By 2020, we expect we’ll be the first country of our size to make broadband access universal. 

Our generation – GenNBN – will be more connected than ever before.

This will pay huge dividends in health, education and entertainment... to name just a few. And it will create exciting economic opportunities for everyone.

In the next three years, nbn is on track to put Australia ahead of the world for high speed, universal broadband access.

How can we leverage this advantage to transform our businesses, economy, communities and lives? 

Digital technology has radically changed the world and right now we’re walking into a wave of innovation that will revolutionise everything.

Not just what we do on our computers, but the way we live our lives and interact with the world around us.

This is the world of GenNBN.

Over the next five years, we’re going to see the proliferation of:

• Self-driving vehicles;
• Virtual and augmented reality;
• The internet of things;
• Personal robotics; and even,
• Artificial intelligence to a degree...

So, what does this mean?

Firstly, data usage in Australia is exploding, largely because of video uptake. In just two years, data consumption in Australia has doubled to 1.7 exabytes. For context, Cisco estimated in 2011 that one exabyte is enough capacity to hold over 36,000 years of HD video, or stream the entire Netflix catalogue 3,000 times over.

On our own network, we are now seeing, on average, 131 gigabytes per month for each end user and we are predicting 30 per cent annual growth over the next four years.

This is why networks like the one nbn is building are so critical. 

Australia in transition 

For the last 250 years, three pillars have supported Australia’s growth: manufacturing, mining and agriculture.

These industries remain vital to our future. But, to flourish, we need more. We need to lift local digital demand to support local digital innovation.

In other words, we need to build an Australian digital marketplace and then take it to the world.

We need to encourage more companies to follow in the footsteps of Australian innovators like Atlassian, Envato, Campaign Monitor, Freelancer.com and Canva.

These Australian companies are showing us the way forward. If we can get better at harnessing and commercialising this knowledge, we can build on their success.

KPMG recently reported that small and medium businesses are the fastest growing employment sector within Australia, they noted that:

“While medium and big business are important components of the Australian economy, the really transformative element since the mining boom has been the small business sector.”

As a nation, we need to make it easier for entrepreneurs to get started, grab opportunities and build scale – locally and globally.

And the nbn™ network has a vital role to play here. We can make sure that businesses have the tools to participate – and grow – in the new digital market place through the use of digital technology. We can help digital innovators grow across Australia by accelerating the local adoption of content and e-commerce.

By providing high speed universal access, nbn won’t just improve lives. It will expand the local digital marketplace and make local innovation more viable. Then, as these innovative new businesses grow, we can help them build global scale.

We are now entering what will be an exciting time in history: the nbn generation – or GenNBN. It will be a time of rapid change and unique opportunity for all Australians but particularly for the private sector.

I’m genuinely excited by the benefits nbn can deliver to all Australians.

The final question I have for you is this: how will you make the most out of a fully-connected Australia?