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

[Richard Chirgwin]

On 8/02/12 10:47 PM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> 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?
Jan,

NewSat isn't selling birds. They're buying them, and selling capacity. I 
don't know quite how the "buy Australian" notion escaped into the wild. 
NewSat's supplier of satellites is Lockheed-Martin.

"The contract" didn't go to an Australian firm because there aren't any.

As I remarked last night, the price of satellite services today suggests 
either a lack of competition or a lack of capacity, or both.

RC

>
> 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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