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Relevant websites
- Digital Business – digitalbusiness.gov.au
- NBN Co – www.nbnco.com.au
- NBN Tasmania - www.nbntasmania.com.au
- Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy – www.dbcde.gov.au
Fact sheets
For more information about the NBN and the National Digital Economy Strategy view our fact sheets
Case study: Tasmania Midway Point
In Midway Point, just outside Hobart, sign-writer David Jones faced a challenge typical of his and other design industries: time lost trying to transfer large photo and image files over slow internet connections.
In the past, David had large files couriered to him on disk or sent in the mail because his connection was too slow. After connecting to the National Broadband Network (NBN) in November 2010, David can now download the larger files in seconds. He describes the change as going from ‘walking around in sandshoes to driving a Ferrari.’
With the faster speed, David has been able to take on new business from interstate and sees the potential to improve the way he works with customers overseas now that he has the ability to send and receive large image files almost instantly.
‘In the past some customers have thought it’s too hard to physically send me their artwork files, so they chose somewhere closer,’ David said. ‘Whereas now, over the NBN, location is no longer a problem – there are no obstacles at all.’
‘I can download most of the files clients send me in seconds and it doesn’t matter how close or far away the customer is. The possibilities are endless.’
Before connecting to the NBN, there were many things David just couldn’t do from his home workshop.
His connection was not fast enough to effectively download artwork larger than five megabytes which meant he had to travel to Hobart 15 times a month to physically collect photos from a graphic designer, or pay to have a disk sent in the mail.
‘Before the NBN, I had ADSL broadband set up with kilobits of download speed rather than megabytes,’ David said. ‘If someone sent me a three or four megabyte file it would take half an hour to download. I couldn’t download photos from websites and buy them because my connection just wasn’t fast enough.’
David’s business has benefitted from his connection to the NBN. The time saved in the transfer of files has meant that everything he does can move much faster and he can deliver his signs to customers in almost half the time it took before.
‘The first thing I did was download a 17 megabyte file from a graphic artist that took just eight seconds. Before the NBN, I would either have sent it over on a DVD, or let the download max out my connection. The difference is just astonishing,’ David said.
‘If an overseas customer suddenly wants something, I can just draw it up and email it over straight away even if it’s a large file,’ he says. ‘It’s just easy to do with that kind of speed and capacity over the NBN.’
