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Not content with holding the title for the world’s largest lithium-ion battery, South Australia looks set to claim the mantle for one of the world’s fastest internet connections with the roll-out of Adelaide City Council’s Ten Gigabit fibre network.
The bold initiative, first greenlighted over two years ago, was successfully tendered by TPG who will build, own and operate the new dedicated network. The network is being built upon the city’s existing infrastructure, connecting a minimum of 1,000 buildings in the CBD and along the main commercial strips in North Adelaide; with an expected completion within two years.
The Adelaide City Council project is aimed at attracting business to the CBD, enhancing productivity and growing existing businesses by providing a dedicated, subsidised internet connection. Based on a similar roll-out in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Council are forecasting the creation of 2,500 additional jobs over a six year period and up to $76.4 million economic benefits per annum.
Transforming a city
The Ten Gigabit City initiative is just one of a suite of projects and initiatives aimed at putting Adelaide on the national (and world) stage as a desirable place to invest, work, live and visit. A key feature of these initiatives has been around building Adelaide’s image as the lead technologically-enabled city to attract both global and domestic tech companies. Examples of such initiatives include two new pilot programs trialling new traffic sensors and lighting systems as part of a connected ‘Smart City’. Adelaide was also certified as Australia’s first ‘Lighthouse City’ by CISCO. The Lighthouse City status establishes access to Cisco’s global network and a partnership in the Internet of Things (IoT) – the initiative to connect computing devices to the internet. The government is also taking other steps to improve the state’s attractiveness. In July 2018, they abolished stamp duty on all nonresidential property transfers. The move has already seen a quantifiable change in demand for Adelaide assets, with $700 million of assets transacted this calendar year; significantly larger than the $415 million transacting over 2017.
Growing the future
The State Government’s Laneway Master Plan announced in 2016 was aimed at capitalising on the city’s world-class education institutions’ proximity to the CBD – with the intention of providing a single location to do business, study and live. In October, Lockheed Martin and the University of Adelaide reached a collaborative agreement to develop a centre of excellence for machine learning. This follows Boeing’s recent announcement to open an office in Adelaide’s CBD. Other industries are also being attracted to Adelaide, including entrepreneurial start ups and defence companies, given the Federal Government’s significant defence project pipeline.
Connecting Our Assests
As active participants in the Adelaide office market, Charter Hall are strong supporters of the initiatives underway. The ATO building at 12-26 Franklin St (DOF) is in the heart of the CBD and will soon to be connected into the Ten Gigabit network. The property will greatly benefit from the relative advantage and utility of the service for tenants.