[LINK] Gillard announced a $620 million deal for two NBN broadband satellites.

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:21 PM 8/02/2012, TKoltai wrote:

>I would really like the Prime Minister to tell us why the contract
>couldn't go to an Australian Firm.
>Especially one that is listed on the ASX, has predominantly Australian
>shareholders and would have provided additional Australian jobs.

That was my thought as I read through search results. Newsat is 
selling birds to everywhere else but here, it seems. So why aren't we 
buying these local?

Coverage is a different issue. There are lots of birds up there, but 
capacity may not be in play, as someone else pointed out, for the cost/speed.

What caught my attention was the rain effect. K-band isn't too good 
in the rain. C band is ideal for heavy rain locations. ( 
http://www.satsig.net/ ) But the dishes are much bigger (which is why 
they are better in the rain - more signal collection). So think about 
the wet/dry seasons where some of this sparse population is located 
up north (Tom will know about this). I didn't know about the night 
performance issues.

Jan


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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