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Massimo Lenzi Appointed As Vice-Chair of The Critical Communications Broadband Group
NSW Telco Authority is delighted to announce that we've been honoured with the Creating Safe, Thriving Communities award—one of the eight distinguished categories—at the 2025 NSW Premier’s Awards. The accolade recognises our pioneering Broadband Cells on Wheels (COWs) initiative, designed to deliver emergency Wi-Fi to communities in times of crisis.
The “Creating Safe, Thriving Communities” category highlights projects that enhance quality of life through improved safety, innovative transport/communications solutions, disaster resilience and accessible infrastructure.
Our initiative was recognised as: Broadband Cells on Wheels (COWs) for emergency community Wi-Fi, delivering a fleet of broadband COWs to provide emergency wi-fi for use by the community.
The Broadband COWs programme equips deployable mobile broadband units that can be rapidly positioned in affected areas—such as evacuation centres, impacted towns and major event sites—to provide essential Wi-Fi access during commercial carrier outages or disaster-impacted network failure scenarios. The units combine multiple power options, satellite backhaul and managed Wi-Fi access to serve communities and first-responders alike.
As Lachlan Camp, Product Delivery Manager, put it: “This recognition reflects our commitment to keeping communities connected when it matters most. The Broadband COWs program provides internet access during outages in key locations, such as Evacuation Centres. This enables people to contact loved ones, access vital services, and stay informed in times of crisis."
We extend our heartfelt thanks to our dedicated teams, deployment crews, technical partners and all stakeholders who made this initiative possible. This award is not just a recognition of one project—it reflects the collective dedication to strengthening connectivity resilience across NSW.
Winning this award reaffirms our mission to build safer, connected and thriving communities. We will continue to enhance our scope—improving our deployment readiness, expanding coverage, refining technologies and scaling partnerships to reach more locations, more quickly, when they need it most.
