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

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Richard Chirgwin wrote:
<snip>
> As I remarked last night, the price of satellite services today suggests 
> either a lack of competition or a lack of capacity, or both.
<snip>

It is probably a combination of Competition/Capacity/Capability at
different levels. Satellite owners may be locked into Media/Telephone
customers contracts, considerations and configurations from an Analog world.

This would put the NBN into an interesting position - though ofcourse there
is the issue of a market for the excess capacity - NZ and PNG???

> The satellites, which are planned to launch in 2015, are designed to provide high-speed broadband coverage to around three percent of premises outside the reach of the NBN's fibre optic and fixed-wireless services, including outback areas and Australia's external territories such as Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Macquarie Island and the Cocos Islands.
> 
> The contract, valued at approximately $620 million, follows a comprehensive, two-year procurement process undertaken by NBN Co. The contract is part of a total investment of approximately $2 billion that is required to deliver the NBN Long Term Satellite Service. Other agreements will cover the ground systems, end-user equipment and the space launch.
> 
> As part of the contract, SS/L will also supply associated telemetry, tracking and command systems for NBN Co's Long Term Satellite Service.
> 
> The satellites and ground-based control systems are expected to be delivered over the next 41 months, with the first satellite launch planned for early 2015 and the second planned for the second half of 2015.
...
> Until the two satellites are operational, NBN Co is operating an Interim Satellite Service which was set up to assist the transition from the Commonwealth's Australian Broadband Guarantee program to the Long Term Satellite Service. The Interim Satellite Service provides download speeds of up to 6Mbps* to retail service providers, and more than 2500 premises have already connected.
..
> Rather than splitting capacity between a number of other tasks such as satellite phones and broadcast television, or focused on providing services in other countries, the new Ka-band broadband satellites will have multiple high-capacity beams designed to maximise the efficiency of the broadband service specifically for Australia.
<http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/lts-com-satellite-deal.html>


Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Ramin Communications (Sydney)
Website: http://ramin.com.au
Phone:(+612) 0414-869202