Linking all schools and TAFEs statewide.

Telstra will build a $280 million fibre network connecting all NSW schools and TAFE institutes with fast broadband services over the next four years.

The deal, announced this morning by the State Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, would include the deployment of “more than 4,500 kilometres of optic fibre” links.

The rollout would begin "immediately", a spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education and Training told iTnews.

The Minister also pointed to network smarts that would enable the Government to manage bandwidth allocation according to school demands and fluctuating student populations.

“A flexible system means bandwidth provided to schools can be increased or decreased to meet temporary spikes in demand as well as growth or declines in the student population,” she said.

Paraphrasing Telstra, Firth boasted the network would “be the largest in Australia and one of the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere.
 
“This $280 million, four-year contract will bring the benefits of improved broadband services to more than 1.2 million students at over 2,400 sites statewide,” she said.

“The new Telstra network will give NSW students the same broadband speeds that are used in many of Australia's largest companies.”

The NSW Government claimed the network construction would create 150 jobs.

It came less than a week after the Tasmanian Department of Education called for suggestions on how it could leverage the Tasmanian portion of the National Broadband Network for education purposes.