{"id":291775,"date":"2021-08-30T09:45:51","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T09:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationaus.com\/?p=21948"},"modified":"2021-08-30T09:45:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T09:45:51","slug":"reg-coutts-nbn-expert-panellist-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/08\/30\/reg-coutts-nbn-expert-panellist-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Reg Coutts, NBN expert panellist, passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor Reg Coutts<\/strong>, one of six expert panellists who helped envisage the original National Broadband Network (NBN), has passed away.<\/p>\n

Professor Coutts passed away peacefully in hospital in Adelaide from liver cancer on Sunday night, the Telecommunications Association (TelSoc), of which Professor Coutts was vice chairman, said on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Professor Reg Coutts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2008, Professor Coutts was appointed by then-communications minister Stephen Conroy as one of six members of a panel of experts to assess proposals to build the NBN and to advise the government on the awarding of a $4.7 billion contract to part-fund its construction.<\/p>\n

The panel eventually rejected all proposals put forward and submitted its report and a letter to the government in January 2009, which found “that none of the national proposals offered value for money”.<\/p>\n

The letter provided the framework for Labor’s $43 billion NBN policy announced in April 2009 which has now been realised, albeit under a Coalition government and in a very different form.<\/p>\n

Professor Coutts, who has been involved in the telecommunications sector for almost 40 years, was Professor of telecommunications at the University of Adelaide from 1993 to 2003.<\/p>\n

He also ran his\u00a0own consultancy firm Coutts Communications, held technical positions at Telstra, and worked for the Australian Communications and Media Authority.<\/p>\n

He was also particularly outspoken in defending the advice he provided as part of the NBN expert panel.<\/p>\n

\u201cReg had a great life and was a truly amazing person, a wonderful father for Paul & Louise and my soul mate for 42 years,” his wife Pam wrote in a message which has been distributed to family, friends and colleagues, according to Adelaide’s Power FM<\/em>.<\/a> “I will miss him hugely, as will Louise.”<\/p>\n

Professor Coutts had a go at federal politics as the Labor candidate for the seat of Mayo in the 2018 federal by-election. He was also chairman of TelSoc from its inception in 2013 until last year and was previously chairman of the Telecommunications Society of Australia for a number of years.<\/p>\n

Paul Budde, another telecommunications consultant, remembered his \u201cdear friend and colleague\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince Covid we had regular telephone discussions about our ‘beloved’ NBN,\u201d Mr Budde said in a LinkedIn post<\/a>. \u201cAlways working on ideas on how to get the current government to accept a better plan to get fibre deeper into the network.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time we discussed this was only a month ago. I knew Reg was ill but he was always positive and full of fun (and mischief). My deepest sympathy to Pam and his family. I will always remember Reg as a great friend and colleague. He will be greatly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day before he passed away, Professor Coutts wrote a letter to his friends, distributed by Myrana Wahlqvist, secretary of the Mayo FEC.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, my health has taken a turn. After eighteen months of feeling quite good, my cancer has suddenly spread to my liver,” his note read, Power FM<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

“The doctors have done\u00a0all they can do and I wanted to say my goodbyes. I have really enjoyed getting to know you all in our efforts to advance a better society and body politic through Labor. Thanks also for your support in my campaign. Keep powering on.”<\/p>\n

Ms Wahlqvist said Professor Coutts “was a marvellous and inimitable character” and that there would “never be another like him”.<\/p>\n

\n

The post Reg Coutts, NBN expert panellist, passes away<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on InnovationAus<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Reg Coutts, one of six expert panellists who helped envisage the original National Broadband Network (NBN), has passed away. Professor Coutts passed away peacefully in hospital in Adelaide from liver cancer on Sunday night, the Telecommunications Association (TelSoc), of which Professor Coutts was vice chairman, said on Monday. In 2008, Professor Coutts was appointed…<\/p>\n

The post Reg Coutts, NBN expert panellist, passes away<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11189,1771,1892,34490],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291871,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291775\/revisions\/291871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}