Saturday, July 17, 2010

NBNCo to Spend $1B Australian on 2 Ka Band Comms Satellites

On July 14th, NBNCo announced that they would be spending $1 Billion Australian to Build, Launch and Operate 2 Ka-Band Communications Satellites to service the needs of Australians who cannot cost effectively receive other communications services.

NBNCo CEO Mike Quigley indicated that that NBNCo had decided on two Ka-Band Satellites due to the lack of viable alternatives in Australia, as well as the need for redundancy for such a critical network.

NBNCo went on to indicate that they intend to cover the whole of the Australian continent with satellite broadband, to serve both those in remote areas, as well as those who live near capital cities, but who are unable to have either a cost effective fibre connection, or where wireless is unreliable due to terrain. The aim is to provide a 12 megabits-per-second download speed, dramatically improving current services provided to rural Australia. NBNCo is also looking at two, very close orbital slots, to allow users to change between satellites without moving their ground antenna.

Australia has long been considered ideal for Ka-Band satellite, as rain is not as greater issue as other locations, and population density is relatively low.

Now we wait to see which companies have made the NBNCo shortlist for the Satellite component.

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