23 July, 2015 11:32AM AEST

Build IT and they will come - could Toowoomba become Australia's Silicon Valley?

Toowoomba wants to embrace technology with a new digital economic strategy to entice start-up companies to the region.

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Toowoomba mayor Paul Antonio wants his city to embrace digital technology.

He says it provides "enormous opportunities" and wants to "kick start change and entice start-up companies to the region."

The council plans to improve connectivity to the National Broadband Network (NBN) and deliver online literacy campaigns over the course of the next two years via its Toowoomba Region Digital Economy Strategy.

It is an attitude local residents have welcomed.

"I think the council has the right idea," said Toowoomba information management worker Graeme Thomas.

"But there's a few basic things that have to be correct before we can start making leaps and bounds.

"I understand some of the buzzwords being thrown about like 'digital economy', but we just need reliable internet first."

Some suburbs in Toowoomba have fibre to the home internet access via the NBN, but not all.

"If we want to go past anything more than lip service - and there's any number of councils around Australia would be highlighting the potential for small towns to be online - it might be an opportunity for the Toowoomba council to build something more substantial, but costs could be prohibitive for a small council," Mr Thomas said.

Do it yourself internet

A town that did build something substantial is Chattanooga in the United States.

The council and power company worked together to build what Dave Flessner, business editor of the Chattanooga Free Times Press, calls "the fastest internet speed in the country".

Chattanooga has an internet speed of one gigabit per second, 10 times faster than the fastest NBN speeds in Australia.

Locals refer to their town as 'gig city'.

"There's several thousand jobs that could be directly and indirectly tied to the potential of the 'gig' being here," Mr Flessner said.

"There is a whole innovation district now that has been created downtown by the mayor to try and capitalise on the 'gig'."

Mr Flessner says the fast internet the city built for itself has done "wonders" for the community as a whole.

"We live in a naturally attractive city with mountains and rivers, and the 'gig' gives tech-savvy people another reason to come here," he said.

"The image and recognition that it seems like a cooler city that is attracting young entrepreneurs."

But the installation of super-fast internet wasn't without controversy.

"We had a city-owned utility getting into the business private business was in," Mr Flessner said.

"Current players don't always like any disruptive technology. Some of the major cable and telecom companies were not anxious to have a local municipal authority come in and 'invade' their turf.

"In our case it was $229million to build up the fibre optic system in a town not much bigger than yours. So there's a lot of upfront costs.

"A lot of cities have talked about it, but we were able to lay fibre to every home and every business in the city.

"When people visit here they are amazed how much faster our internet is than most towns. And that is just a convenience factor. But for businesses it's more than just convenience, it's going to become essential."

Back in Toowoomba, Graeme Thomas says super-fast internet could be a boost for the garden city.

It takes vision

"You'd had to have a strong council with vision to build something like that," he said.

"At the end of the day towns like Toowoomba need to be able to compete, and need every extra bit of incentive. You can't be a one-economy town.

"Too many towns rely on either agriculture or tourism and they go up and down on the ups and downs of those economies. To have another area where we could attract medium or large businesses to the region has to be beneficial."

He says a Silicon Valley type reputation would be good for the garden city.

"To get the e-commerce level of industry - and businesses moving to Toowoomba - would be great for the town. Worth its weight in gold," he said.

And the 'digital mountain' has a little bit of a ring to it," he laughed.