A recent report reveals that the Australian New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education’s Fiber Optic broadband project is ahead of schedule. Telstra Corporation Limited, which agreed to have the project finished by September, has already laid out 99 percent of the 4500km fiber optic network.

“There has been no delay with the project, which is running on schedule, and no recent issues have emerged that affect its delivery,” a spokesman for the Department of Education said. Fewer than 30 of the estimated 2400 schools and Technical and Further Education sites left to be connected to the network.

The project will be a good complement to the $158m Connected Classrooms program, which is part of the Building the Educational Revolution (BER). BER is a national program sanctioned by the Australian government and administered by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations that is projected to cost AUD16.1 billion. BER is part of an economic stimulus package meant to address the recent financial crisis, which largely entails the refurbishing of school facilities and the funding of other environmental programs.

According to The Australian, NSW is already experimenting with virtual classrooms with students in the state’s central and western regions. NSW Education is also looking into other interactive learning methods involving electronic whiteboards and video-conferencing, a technology that Telstra will get to showcase as a part of the Connected Classrooms program. Even blogging is being considered as a potential tool for online collaboration that could be capitalized upon thanks to the new fiber optic network.

In the larger scheme of things, Telstra also agreed to decommission its old copper and HFC broadband networks and transfer all customers to the National Broadband Network for AUD11 billion.

The improvement of infrastructure is usually the solution in dealing with problems that plague the entire nation, even as a part of a global economic slowdown. I think this was a smart move by the Australian government, and now that the world is in recovery, they have only to reap the benefits.