Deadline: 14-Nov-22
The $30 million Active Sharing Partnership grant opportunity seeks to establish collaborative partnerships between the telecommunications sector to design and deliver active sharing mobile solutions that will improve mobile coverage in regional NSW.
Objective
The Mobile Coverage project aims to significantly improve mobile coverage in regional NSW where people live, work and play through transformative investment in mobile phone infrastructure and emerging technologies. The Active Sharing Partnership is a key component of the Mobile Coverage project.
A total of $30 million is available under the Active Sharing Partnership grant opportunity for the construction and operation of active sharing mobile solutions that will provide new and improved mobile coverage to regional NSW.
The objectives of the Active Sharing Partnership opportunity are to:
- Demonstrate the suitability of different types of active sharing solutions in delivering coverage and connectivity outcomes for regional NSW.
- Encourage competition in the regional telecommunications market to provide consumers with greater quality, affordability, and choice in their telecommunication provider.
- Identify fit-for purpose commercial and delivery models for active sharing mobile solutions that can be implemented at scale in future government funding programs.
- Deliver new and improved mobile coverage to regional NSW locations where people live, work and play using active sharing mobile solutions.
Funding Information
- Grant amount: Up to $30,000,000
Eligible projects
Projects must propose active sharing mobile solutions that:
- Use active infrastructure sharing to deliver mobile services that meet the minimum requirements outlined in the grant guidelines.
- Provide new mobile coverage or overlapping mobile coverage to an eligible location in regional NSW.
- Be ready for service by December 2025, unless otherwise agreed by the department.
- Not be a location identified in forward build network expansion or upgrade plans, including builds commenced and/or planned in the next three (3) financial years at the date of contract award.
What the funding can be used for?
Grant funding can be requested for:
- Capital infrastructure costs associated with proposed solutions’ delivery and operation, including funding for materials and equipment, labour and services and upfront capital costs related to the installation and deployment of backhaul
- Cost associated with the establishment of access seekers’ active sharing networks, including funding for changes and/or upgrades to operating and billing support systems
- Costs associated with the access seeker accessing the proposed solution to provide a retail mobile service
- For proposed solutions in natural disaster prone areas, funding for additional resiliency measures such as auxiliary backup power and redundant backhaul to improve the reliability of services in emergency situations.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications must meet the below eligibility criteria to be considered for grant funding. In limited circumstances, the eligibility criteria may be waived by the department.
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Applications must be submitted by project teams consisting of one access provider and one or more access seekers.
- Access providers must be carriers or eligible companies as defined by the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth).
- Access seekers must be mobile network operators (MNOs).
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Each of the access seekers and access providers must:
- Have participated in Phase 1 of the Active Sharing Partnership, a 15-week design phase that ran from May to August 2022.
- Be registered for GST.
- Hold or commit to obtaining public liability insurance of not less than $20 million per occurrence, or equivalent or better self-insurance.
For more information, visit NSW Govt.
For more information, visit https://www.nsw.gov.au/grants-and-funding/mobile-coverage-project
