A $7 million funding round is now open under the McGowan Government’s highly successful Digital Farm Grants program to boost broadband for farms and residents across regional Western Australia.
Round Three of the program is offering funding for telecommunications providers who can deliver innovative solutions to enable high-capacity broadband connectivity.
The funding is available for three high priority areas across the central, south-east and Esperance parts of WA’s grainbelt region.
In the first two rounds of the program, $7 million was granted to six grant recipients, to assist them in rolling out broadband services to more than 1,400 farm businesses across 65,000 square kilometres – from the Kimberley to the Great Southern.
Applications close Friday November 20, 2020. For more information about the program or to submit an application – visit https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/digitalfarm
As stated by Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan:
“The Digital Farm Grants program has been a huge success, delivering high-speed broadband right across the grainbelt and helping our farmers to stay competitive in the 21st century.
“Access to high-speed broadband is essential for today’s farmers and growers to access smart farming technologies and compete globally.
“Areas targeted under this third funding round face highly variable bandwidth, download limits and service quality: the failings of the NBN’s Skymuster service is holding these regions back.
“This program has had great success in attracting commercial investment to deliver fast, reliable, affordable and scalable broadband to new areas.
“It has proven vital in helping bridge the ‘digital divide’ and provide regional people with comparable – and in many cases better – services than their city counterparts.”
