(25 July 2002)

On 25 July 2002, the Minister for Innovation announced the successful applicants for the 2nd round of the STI Infrastructure Grants. Among these was a consortium to build a Collaborative Optical Leading Testbed (COLT). The purpose of the COLT project is to build an ethernet Passive Optical Network (ePON) to be based in Ballarat, with a node in Melbourne.

The Government will contribute $4 million towards the project, with a further $10 million coming from the foundation members. These include CEOS Pty Ltd (a local electronics and photonics company), CISCO (who will supply much of the infrastructure), other industry players and local universities. A number of international collaborators will also be involved in the project. In total, 31 members make up the foundation project members. This very high bandwidth testbed can be used by industry to trial technology and applications in a real environment.

COLT will involve carriers supplying much of the fibre needed to provide this high bandwidth to homes and businesses in Ballarat. The first stage of the project is expected to be implemented by April 2003. View the media release (PDF document).