With more older Australians ageing in place at home – and aged care facing continued workforce shortages – high-speed Internet and private 5G networks are essential. Village and aged care operators will need to meet virtual home care, staffing and compliance demands, and provide a complete integrated living experience for their customers.

A decade ago, the idea of acute care being provided in the home was unthinkable.

Today, it’s a reality – and homes and facilities need to be equipped to deliver on this need.

Prospecta Utilities is providing high-speed, low latency networks for land lease, retirement villages and aged care homes – and partnering with other technology solutions to ensure all devices can be utilised and produce better health and quality of life outcomes.

A Prospecta private network will not only safeguard the emergency call system requirements and solve the residents’ connectivity issues at the site but should also future proof the village for the growing pipeline of any ‘internet of things’ connected devices such as wearables and smart home tech.

We are already seeing Hospital in the Home programs being rolled out by State Governments successfully across the country – see SA’s My Home Hospital service as an example.

In September, a KPMG Australia report, commissioned by Medibank, on the economic benefits of virtual hospitals in Australia found that up to 30% of conditions could be treated at home by 2030.

At the same time, the health workforce is not growing at the pace needed to keep up with the rapidly ageing Baby Boomer population.

The Federal Government’s own Nursing Supply and Demand Study has forecast that aged care will have a shortfall of 17,500 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) nurses by 2035 – just 10 years from now.

As a village or aged care operator, are you prepared for this new world?

The answer is no.

Will you need to be ready?

Yes.

Last week, Parliament passed the new Aged Care Act, which has opened the door to older Australians ageing in place for longer.

A new cornerstone is digital support in the home.

The new Support at Home program – starting 1 July 2025 – offers 10 levels of funding up to $78,000 to support older people living at home (see below).

This includes two new Packages to support short-term restorative care, for example, after an illness or accident, and end-of-life care – indicating that the Government expects older people to be staying at home for as long as possible.

The Department of Health and Aged Care is also launching a trial of the Retirement Living Council’s ‘Shared Care’ model, which will enable village operators to pool residents’ Home Care Packages to fund support services, for the whole village, for example, an on-site nurse.

In short, village and aged care operators will be expected to be facilitating the delivery of care – including acute-level care – into residents’ homes, particularly with wearables and telehealth solutions within the next 12 to 36 months.

But you need high-speed, reliable Internet to make this happen – a tough ask when many older villages and aged care homes are often mobile ‘black spots’.

There is a solution.

From renewables and distributed energy resources to connectivity, the retirement living and aged care sectors are seeing a more seamless integration of energy, telecommunications and technology to deliver better services.

There are also considerable cost savings on the cards for operators through the opportunity to install everything from smart water and building management to solar power generation and smart metered embedded networks (see below).

Prospecta Utilities’ new enterprise network offering can deliver the high speeds and low latency that retirement living and aged care operators need to stay in this new world.

They can also partner with other tech companies to provide a complete turnkey solution.

Blueforce village case study

Case in point: Prospecta Utilities has recently teamed up with Blueforce.

Blueforce specialises in integrating security, safety, access control and surveillance systems across a range of sectors including retirement living and aged care.

The group has been working with a retirement village experiencing 4G connectivity issues due to poor signal strength and quality in a semi-rural area on the outskirts of Sydney to resolve the issue.

Many of the residents don’t have any mobile signal at all and rely on Wi-Fi to use their phones.

The village was facing two solutions: get the public carrier to improve the signal – a hard ask – or install multiple high gain antennas through the NBN, which is challenging because the NBN has little battery backup.

There is also the risk that the network could become overloaded as more residents move into the area.

“Prospecta had within days of this meeting provided specific data on why we’re facing signal issues, topical maps of possible ways to solve the coverage issues and investigated what telcos could assist in solving this problem; doing more in days what took months with the existing Telco,” Matt Doeg, Blueforce’s Head of Business Development, told SATURDAY.

“This is a great example of how Prospecta can bring its connectivity solution and work with device providers to improve living for customers in these communities,” said Grant Smith, Prospecta Utilities’ Head of Technology.

What about aged care?

While more Australians are expected to age at home, the rapid growth in the over-85 population will put significant pressure on the country’s aged care beds.

The mandating of direct care minutes and 24/7 Registered Nurses by the Government in recent years will also require operators to be efficient in their rostering and utilise technology to fill staffing gaps.

There’s a move towards integrating more advanced technologies in aged care facilities, such as smart sensors, IoT and AI-driven platforms, to enhance residents’ experiences (see below).

These systems assist with daily tasks, monitor health, and ensure better overall care.

The growth of AI and edge computing is also contributing to a smarter, more responsive environment that caters to both residents’ needs and operational efficiencies.

Prospecta Utilities offers solutions for both existing and new sites by upgrading telecommunications networks – ensuring that operators are ready to meet the needs of their customers now and into the future.

“Prospecta Utilities provides the foundations for smart cities,” summed up Grant. “This enables our partners to create real value and improved living for their customers into the future.”