Published on the 03/09/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
With the fate of Australia’s national broadband network to be decided by the Federal election on Saturday, a new guide has been released profiling the emerging apps that fast broadband supports…
The Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation has released an “app-trepreneur’s” guide to next-generation broadband networks. Noting Cisco forecasts that by 2020 every individual will own, on average, six smart devices connected to the internet and there will be 37 billion internet-connected “things” – from cows to computers and fridges to phones – the guide outlines the opportunities that exist for apps to connect businesses and consumers.
ACBI, which is led by the CSIRO, Nicta and NBN Co with funding support from the NSW and Tasmanian governments, believes the development of a vibrant digitally-focused sector will be critical for Australia’s future economic success. According to Malcolm Long, ACBI chair, “Post mining boom a spread of new and creative industries will be critical for Australia”. He said that enterprises in every sector would be increasingly reliant on digital business strategies but cited a report from the Boston Consulting Group which ranks Australia just 18th in terms of its digital-readiness suggesting there is a long road ahead.
ACBI director Colin Griffith said that, “the real economic value is if you can turn an app into a sustainable business.”
Corey Loehr, Intel’s executive for digital economy enablement, said that in the past developers had been encumbered by low speed high latency environments. “It changes everything when you have great bandwidth that is bidirectional.”
Saturday’s election will determine if that’s possible with the Labor party championing fibre to the home compared to the Coalition’s fibre to the node approach to broadband.
To spur the app-economy ACBI in association with a series of industry partners held a competition to find Australia’s best broadband apps, and this week named Tutor Bee, an online tutoring service, as the best business-to-business and education app. It also won the overall best app prize.
Other winning apps included Pepster which allows in home respiratory physiotherapy featuring the use of a game to encourage participation by younger patients, while collecting medical data which can be shared with doctors. The BOP Smoke Alarm; Senograph, for in-home environmental monitoring; and Pass the Popcorn, which is intended to provide a social platform for people watching video content over the internet, were further winners.
