companies that already buy satellite capacity

Broadband boss looks to space
DAN OAKES
December 11, 2009

THE man charged with building the $43 billion national broadband network has given the most detailed information yet about what form the network will take, while also suggesting that the Federal Government might spend up to $1 billion on two satellites.

The comments from Mike Quigley, chief executive of NBN Co, came as Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said legislation designed to dismember Telstra could be amended in the company's favour if real progress was made in talks between it and NBN Co.

''If discussions with Telstra progress and we reach the agreement that we hope we're going to reach … then there could be changes,'' Senator Conroy said.

''But at this stage, the legislation is intended to be brought back and discussed, and I think if you look at comments from Barnaby Joyce and the National Party, they still remain very committed to passing that legislation.''

Telstra said when the legislation was proposed that it could not then recommend to its shareholders any deal with the Government, because the legislation gave Senator Conroy the discretionary power to strip the company of its share in Foxtel and its high-speed cable network if it refused to separate structurally.

Mr Quigley was making a rare public appearance at the Realising our Broadband Future forum in Sydney.

He said the Government was likely to launch two satellites to service some of the 10 per cent of premises that would not be connected to fibre due to their remoteness.

Optus is the only Australian company that already has satellites in use, but they are not suitable for NBN Co and Optus has been in talks with the company about launching more.

Mr Quigley's emissaries are believed to have *******************spoken with companies that already buy satellite capacity but are considering launching their own satellites.****************

A company called NewSat announced in September that it hoped to launch its own satellite, named Jabiru, by mid-2012, that it would cost between $300 and $500 million. NewSat chief executive Adrian Ballintine said that various governments around the world had part-funded satellite launches by private companies.

Much of Mr Quigley's speech was on the architecture of the network and he confirmed that NBN Co would extend from users' premises back to the first point of competition. This means that if Telstra is the only provider of fibre at some stage in the network, NBN Co would either have to duplicate the fibre, or buy or lease Telstra's fibre.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/broadband-boss-looks-to-space-20091210-kme5.html

-- Same base info as posted, good to see such wide coverage!


** i.e. the NBN demo mentined