Victoria-funded AU$1.1 Million LaTrobe Valley Gigabit Fixed Wireless Network Goes Live

Spirit Telecom announced on Friday the completion of a AU$1.1 million project to deliver gigabit-capable 5G fixed wireless broadband to Morwell.

Each of the seven towers in Morwell will supply service in a 10-kilometre radius and cover areas such as the Gippsland Hi-Tech Precinct and Innovation Centre, the Gippsland Logistics Precinct, Morwell CBD, the Food and Manufacturing Precinct, and the Aerospace Precinct at Latrobe Regional Airport in Traralgon. Spirit added network coverage could be extended to the townships of Traralgon and Moe in the future.

The project is the second of its sort completed by Spirit, which was handed AU$1.7 million to deploy a similar network around Horsham. Both projects fall under its Sky-Speed Internet banner.

Spirit said it is wholesaling the network, but is offering unlimited downloads across a number of symmetric speed plans, ranging from under AU$200 a month for 50Mbps, just shy of AU$300 for 100Mbps both ways, while a monthly cost of AU$395 will get 250Mbps, AU$515 each month is the cost of a 500Mbps plan, and the 1Gbps mark will cost AU$950 a month.

"Gigabit broadband will bring more jobs and opportunities to the Valley, and I encourage local businesses to take advantage of the world-class speeds available on this new network," Victorian Minister for Regional Development Jaclyn Symes said.

"It's all part of the Labor government's commitment to supporting economic growth, to creating new jobs and attracting the industries of the future to this region."

On the other side of the nation on Thursday, Western Australia said it would spend AU$1 million to provide fixed wireless services to two additional places in the Mid-West and West Midlands, which will cover around 130 farms and 13,500 square kilometres.

Logic IT Solutions in Geraldton will build the network.

"These two projects in the Mid-West and West Midlands build on the rollout in the regions under round one of the Digital Farm program, filling the gaps and ensuring farmers across the northern grainbelt have access to high-speed broadband," Western Australian Minister for Regional Development Alannah MacTiernan said.

"Both projects will use, where possible, existing towers deployed from the first round of the program to extend further into rural areas where connectivity is lacking."

In 2018, the WA government announced it would part with AU$1 million for a fixed wireless project in Kununurra and the Ord River Irrigation Area to cover 40 farms over 1,700 square kilometres in the east Kimberley.

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