Is the country vs city digital divide finally narrowing? We think so.

In my 20+ years in business IT and networking, the gap in regional connectivity has been a topic of endless discussion with stuttering action. We are making progress, however the business broadband we take for granted in big cities still falls short in the regions – and the consequences are greater than ever.

While there is internet ‘access’ for most Australians, this does not mean there is the level of enterprise-grade connectivity needed for mission-critical operations. In many remote areas, dependable broadband is simply not available, and 4G and 5G backups are patchy.

The gap between the digital haves and have-nots is accentuated by the relentless rise of technology like artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, internet of things (IoT) and anything-as-a-service (XaaS) cloud platforms driving productivity and innovation.

Lack of connectivity costs livelihoods and lives

In the past, poor internet was perceived as just a frustration, portrayed by buffering YouTube videos. Today, fast connectivity is the lifeblood of rural communities, businesses and essential services.

Disconnection interrupts education, health care, energy, food production and emergency responses. It threatens the workforce and operations of core industries like agriculture, mining, manufacturing, renewable energy and government services.

In a world running on digital tools, vast areas of remote Australia still struggle with little or no mobile coverage, fluctuating speeds or connections that drop out without warning.

Wishing on a satellite is not enough for enterprises

The increased availability of satellite services has brought better access to hard-to-reach areas. However, many of these solutions cater for consumers and small businesses and lack the performance assurances, service quality and support of enterprise solutions.

Many consumers have to make do, but near enough is not good enough when it comes to essential community, business and government services.

Closing the gap with end-to-end connectivity

At Nexon, we’ve been working with national and regional clients to move from a patchwork of network services to fast and reliable connectivity solutions Australia-wide, backed by the performance assurances they expect in the city.

To deliver on this promise, we’ve partnered with OneWeb, a world-leading low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite network. It maintains satellites and stations on the ground in Australia, with a range of end user hardware suitable for vehicles, buildings, remote sites and mobile applications.

Integrated with Nexon’s traditional SD-WAN enterprise network solutions, OneWeb can be used as a primary, backup or hybrid connectivity solution.

Mission-critical availability and backup:

Either as the primary service or as a fail-safe backup, LEO satellites provide flexible, always-on network connectivity for essential services where alternative options like fibre or 5G are less viable or locations are off-grid or mobile.

Use cases include remote emergency services and heavy industries where downtime costs millions and safety is paramount, or regional community essentials like healthcare, food production, transport and government services.

Connecting hard-to-reach locations:

Satellite connectivity can enable modern technology to unlock productivity in far-reaching places that previously had no service, and bring them into enterprise platforms.

This is ideal for remote mines, firefighting crews, FIFO work sites, off-grid communities, shipping, island territories, vehicle telemetry or tracking infrastructure in diverse locations. Data and applications from remote assets can be monitored and managed from anywhere.

Primary producer unifies their network from farm to headquarters

As an example, Nexon is working with a national agriculture operation to centralise its network. With city headquarters, regional offices and remote farms, they require high availability network services to deliver a seamless digital presence to their team no matter their location.

Nexon’s SD-WAN solution, augmented by LEO satellite, will offer clients the ability to unify their core cloud platforms with edge devices in regional plants to access the real-time data and information needed to stay ahead of the competition.

Remote connectivity backed by service level agreements

By integrating OneWeb into our core IP and networking product portfolio, Nexon offers enterprise-level connectivity in even the most hard-to-reach regional areas. Most importantly, we back our solutions with assurances and support you can rely on, including:

Formal service level agreements (SLA)

Defined quality of service (QoS) assurances

Multi-layered security and monitoring

Dedicated help desk and support services

If you’re looking to connect remote offices, plants, equipment or teams, we’d be happy to discuss how we can help augment your network with SD-WAN and LEO satellite connectivity.