Fibre Connections to Schools - Frequently asked questions

The FCS initiative is an integral part of the Digital Education Revolution.  Under the FCS, the Government has committed $100 million over three years from 2008-09 to support the provision of high-speed broadband connections to Australian schools (primary and secondary) to deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.

Access to reliable, affordable, high speed broadband connections will strengthen the capacity of students, parents, teachers and the wider community to communicate, collaborate and access resources across system, State/Territory and national boundaries. 

The objective to the FCS is to develop Australian schools as technology rich learning environments underpinned by access to high speed broadband infrastructure that :

• is acquired on a basis that allows it to be used to its maximum capacity.
• facilitates collaboration between schools and across schools networks; and
• contributes to wider policy goals relating to education, social inclusion, workforce participation and productivity.

The FCS will build on work already done by jurisdictions including the 2007 National Bandwidth Statement developed by the MCEETYA ICT in Schools Taskforce.

The implementation approach is collaborative and focussed on full engagement with state and territory government and non-government schools authorities. 

The first phase of engagement with education stakeholders is focussed on:

• establishing a baseline of school connectivity across school jurisdictions and sectors; and
• articulating a vision of national connectivity for Australian schools.

The second phase of stakeholder engagement will focus on:

• developing high level strategies for realising the vision;
• developing investment principles to guide FCS investments; and
• identifying priority areas of activity for FCS investment in 2008-09.

An implementation plan developed on the basis of formal stakeholder engagement will be provided to the Coalition of Australian Governments’ Productivity Agenda Working Group in December 2008. 

Implementation of the FCS will be coordinated with the government’s National Broadband Network initiative (NBN), responsibility for which resides with the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. 

The Australian Government has committed $4.7 billion to facilitate the roll-out of a new open access, high-speed, fibre-based broadband network, providing downlink speeds of at least 12 megabits per second to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses.

While the FCS will be coordinated with the National Broadband Network initiative (NBN), the FCS is not a competitive procurement process and there may be an opportunity for elements of the FCS initiative to be progressed in advance of completion of the NBN roll-out. 

The Australian education sector, including some schools systems, already has extensive experience in the roll out of fibre connections. state and territory governments and the schools sectors each have their own arrangements for access to communications infrastructure.  The Australian Government will work with education authorities to build on what has been achieved to date.

Work undertaken with education stakeholders as part of the FCS will be able to inform the NBN as it rolls out.

It is not expected that funds will be allocated before Q3 2008/09.

Under the FCS initiative, it is anticipated that schools in remote areas will receive a standard of service which, depending on available technologies (eg. fixed-line, wireless and satellite), will be as close as possible to the standard provided by the government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) initiative (ie. speeds of 12 mbps).