nbn co wants newsat, page-5

the more you read it the more, well shall I say like seeing a great looking lady in the nude :)

..Should NBN Co determine the need for a dedicated satellite to deliver broadband services to remote Australia it could look to a project that is well underway to shorten those long lead times: that of satellite services provider NewSat.

NewSat announced back in November 2007 plans for its own satellite that it hoped to launch this year. It expected to fund $100m of the estimate cost itself, $100m form potential partners and get Government funding already set aside for telecommunications to provide the rest. The proposed Ka band satellite would be build by Space Systems Loral , launched by Arianespace and would provide coverage of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Timor.

NewSat repeated its offer in July 2008 in a submission to the Expert Group working on the NBN Mark 1 (FTTN version). In that submission NewSat suggested that the use of satellite technology to provide positioning for precision farming could be a key application, in addition to communications.

The project, now going by the name Jabiru, is still very much alive: at its annual results announcement last month, NewSat said it had appointed Lazard as strategic adviser on, amongst other things its plans to launch its own satellite.

– By Stuart Corner | iTWire

TG