Communities in the South West will have access to better broadband connectivity during natural disasters, with the rollout of a new satellite dish by NBN Co on emergency buildings around Australia, such as Rural Fire Service depots and evacuation centres.
Federal Member for Forrest Nola Marino welcomed the installation of a satellite dish at the Nannup Recreation and Community Centre, and said this was a crucial investment from the Government to help people in disaster-affected areas stay connected with family and essential services.
“These satellite services will also act as a critical piece of infrastructure for emergency service workers in the South West, by providing them with connectivity to help manage their disaster response and recovery efforts”, Mrs Marino said.
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, welcomed the latest satellite dish installations from NBN Co, ahead of the next bushfire season.
“By offering broadband connectivity powered by the National Broadband Network’s Sky Muster satellites — which have coverage of all 7.7 million square kilometres of Australia and operate even when terrestrial mobile or fixed line networks have ceased operating — these dishes will help people in disaster affected locations stay in contact before, during and after a bushfire or other disaster,” Minister Fletcher said.
The satellite dishes are part of the Morrison Government’s $37.1m Securing Telecommunications Against Natural Disasters package to improve the resilience of communications networks. More information on the package can be found on the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications’ website.
