Community Business Connect, part of the AgBiz Assist group, has been awarded $2.3mil grant funding from the Australian Government for the Rural Connectivity for Recovery and Resilience Project. Community Business Connect (CBC), a hands-on social enterprise, was founded by well know community agency AgBiz Assist and offers a range of IT and connectivity products and services to residential and commercial users across Regional Victoria and New South Wales.

Following the 2019/2020 Black Summer Bushfires, CBC identified an urgent need to improve mobile signal quality in the bushfire-affected areas of Towong and Alpine Shires, where blackspot prevention programs are unlikely to assist in the near future. Faced with the challenge of solving the unique issues experienced by those in rural communities and with post-disaster community recovery in mind, the Rural Connectivity for Recovery and Resilience Project (RCRR) was developed. This funding from the Australian Government will enable the distribution and installation of no-cost Mobile Signal Boosters to residences in low-coverage areas identified within the Alpine and Towong Shires.

Community Business Connect will visit these areas and offer, in addition to the Mobile Signal Boosters, one-on-one education, support and communication analysis for residents of impacted communities.

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CBC encourage residents outside of the program areas to still register their interest so that we may work towards replicating this program for other regions in the future.

ELIGIBILITY (UPDATED 25/09/23):
The program scope has been updated and is no longer limited to bushfire impacted areas of Alpine and Towong Shires. The revised program scope now includes all areas of Alpine, Towong, and also Indigo Shire LGAs.

Applicants will still need to be experiencing low to no mobile signal coverage, as assessed by our installers, and not already have a mobile signal booster installed.

Those who have already registered from previously ineligible LGA’s have been enrolled in the expanded project rollout.

Please click on the registration link above to submit your details to our installation partner.

The list of target areas may be expanded in the future depending on funds available, registered interest, and sufficient time remaining within the project contract period.