15 August 2014: TASMANIA'S billion dollar information, communications and technology (ICT) sector has almost doubled in value in a decade and is poised to help re-energise and reshape the state's economy, experts say.

The ICT sector in Tasman­ia has grown from generating $1.1 billion in 2003 to an estimated $2 billion next year.

And Tasmanian Mike Briers, who in 1997 co-founded Sirca - one of the world's most successful financial data firms, said it had the potential to grow exponentially.

"Tasmania's ICT sector has the potential to re-energise the entire Tasmanian economy, no question about that," Dr Briers told a conference in Hobart for some of the state's leading ICT professionals.

Apps developer Daniel Wood, 23, said yesterday the Tasmanian ICT sector was as strong as anywhere in Aust­ralia.

"It is a very exciting industry to work for, it is highly innovative," he said.

"I grew up here so in Tasmania and I don't have aspir­ations to go to a big city, it is nice to only have to drive five minutes to get to work."

The $2 billion figure was confirmed to the Mercury yesterday by industry experts and follows news last week a local ICT company had sec­ured a $100 million contract to install wi-fi services across the United States.

Tasmania's unique Sense-T program was described as being at the forefront of worldwide sensor technology by the Federal Government's Innovation Australia Board chairman Nicholas Gruen.

But experts said the State Government needed to capitalise on the growth and energy around the sector and invest in a submarine cable. They hoped funding would be included in this month's budget.

TASICT president Jared Hill has told the Mercury the infrastructure connecting Tasmanian communications to the rest of the world needed to be improved "or we cannot leverage the opportunities the NBN provides".

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Mark Gregory told the conference the high cost of sending data across Bass Strait could end up stunting the state's IT industry growth.

Mr Gregory said businesses were paying as much as 40 per cent more in Tasmania for data, fed via two submarine cab­les owned by Telstra, and a third attached to the Basslink power cable.

"No business will come to Tasmania while they have to pay that differential," Dr Gregory said.

The State Government has had talks with New South Wales company SubPartners to link Tasmania to the cable that will help the state tap into high-speed, high-capacity global networks.

"SubPartners have put together a proposal that is too good to pass up," Mr Hill said.

"This is a one-off $20 million investment that will create unlimited economic opportunities for the state.

"It means we can build large-scale data centres and it will bring the price of transmitting data off-island down through increased competition. This is absolutely critical infrastructure."

A key plank of the Tasman­ian Liberals election policy was to develop a "Data Centre Action Strategy" for Tasmania.

Information Technology and Innovation Minister Michael Ferguson said yesterday he had positive discussions with SubPartners but the Government would not be pre-empting what may be in the budget.

"We will continue to work with the company to help facilitate this important project for Tasmania."

Tasmania's booming ICT sector doubles in decade to $2 billion | by Matt Smith and Bruce Mounster | Mercury | 15 August 2014

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