King Island connectivity upgrade to include 110km radio link across Bass Strait

When completed, a 110-kilometre radio link from King Island back to Victoria’s Surf Coast will be the longest such link over water in the Telstra network, the company said on Friday.

The new link is part of a AU$9.8 million connectivity upgrade for King Island that will see the island get a six-fold improvement in bandwidth.

The project will see two new mobile sites, two new small cell sites, and LTE upgrades at another three sites, as well as 37 kilometres of fibre laid on the island.

Money for the upgrade was coughed up by Telstra, King Island Council, Tasmanian government, and the Commonwealth’s Regional Connectivity Program (RCP).

Last week, the government announced it had selected 81 sites for its Regional Connectivity Program, but did not name them.

When announcing the upgrade on Friday, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher failed to acknowledge the presence or monetary input of anyone not in the federal government.

Revealing a touch more information on some of the successful RCP sites, the minister said AU$8 million of the fund was earmarked for five projects in Tasmania: Improving bandwidth to nine regional schools; a connectivity upgrade in Geeveston; improving mobile coverage in Jericho; and a connectivity boost at Greenhill Observatory to “enhance Australia’s sovereign space capability”.

Work is due to start on the King Island project before the year is out.

Earlier in the week, Telstra announced its Adapt S1 product, which combines VMware SD-WAN with a Palo Alto security platform. Telstra said the product uses its core network to improve redundancy and security.

“With staff using consumer-grade networking technology to log onto corporate VPNs, it’s important for business to implement a secure stack,” Telstra global connectivity and platforms executive and group owner Sanjay Nayak said.

“With more data flowing to mobile offices and workers, Adapt S1 can secure the corporate WAN in one seamless solution.”

Adapt S1 is provided by Telstra partners such as 1Step Communications, Azured, Digital Armour, Exigo Tech, Mangano IT, Oreta, StarData, Virtual IT Group, and Wireless Communications.

The new product forms part of the telco’s adaptive networks banner.

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