ASX-listed Field Solutions Group (ASX: FSG), which claims to Australia’s leading rural, remote and regional telecommunications service provider, has announced plans to add LoRaWAN base stations to every one of its radio towers.
The move was announced by chairman Dr Ken Carr at the company’s AGM on 30 November. He said the company was working with providers of sensors and other IoT providers, but did not reveal the number of towers or detail precisely the coverage area such a rollout would created.
Carr claimed the company was the “the largest rural and regional network operator on the East Coast, from the Great Dividing Range to the desert, and with many communities still to connect,” in terms of both network reach and revenue.
Carr told the AGM that one strategy of the company was to work conjunction with local authorities, and use existing assets combined with new technology, to “provide a faster and more reliable business grade broadband solutions to stimulate investment and business retention.”
“We indicated in mid-2017 that we would target working with six local councils to expand our network,” he said. “Today, I am pleased to say we are now working with eighteen councils and have networks in all the East Coast states.
He added: “We have built out further along our Northern Corridor from our initial centre in Moree, which continues to grow. We now have network assets in Narrabri, Goondiwindi and plan to expand that corridor to the South and West. Our Southern Corridor now takes in Cootamundra, Harden and Junee and we are working with partners in Gundagai to expand it further.”
The group operates under three brands: JustISP, Southwestern Wireless and Ant Communications. It claims to partner with a wide variety of other telecommunications carriers to offer reach Australia wide and to provide services over dark fibre, wireless, microwave, ethernet, NBN and satellite
Carr said the company had applied for government funding in excess of $24m for rural and regional networks, and had already been shortlisted for a number of these and they would provide significant opportunities for co-funding of network development should they eventuate.
