DEREK MERDITH: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, QCN

We read the motherhood statements: Infrastructure is the foundation of regional economic development. To develop regional Queensland, we must invest in infrastructure – water, roads, power. It’s a given.

But there is one fundamental pillar of infrastructure that is the “forgotten infrastructure” – telecommunications.

It is perhaps the ubiquity of mobile phones, and the marketing machine of nbnCo that many see telecommunications as just being “here”. It just happens. Perhaps, for those looking at building infrastructure, it is “someone else’s responsibility”. Maybe that’s for the Federal Government or the nbn?

Just as our economy relies on the underpinnings of our traditional pillars of infrastructure, so too does the Digital Economy rely upon the underlying Digital Infrastructure.

It would be naïve to posit that our need for data capacity has reached its logical limit – the nbn tells us we won’t need more than 25Mbps. Really? We can look back to only the last decade when we were happy with 256Kbps. The drive for greater capacity and throughput will continue. Just as we build new highways for the increasing vehicular movements and improve access to regional economic zones, the same must be done for our digital infrastructure.

In the case of digital infrastructure, despite the hype around wireless technologies – with names like 5G, “Next”G and mmWave – when comparing high-capacity data transit mechanisms, optical fibre trumps all others in terms of capacity, upgradeability and economic lifecycle. Just one pair of optic fibres, in a cable that can carry dozens and even hundreds of fibre pairs, can transmit many orders of magnitudes greater capacity than a radio transmitter.

Fibre infrastructure mimics many of the economic fundamentals of other core infrastructure. It has a generational benefit with a useable life exceeding 25 years and requires significant capital investment. Forethought, planning and collaboration is key. As with all infrastructure, retrofitting or expanding existing infrastructure can be logistically and financially prohibitive. All too often, roadsides are being dug up to lay fibre, which is 40 – 50 times the cost that, with some forward planning, could have been installed before the asphalt (or pipe or pole) had been laid.

For the future of Queensland, when the discussion turns to developing our underlying fundamental infrastructure, digital infrastructure must have a seat at the big table.

Perhaps it is time for an Office of Digital Infrastructure? So that our grandchildren and their children in regional Queensland, will enjoy the same data services as their peers in the major cities.