Telstra lands $187m to upgrade Queensland school connectivity

The Queensland government will top up its spending on state school connectivity by $187 million to give students more bandwidth.

At the moment, the average bandwidth available per student is 25Kbps, but that will grow to 5Mbps per student by 2026 under a five year deal with Telstra announced today.

The contract will also give rural and regional schools connection speeds to match those in Brisbane, Telstra said.

The first boost will be rolled out to the state’s 1258 state schools over the next 18 months, with 40 schools to get their first fibre connections.

It won’t only be schools that benefit, Telstra Enterprise chief customer officer John Ieraci said. 

“This extensive infrastructure investment will also deliver connectivity benefits to all other Queensland government agencies and businesses, who will have access to the upgraded networks," he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the deal “will ensure teachers have access to the latest digital technologies and tools for their classrooms: everything they need to deliver a world-class education”.

In 2020, Telstra won a $328 million contract to upgrade NSW schools, and in 2021 Victoria paid $100 million to get better broadband for its schools.