Hospital.
Mr Pitt warned that none of this would be happening overnight and the project was still in an early stage of investigation.
“We are one of the only regional councils in Queensland that is looking at this,” he said.
“It would give us a capacity that we just don’t have. It is an investment in the future.
“It makes perfect business sense.”
