Central Coast Council has announced it is working with multiple providers to deliver 100 Gigabit per second connectivity to the Central Coast.

Access to a 100Gb/s connection will enable high-speed, high-performance fibre optic data network for Central Coast businesses, providing access to 100Gb/s data speeds and a range of high performance services.

Council CEO Gary Murphy said this enabling infrastructure was a key component of Council’s strategy to generate economic returns for the Central Coast.

"We will partner with a commercial provider to install the 100Gb/s network to give business on the coast a distinct competitive advantage.

"We are confident in the coast’s affordability, lifestyle, natural beauty and welcoming community making it a desirable destination. Being able to enable better business digital infrastructure is a game changer,” said Mr Murphy.

The 100Gb/s network moves business traffic from the internet to dedicated links and interconnects. It helps businesses overcome cloud connectivity issues due to ever-increasing domestic traffic caused by streaming television, online gaming, and high definition multimedia. It provides another choice for cloud connectivity for businesses.

“Council is involved for more reasons than facilitating a competitive business edge,” said Mr Murphy.

"44,200 Central coast residents live the commuter life daily. This means over a quarter of our workforce commute outside the Central Coast. The impacts of this are beyond travelling time to and from work – sometimes up to five hours per day - whether by car or public transport. Our research shows leaving the coast for work can impact on family and social relationships, mental health wellbeing and community betterment. This all has serious impacts on the quality of life for our residents. That is why Council is driving this initiative,” said Mr Murphy.

Mr Murphy added that research showed more than fifty per cent of commuters could do their work remotely, or if better enabled, their businesses could be predominantly based on the Central Coast.

“As a snapshot, the potential impact to local businesses per day from the loss of the commuting population has been calculated as $400,000 in coffee and lunches, and $35,000 in haircuts daily. This is a significant loss for Central Coast businesses in that money not being spent here on the coast.

“There are many other multiplier economic impacts such as business supplier chains and health service providers that could impact from more residents being able to work physically on the coast instead of commuting. Through the multiplier effect, economic modelling shows that for every 100 jobs brought back home, it would spin off a further 166 jobs, for a net total of 266 jobs.

“It is about listening to our local businesses and also our commitment to ensuring young people have opportunities to get a job and build their lives on the coast if they choose,” said Mr Murphy.

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