$4 million collaboration to advance global broadband

The University of Melbourne and NEC will work together to advance wireless broadband communication systems thanks to a $4 million linkage grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC). The collaboration, officially announced today, aims to dramatically increase data rates for mobile devices, and help deliver broadband services to remote locations that cannot be serviced by optical fibre. Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne Professor Jamie Evans said the collaboration was expected to have a significant impact on future global standards for wireless broadband communication. 'Research from this collaboration will make inroads into defining cloud computing technology ' Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand - from a mobile perspective, as well as provide a commercial alternative to Gigabit data access where optical fibre installation is prohibitively expensive or impractical,? he said. Gordon Gay, General Manager Mobile Global Development Group, NEC Australia said the collaboration - which will link an NEC Wireless Research Group based at the University, with NEC research engineers in Australia and Japan - will significantly increase the impact of NEC's work and more readily influence the future global standards for wireless broadband communication. 'NEC has been leading the way in mobile standards and the commercial introduction of 3rd Generation networks.