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Social and Economic Impacts of Digital Connection in Remote Communities: Central Western Queensland

01 June 2020

Introduction

Digital connection – fast broadband internet and mobile phone access – is crucial for
economic development, access to services and social connection in rural and regional
Australia. Investment decisions about the considerable cost of expanding internet and mobile
phone coverage in rural and remote areas, are limited by lack of data on the social and
economic benefits of connection, particularly longitudinal studies that assess impacts over
time.

This report describes the results of research on the social and economic impacts of digital
connection in remote communities in far western Queensland – Jundah, Stonehenge,
Windorah in the Barcoo Shire; and Birdsville and Bedourie in the Diamantina Shire. Digital
connection involved the underground installation of fibre-optic cable and the establishment of
mobile phone coverage within about a 20kms radius of towns. People located outside the
towns, on extensive pastoral properties, accessed the internet via the Telstra Skymuster
satellite service which provided much faster speeds and capacity than previous satellite
services.

Key services in these communities – the police station, health clinic, primary school, and
local government offices - have “fibre to the premises”. This is where the fibre optic cable
connects directly to each location allowing high data volumes and transfer speeds. The rest
of each community – businesses and residential buildings - have “fibre to the node” access to
the cable. This means that the fibre optic cable is connected to each town’s telephone
exchange and the final connection to the cable is made through cooper wire cables from the
telephone exchange to each premises.
Methodology
An assessment of social and economic impacts these impacts was made in 2016 (prior to fast
internet and mobile phone connection), in 2017 (one year after connection) and in 2019 (2.5
years after connection). A range of over 30 indicators were assessed under the following
categories:
1. Reliability and performance of voice telephony and digital connection,
2. Digital capacity,
3. Changes in social/community characteristics as a result of digital connection,
4. Changes in economic characteristics as a result of digital connection.
Information and experiences of the impacts of digital connection were gathered using a
mixed methods approach involving detailed interviews with key informed respondents, likert
scale scores and data such as internet speeds and costs. Interviews were conducted
throughout each of the five case study communities and with landholders outside towns. This
included a broad cross section of community members including representatives of police,
education, health, businesses, local government, emergency services, landholders, resources
companies, Indigenous people and key community people.

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