“In a backflip worthy of Nadia Comaneci, Malcolm Turnbull now calls these satellites “game changers”.
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“[The] reason for my criticism was not that satellites are a bad idea; simply they – [the then Labor government] – would have been, in my view, better off contracting with the private sector to provide those services”.
The satellite – named Sky Muster by six-year-old Northern Territory pupil Bailey Brooks – was aboard a rocket launched from French Guiana on Thursday morning.
The rocket got up to a speed of more than three kilometres a second as it covered its first 450 kilometres.
Beyond the technical function of the satellite, NBN will also need to complete business readiness testing with its retail service providers that are offering high speed broadband services.
Sky Muster is the first of two NBN satellites. As a Silicon Valley innovator for more than 50 years, SSL’s advanced product line also includes state-of-the-art small satellites, and sophisticated robotics and automation solutions for remote operations.
Shadow communications minister Jason Clare has pointed out with glee that this was all Labor’s idea.
His advocacy of the Rolls-Royce option these days may be an obvious case of political expediency.
But there are several steps that need to be taken by engineers, system architects and technicians to mitigate certain risks before commercial services will be switched on around by about April/May next year.
“[NBN satellites] will each project 101 torch-like spot beams to cover the whole of Australia and five offshore locations: Christmas, Cocos, Lord Howe, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands”. The cost of each satellite connection is $7900, compared with an average cost of connecting fibre to existing homes and businesses of about $4400. The organization’s goal is to deliver Australia’s first national wholesale-only, open access broadband network to all Australians, regardless of where they live.
“Even freshly minted communications ministers were a little apprehensive in their second week – but so far, so good”.
Glacial broadband speeds in remote areas are a source of severe frustration. She is a student of the School of the Air, the correspondence education service for children in remote or isolated communities.
Excitement in the farming community would, however, be mixed with trepidation, as potential users waited to fully understand the services which the new satellite will deliver, he said. “[The new satellites are] helping to significantly bridge the digital divide”, Fifield says.
Dubbed “Sky Muster“, the satellite is the first for Australia’s National Broadband Network. “I’m very excited, yes very excited, about it”.
The issue with many of these applications is that they use up plenty of data. Proof that something exciting is being done on the telecommunications (or in this case, broadband) front.
“We could quickly outstrip the capacity that is available under those satellites. And we expect to be able to do that by about late April, early May”.
Turnbull addressed a few of these concerns in a blog post in August.
The jobs are required for the NBN Co rollout, according to Federal Member for Dawson George Christensen.
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That’s left satellite and terrestrial wireless broadband as the viable alternative for those hard-to-reach places.
