nwt and viasat

NewSat - Regional Broadband Services in Australia and Greater Asia (LinkStar)

VSAT network has the potential to reach 60% of the world's population from a shared hub in Australia
NewSat is a regional broadband service provider based in Australia. Since 2003, NewSat, a subsidiary of Multiemedia, has been working together with ViaSat and IP Access International to provide high-speed, two-way satellite broadband services.

From its ViaSat LinkStar hub in Newcastle, the service provider has gained incredible reach into potential markets in its region. The NewSat footprint covers Australia and much of greater Asia, covering 50% of the world's landmass and 60% of the world's population.

"We fill a void in the marketplace for next generation video, Internet, voice and data communication services for organizations whose needs are not met by traditional terrestrial broadband technologies, such as ADSL, ISDN and cable," said William Masson, general manager of sales and marketing at NewSat.



With its service offering in place, NewSat is already signing customers. One is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is operating a network in Iraq as part of the post-war enforcement and governance program. The USAID is a humanitarian organization that is the principal U.S. agency for extending assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to raise standards of living, and engaging in democratic reforms.

Another network is for retail operations and communications for over 700 Woolworths stores in Australia. Woolworths Limited, based in Sydney, operates more than 1,400 retail stores in Australia, mostly food supermarkets. Woolworths brands in Australia and New Zealand include a diverse mix of businesses, including Woolworths, Safeway, Food For Less, Dick Smith Electronics and PowerHouse, Tandy, First Estate, Dan Murphy's, Plus Petrol, BIG W, Australian Independent Wholesalers (AIW), Woolworths Ezy Banking, and GreenGrocer. The company has annual sales of over $20 billion (Australian).

NewSat is capitalizing on the ability of satellite communications to overcome the limitations of buried or overhead cables. VSAT stations can be placed anywhere within view of a satellite, and are capable of sending and receiving various video, data and audio content at the same high speed, regardless of distance from terrestrial switching offices and infrastructure. Additional bandwidth can be added on request to deploy further applications such as VoIP and videoconferencing. And advanced VSAT networks can match or beat terrestrial reliability and availability standards. NewSat offers a guaranteed uptime of about 99.9 percent.

LinkStar� is the highest performance, star-based VSAT system for service providers, ISPs, and corporate network managers who are seeking a system compliant with the DVB-RCS open standard. LinkStar's edge is in its dynamic bandwidth allocation that makes it more efficient and faster than other TDMA systems. Terminals can transmit data to the network hub at speeds up to 3.3 Mbit/s, with data downloads of up to 10 Mbit/s, satisfying bandwidth-intensive applications using IP data.

"There is no doubt that LinkStar gives us a competitive advantage because of its bandwidth speeds and reliability," said Masson "While other VSAT technology has not been able to sustain video conferencing or video and fax over IP, we are seeing performance that is making those services a reality, providing superior broadband speed and service."