As part of its strategy to encourage productivity of Australian citizens, the Government has announced that businesses can now have their applications for high-speed broadband tested for a fee at the newly launched Australian Broadband Applications Laboratory (ABAL).

With a set-up similar to the National Broadband Network (NBN), the ABAL allows any Australian business to test new products for run over by the NBN. While the standard testing speed is 100Mbps, the ABAL could configure the network to provide up to 10Gbps.

According to Prime Minister Julia Gilliard, broadband is the key to increase productivity in Australia which has an ageing population. She noted that even the United Nations has acknowledged that broadband as the next "transformational technology."

The prime minister said that providing the hardware and the climate to succeed can produce computer wizards like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

The laboratory which is located at the University of Melbourne is under the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES). It has received a $3 million funding from the government.