Amped up web service for students
A TASMANIAN school has become the first in the nation to embrace the future of education by signing onto NBN Co’s newest product, Enterprise Ethernet.
St Michael’s Collegiate connected to the new service yesterday, which provides “symmetrical gigabit speeds”.
“Symmetrical gigabit speed” means both high upload and download speeds, as opposed to asymmetric connections, which provide low upload speeds and high download speed.
The school’s principal, Adam Forsyth, said Enterprise Ethernet was going to “supercharge” teaching and learning.
“We wanted to invest in fast broadband because technology shouldn’t be a barrier to learning; it should be the invisible enabler that helps our stu- dents kickstart their careers,” he said.
“For students, it will be much more engaging and motivating as we’re looking to use more augmented reality and virtual reality in our teaching and learning.
“Personalised learning is probably the biggest thing to me and this will enable us to better meet the needs of every individual student.”
NBN Co chief executive Stephen Rue visited the school on Thursday and said Collegiate had future-proofed itself.
He said Tasmania was set to enter a “connectivity boom” as the NBN rollout across the state nears completion.
“Tasmanians are at the forefront of digital technology and innovation,” he said.
“Today’s switch on of our first NBN Enterprise Ethernet product is evidence of our continual efforts to evolve our wholesale products to deliver improved broadband services to Australians.”
During Mr Rue’s trip to Tasmania, he also announced West Coast town Zeehan had become the final town to be connected to the NBN by fixed line.
“We’re thrilled that in fact every area is now ready for service.
“There are about 2000 homes we are yet to complete, but they will be done in the first half of next year.”
NBN Co has announced plans to allow more data for customers on a limited satellite service.
The new product, Sky Muster Plus, will allow free data for essential web browsing such as emails, and downloads such as software updates.
An additional $800 million has been invested in capacity upgrades on NBN’s Fixed Wireless network.