Successful round one applicants under the Digital Hubs and Digital Enterprise programs have been announced by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.

 

The programs, which provide $13.6 million and $10 million in funding respectively, will enable local communities to take advantage of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

 

The programs will deliver digital economy services in the five NBN mainland first-release sites and three stage one communities in Tasmania.

 

Local councils representing the first-release communities are developing project business cases for funding under round one of the $17.1 million Digital Local Government program, which will support councils to use the NBN to deliver enhanced online council services to residents and businesses.

 

Senator Conroy also called for applications from local organisations for round two of the Digital Hubs, Digital Enterprise and Digital Local Government programs to deliver services under these programs in the next 19 communities to benefit from the NBN.

 

The Digital Hubs program provides funding of $13.6 million to help communities gain skills needed to maximise the benefits provided by the NBN. It will provide training in digital literacy and the opportunity to experience NBN-enabled services and technology.

 

The Digital Enterprise program provides funding of $10 million to local service providers to assist small-to-medium enterprises and not-for-profit organisations to provide group training seminars as well as one-on-one advice on how participants can use the NBN.

 

Guidelines and eligibility for making submissions are available at www.dbcde.gov.au/digitalhubs and www.dbcde.gov.au/digitalenterprise and www.dbcde.gov.au/digitallocalgov

 

Applications under round two for the Digital Hubs and Digital Enterprise programs close on 3 February 2012.

 

Councils eligible to apply under round two of the Digital Local Government program are required to confirm their interest in participating in the program by the end of January 2012, and to submit their project business cases for funding by the end of March 2012.

 

The three programs target the first 40 communities to benefit from the NBN, with funding being made available to these communities in line with the NBN rollout schedule.

 

Additional information on projects funded under round one, and also the communities for which round two funding has been made available, are available here.