Today, the Prime Minister, The Hon. Julia Gillard and Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator The Hon. Stephen Conroy toured a new facility, the Australian Broadband Applications Laboratory (ABAL), that has been established to assist businesses to develop broadband services.

ABAL, located at the University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES), was officially announced by the Victorian State Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips on Tuesday 27 September.

ABAL provides a sandpit broadband network environment, enabling companies to develop and test broadband innovative services and applications.

“ABAL provides industry and not-for-profits with expertise that assists them to harness technologies, develop new ideas and test them in a real-world environment before going to market” said Rod Tucker, ABAL Director

“ABAL provides a space for developing innovations that have the potential to impact on the whole economy”.

Until now the laboratory facilities at ABAL have assisted IBES researchers to test and develop broadband applications. The facilities are now available to a wide range of external organisations in different sectors, including health, education, retail, finance, manufacturing, mining and energy.

More information on ABAL is available on this website.

IBES acknowledges the ongoing support of the Victorian State Government, the University of Melbourne and Industry partners.