27 June, 2016

City of Adelaide welcomes Gig City network announcement

City of Adelaide has welcomed the State Government’s announcement to establish Adelaide as the first Gig City in Australia with its $4.65 million plan to expand the SABRENet optical fibre network.

Lord Mayor Martin Haese has congratulated the Premier on the initiative, as it aligns with Council’s Strategic Plan 2016-20 outcome to be a world class smart city with a globally connected and opportunity rich economy.

“The State Government’s announcement of a Gig City network will help us, and businesses in the city, realise this aspiration, accelerate economic growth and provide more entrepreneurial opportunities,” said Martin.

“The City of Adelaide generates around a fifth of South Australia’s economic activity and is growing rapidly. We need to be capitalising on this growth and developing more ways to make it even easier to do business and encourage economic activity in our City.

“Spaces such as St Paul’s Creative Centre, the Majoran co-working space and Hub Adelaide will see real benefits from very fast internet speeds.

“Adelaide is well-known as a city of firsts and the Gig City network will be another first as Adelaide becomes the first capital city in Australia to enable ultra-fast internet speeds. This will in turn attract investment from high tech global companies, generate jobs in emerging industries and create future opportunities,” he said.

In addition to supporting the State Government’s plan to build on SABRENet’s existing fibre optic cables to create the Gig City network, Council is also exploring opportunities for a city-wide, 10 Gigabit per second capable fibre optic network.

This follows unanimous support for a Motion from the Lord Mayor in May 2016, which will see a report come back to Council in September 2016.

The City of Adelaide’s Strategic Plan 2016-2020 is expected to be endorsed at a Council Meeting on 28 June 2016.

Lord Mayor Martin Haese, and Minister Kyam Maher MLC will be at St Paul’s Creative Centre on Tuesday 28 June at 11.15am to discuss this further.

Rebecca Draysey