Rural Australia to receive NBN via ViaSat

NBN Co has signed a contract with ViaSat Inc for the manufacture and supply of communications equipment that will be designed to enable delivery of the NBN to families and businesses in isolated parts of Australia.

The equipment includes the large satellite dishes that will be located at NBN Co's 10 ground stations to send broadband signals to the company's two satellites for distribution to homes, farms and businesses; household satellite dishes and other receiving and transmitting equipment; and technology to be installed in the company's data centres to manage the integration of the satellite service with the rest of the NBN network.

The contract was subject to a comprehensive, two-year procurement process undertaken by NBN Co and is part of a total investment of around $2 billion in the long-term satellite service. When NBN Co's two satellites are launched (scheduled for 2015), it is expected that up to 200,000 homes and businesses in the remotest regions will have access to around double the broadband speeds they can generally access today.

The contract is expected to create more than 300 Australian jobs including a workforce to install small satellite transmission equipment at homes and businesses, as well as IT workers to manage the project.

NBN Co's CEO, Mike Quigley, said, "ViaSat's role in providing ground equipment to support the long-term satellite service will help bridge the digital divide between urban and regional communities. It will be designed to ensure those who live in the most geographically isolated parts of the country are able to take advantage of the opportunities that the digital economy enables."

ViaSat Chairman and CEO Mark Dankberg also commented that "satellite broadband is essential to completing the NBN and bringing this important infrastructure to all Australians - no matter where they live. We're very proud to play a part in this important nation-building project and to be part of helping to deliver the long-term satellite service to areas that are out of the reach of the fibre and fixed wireless networks."

The long-term satellite service is being designed to provide double the wholesale speed and up to 10 times the capacity per end user of the interim satellite service, currently being used by 10,000 homes and businesses. When launched in 2015, the service is expected to provide retail service providers with initial peak speeds of 12 megabits per second download and 1 megabit per second upload at the wholesale level for the same wholesale access price as similar fibre services.

The contract is the second of three major tenders to be awarded as part of the satellite service. In February, NBN Co awarded a $620m contract to Space Systems/Loral to build two Ka-band broadband satellites plus associated telemetry, tracking and command systems. A contract for the launch of the satellites into space will be awarded at a later date.