Data services

How Lumea is driving regional growth

News - 06 October 2022

Lumea Driving Regional Growth

For a long time, businesses in regional Australia have struggled with internet connectivity challenges. Many businesses succeeded in making a significant contribution despite battling issues with internet quality, consistency, and pricing in comparison to metro businesses. Until now, that is.

With the transition to renewable energy, regional Australia is undergoing a massive development boom, and now more than ever it’s important to enable businesses and communities to have the same online experience as metro areas. The problem is that Australia has such a dispersed population that it has been extremely difficult for our country to establish the infrastructure required to bridge this divide.

“Unless you visit regional Australia, it’s hard to truly understand how much of a struggle their connectivity issues are. From business to education, local government, and emergency services—bridging the digital divide is critical,” says Basanta Neupane, Product Engineering Manager at Lumea.

Over the years, Lumea has established one of Australia’s largest fibre optic networks. And we’ve coupled this with strategic industry-leading partnerships such as nbn™ to spread our reach even further and deliver enterprise-grade connectivity.

This is great news for regional businesses because it means internet costs are closer to metro businesses, access to high quality internet, improved business continuity, and more opportunities for digital transformation initiatives.

Reducing connectivity costs

Cost is a major barrier for regional businesses when it comes to accessing business-grade internet services. While you may be able to access the same quality as metro areas, for a long time it has come at a much higher price. At Lumea, we’re focused on changing this.

“If I compare business internet in regional and Metro areas, the price difference is significantly different which is stopping regional businesses from thriving and driving the economy further. Lumea’s core network is spread across most regional areas in NSW, Victoria, and QLD to help address cost and quality issues,” explains Basanta.

Co-location and partnerships play a big role in how we bridge the digital divide between network infrastructure. For example, as a company with a rich history in the power industry, Lumea has over 130 telecommunications towers and 37,000 sites for colocation across Australia. That means we can rent out space for other carriers and we can use these partnerships to further our own services. This helps reduce costs for both our business and our customers.

Making enterprise-grade internet possible

Due to digital demands and security, businesses require a much higher quality internet connection than residential services. “Providing business-grade quality to regional Australia is the reason we brought business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet into our offering. We’re focused on doing good from the sustainability side of things, but we’re also focused on doing good in the business world by bridging the digital divide and leveling the playing field,” says Basanta.

Through our extensive network we’re able to provide regional businesses with a cost-effective solution that delivers enterprise-grade quality through nbn™’s services. With many businesses operating off cheaper home internet plans, the enterprise quality that we can provide through business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet is what makes the switch worth it. Moving from residential connectivity services to business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet delivers better operations, boosted productivity and higher quality goods and services—paving the path to progressive business growth.

By connecting businesses to nbn™ fibre, Lumea delivers symmetric connectivity for equal upload and download speeds. This is critical for applications such as cloud computing and video conferencing that require this feature for a consistent connectivity experience. It’s also fast, secure, and scalable—key features that modern businesses should be seeking out in their internet plan.

Ensuring business continuity

Dealing with internet outages is a costly business disruption from both a time, cost, and customer experience perspective. In today’s digitally-driven world, there’s no time for this. With an extensive and diverse network, Lumea gives your business the best chance possible to maintain business continuity—even during natural disasters or outages from human error.

“To grow, you need to retain and attract new customers while maintaining business continuity. Good connectivity plays a big part in this. With enterprise-grade connectivity, regional businesses can gain a serious competitive edge by delivering a better experience around goods and services,” says Basanta.

Withstanding natural disasters

We briefly mentioned diversity—but what exactly does this mean for your business? Our "Fibre in the Sky” is built at the same high level as our high voltage electricity transmission network. This, combined with a network of underground fibre and strategic partners, provides inherent network diversity that enables us to swap to alternate network pathways when required to maintain business continuity.

Fueling digital transformation

Digital transformation is critical to business success. According to a Government report, Australian business tech spending is forecast to grow by 6.3 per cent in 2022 to $111 billion. Without a reliable internet connection, many of these digital transformation initiatives won’t reach their full potential.

Some questions regional or metro business should be asking are...

  • Where is my business heading?
  • Is my current connectivity delivering acceptable quality to drive growth and digital transformation?
  • How much does it cost to gain quality connectivity?
  • Can my provider offer consistent connectivity to ensure business continuity?
“What we've seen in regional Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic is that the businesses already up and running with reliable internet were the ones that thrived. You really couldn't tell where they were, whether it was regional or city, making them an attractive choice for new and existing customers. This is an important lesson for businesses that want to grow and gain a competitive advantage,” explains Basanta.

By constantly innovating and forging new connections—whether through our own network or partnerships—Lumea is creating a more connected Australia. As we continue to support businesses on their digital transformation journeys, we hope to be a part of yours too.

Get the reliability and speed you need with the future of connectivity. Connect to Lumea Carrier Ethernet powered by business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet for $0 fibre install plus your 1st month free. Check your eligibility in 3 simple steps here.