Mustering up a Quill-er tale

While there's plenty of good news and people telling happy tales about the nbn, we also cop a lot of flak from some quarters for our efforts rolling out Australia’s largest ever infrastructure project. OK, sometimes deserved, but sometimes not so much.

But no-one knows just how difficult it is connecting a continent the size of ours to fast broadband however, like those who are at the sharp end, rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done.

Laying a submarine cable across Lake Macquarie to connect a housing development, using a drone to string cable across a river in Tasmania and drilling a 500m bore hole beneath a tidal waterway at Noosa to connect the other side. These are just some of the innovative ways we have overcome significant hurdles in our path to connect eight million Australian homes and businesses to the nbn? network.

It's important then to remember why we are going to such lengths – to open a world of new opportunities that positively change the lives of all Australians.

Sharing these stories is an important way to broaden understanding of the complexity, the fundamental changes to lives and the incredible efforts people right across nbn are going to, to bring next generation broadband to the nation.

It is gratifying then that our efforts in this regard were recognised with a major award this week.

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) awarded nbn a Gold Quill for a story we shared with our employees around the difference our Sky Muster satellite service is making to the lives of regional, rural and remote Australians.

We hit the road with one of our satellite dish equipped ‘Road Muster’ trucks for a week in the Alpine region of Victoria to provide a fly on the wall perspective of how our Community Affairs teams are engaging with the very people this service will benefit the most.

We captured their reactions, questions, disappointment, delight and personal stories – warts and all.

The judges believed the diary style written story, video and social media posts on our Workplace platform, hit the mark in showing how we are connecting with the very community we are trying to serve.

With a nation building project the size of the nbn project, this is far from the last story we will share of our journey to create the world’s first fully connected continent.

Congrats to all the finalists and winners!