QCN Fibre beefs up internet speed for Warwick meatworks

Queensland meat exporter John Dee is having its internet capacity beefed up through backhaul provider QCN Fibre, bringing benefits to local businesses and residents.

Minister for Innovation and State Development Kate Jones today revealed QCN Fibre was enabling John Dee, a major employer in Warwick in Southern Queensland, to access high-speed commercial-grade internet, opening up new growth opportunities.

“Internet is crucial when it comes to support businesses to grow and employ more people,” Ms Jones said.

“We want to help companies like John Dee to expand and be able to export more.

“That’s why we’re breaking down the digital divide by unlocking more than 10,000km of optical fibre throughout the state to provide better internet for people in regional Queensland.

“The improvements it is bringing to regional telecommunications comes at a critical time as more people work online and it’s even more important to boost regional capacity.

“QCN Fibre will be the platform to bring metropolitan-grade services, at metropolitan prices, to regional Queenslanders.

“It’s great to see how well QCN Fibre is working with telecommunications carriers and internet service providers to connect parts of our spare optical fibre network in key regional areas.”

QCN Fibre is a new telecommunications company jointly owned by Powerlink Queensland and Energy Queensland formed to help regional business development by using the spare cabling and selling ‘backhaul’ capacity to providers on a wholesale basis.

The backhaul cabling – high-capacity lines that transmit between sites or to a central point - is being made available to carry internet and data services at capacities up to 100Gbs, for businesses and residences.

QCN Fibre Chief Executive Officer Derek Merdith, said the company would partner with local internet service providers (ISPs), as well as major carriers, in regional Queensland so they could offer customers better backhaul capacity and internet speeds up to 10 times faster at cheaper prices.

“In Warwick, QCN Fibre’s immediate focus is assisting Wholesale Fixed Wireless carrier Channel Wireless to provide high-capacity services for customer John Dee Export Pty Ltd,” Mr Merdith said.

“The company has an international reputation in the export beef industry, but its ability to take advantage of growth opportunities offered by online technologies has been hampered by the lack of reasonably priced, high-speed internet,” he said.

John Dee’s Innovation Manager Andrew Fern said cost-effective high-speed internet connectivity was critical to the competitiveness and jobs growth of regional businesses. 

“We’ll now be able to implement our digital transformation, improve collaboration with processing customers and provide reliable information in near real-time to international customers who are used to high-speed internet,” he said.

Channel Wireless General Manager Dan Thompson said the arrival of QCN Fibre as an alternative to NBN would be a godsend for regional business, and the Queensland Government was to be congratulated for this important telecommunications innovation.

“Benefits from QCN Fibre’s entry to the market will not only flow to business via a vastly improved internet, but also potentially to the 600,000 homes in regional Queensland,” Mr Thompson said.

[ENDS]

Media contact: Jack Harbour 0419 620 447