RIVERINA COMPANY IN TRIAL TO IMPROVE DELIVERY OF VOICE SERVICES

Riverina wireless networking technology company Zetifi has been announced as one of the first three grant recipients under the Federal Government’s competitive $2 million Alternative Voice Services Trials (AVST) Program.

Zetifi will deliver up to 50 trial voice services to provide improved Wi-Fi calling for farms in rural and remote areas of New South Wales and northern Victoria.

Deputy Prime Minister and Member for Riverina Michael McCormack said the Federal Government continued to back businesses as they lead the economic recovery from the COVID-19 downturn.

“Zetifi is doing a power of work to help ensure rural and remote communities are better connected, which will lead to a better quality of life and further employment opportunities,” Mr McCormack said.

“I was pleased to advocate recently for Zetifi to receive $644,370 in Federal funding through the Accelerating Commercialisation Entrepreneurs’ Programme to launch its ‘Sleepy’ WiFi Repeater and this latest grant is testament to the important work Dan and his team are doing to improve the lives and safety for farming families and local communities across regional Australia.”

Zetifi Chief Executive Officer Dan Winson said the AVST funding would assist the company achieve its ambition to transform the way regional, rural and remote Australians lived and worked.

“The support of the Federal Government through this program is an exciting opportunity for us to showcase our technology and improve the lives of Australian farmers who need more reliable connectivity,” Mr Winson said.

“We’ll be deploying our solutions at 50 farms across New South Wales and northern Victoria and look forward to demonstrating that reliable long-range Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi calling is the best available alternative to 4G mobile coverage in rural and remote areas.”

The other two AVST grant recipients are NBN Co and Concerotel.

NBN Co will deliver up to 260 trial voice services across Australia, including across its fixed wireless and satellite networks, as well as trialling a low band fixed wireless solution.

Concerotel will deliver up to 200 trial voice services in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island, providing better VOIP services to mobile phones reliant on satellite links.

Some trials will include antennas or battery back up at homes, which is, intended to provide a more robust service with better in-home call quality.

Regional and remote consumers should be assured that their existing fixed voice services, such as a copper or high capacity radio concentrator service, will remain connected until there are robust and proven alternatives.

The grant recipients will ramp up recruitment of participants for the trials in the coming months so those consumers interested in participating in the trials should stay tuned for details.

The Government is also finalising grant agreements with other shortlisted applicants and expects to make further announcements about other successful projects shortly.

More information, including how consumers can register their interest to participate in the trials, is available on the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications website (www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/phone/phone-services/universal-service-guarantee-telecommunications/alternative-voice-services-trials-program).