Telstra is upgrading the network infrastructure serving Victoria’s more than 1600 public schools under a $100 million partnership with the state government.
The upgrade, which is already complete at over half of all schools, is expected to see internet bandwidth speeds climb to between 40Mbps and 3Gbps.
Telstra said this will mean that all students, including those in regional and rural areas, have a minimum of 1Mbps at their disposal ahead of the transition to NAPLAN standardised testing online next year.
Schools will share aggregate bandwidth of 870Gbps under the government’s telecommunication state purchasing contract based on their student enrolment.
Telstra said it is spending more than $40 million on capital works to enable the speed boost, with the upgrades already complete at 700 public schools.
As the upgrades “go beyond the classroom”, Telstra said the investment will also have flow-on effects for the wider community, particularly in regional and rural areas – which are a “key focus”.
“Telstra’s $40 million investment in high-speed broadband connectivity won’t just benefit Victorian schools, but the wider community,” Telstra Enterprise group executive David Burns said.
The investment will similarly “lay important groundwork for future upgrades and flow-on benefits to 4G and 5G networks”.
Work to boost bandwidth speeds in Victorian schools follows a similar deal with the NSW government last year that will see Telstra roll out more than 5200 kilometres of fibre.
The telco is also delivering a bandwidth boost to schools in Western Australia under a $130 million deal and has already deployed fibre capable of speeds of 1Gbps in South Australia.
