Education and business in Walla Walla is set to transform after “city-grade” internet was secured for the town.
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St Paul’s College, silo manufacturer Kotzur and Greater Hume Shire Council banded together to help bring fibre optic internet to the area.
St Paul’s principal Mark Doecke said the school’s future was uncertain before the upgrade.
“What’s scary is to think about how we would have coped if we hadn’t got this,” he said.
“We couldn’t even give the students access to things like YouTube because it was just too slow.
“We just wouldn’t have been able to do in the classroom what other schools can.”
Mr Doecke said the school could now better utilise multimedia in the classroom and integrate a program for students to use personal devices.
“We’ve got to be competitive,” he said.
“Younger teachers coming out are using technology constantly in the classroom and we have to keep up with those changes.
“We’re already putting on three new staff next year because of the growth in numbers … without this high speed broadband, it’s doubtful whether we would have grown.”
Mr Doecke said he hoped to see the surrounding area thrive with the improved service.
“Walla is only a little town of 900 people but we’ve got a number of quite substantial employers here,” he said.
“Other businesses have the opportunity to also purchase some of the high speed access through us … there’s three other potential employers in town who could all benefit from high-speed internet.”
Mr Doecke said the achievement was a joint effort with Kotzur managing director Andrew Kotzur.
“He was aware of our needs for high speed internet here and they had the same need, so he initiated talks with us so that we could put in a joint submission to the Murray Darling Basin regional economic diversification program,” he said.
“A lot of it was built around increasing employment opportunities in Walla, both Kotzur and ourselves are growing.”
Mr Kotzur said he was passionate about bringing a quality service to the town.
“The vision for what this quality of service can provide for our business here and for the school has been one of the core drivers,” he said.
“The limitations previously were in terms of speed and reliability for the previous ADSL network.”
“We’ve multiplied our connection speed by 10 times, we’ve eliminated data charges and now we’ve got the capacity to grow it as our needs grow … we essentially have access to the same quality of service as the very best you’d get in Albury-Wodonga or the capital cities.”
