Space is getting crowded. Here's the article mentioned above.
THE AUSTRALIAN
Satellite broadband
‘to obliterate NBN’
The National Broadband Network faces
competition from lower-cost satellite
broadband that threatens to deliver a
knockout blow.
By CHRIS GRIFFITH
The National Broadband Network faces competition from lower-cost, lower-orbit
satellite technology that threatens to deliver a knockout blow.
Instead of being conventional satellites the size of buses, the small satellites are the
size of toasters, orbit much closer to Earth, and network to offer broadband
services.
Thousands of these satellites network to form what are called “a constellation” and
work together to offer superfast broadband networks with up to gigabit speeds and
low latency.
Two companies have been gearing to launch constellations. UK-headquartered
OneWeb reportedly is cashed up with $US3.4bn in investments and wants to
initially launch 650 satellites while SpaceX’s StarLink plans to launch up to 12000,
with the first large deployment earmarked by May.
Facebook last year reportedly met with the US Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to discuss its proposal and yesterday Geekwire reported that
Amazon subsidiary Kuiper Systems had filed papers with the US government
seeking approval for a network of 3,236 satellites - 784 of them would be at an
altitude of just 590 km, Geekwire reported. Boeing, Telesat and LeoSat also have
shown interest in the technology.
Adam Gilmour, CEO of Queensland and Singapore based Gilmour Space
Technologies, said earth monitoring firm Planet (formerly Planet Labs) already had
more than a hundred of these satellites in orbit which every day took photos of
“every single square kilometer” of Earth.
He said adapting low-orbit satellites to broadband would be devastating for the
NBN. “When this comes out, this is going to basically, almost obliterate the NBN,”
he said.
Myriota, a firm specialising in low-cost, low-power direct-to-orbit satellite
connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT) concurs with the potential fast
transmission speeds.
“There are a number of forthcoming constellations currently in development, with
companies like OneWeb and SpaceX’s Starlink already having initial satellites in
low-earth orbit. Telesat also have plans for a large constellation,” said Myriota CEO
Alex Grant.
Mr Grant said we could expect to see a greater variety of satellite broadband
services on offer over the next five to ten years, including to Australia.
OneWeb, in a statement to The Weekend Australian, confirmed its interest in The
Australian market. It said it had launched its first six satellites on February 27 and
will this year begin a program of launching 30 satellites per month. It will conduct
demonstrations of a constellation of 650 satellites in 2020 with global commercial
coverage from 2021.
It confirmed its services would compete with NBN speeds. “OneWeb’s high-speed,
low latency services will feel just like those you get at home or in the office right
now, but crucially, they’ll be available in all those places where fiber either doesn’t
exist yet or won’t ever be a viable option.”
It said its satellite solution was scalable and could service large cities. Its best use
however might be in providing last mile solutions in rural and remote areas.
OneWeb said its service would be available everywhere “and certainly over
Australia”.
Australia falls within the 56 degrees north to 56 degrees south range that Geekwire
reports that Amazon wants to cover.
Mr Gilmour said between 4000 and 10,000 of these small satellites would be
launched in the next five years and would orbit roughly between 500 and 1000
kilometres above Earth.
“They’re going to allow you to have internet broadband on your mobile phone, or
anywhere you are, at speeds that are at least twice as fast as the fastest NBN in
Australia.”
Speaking at the QODE technology conference in Brisbane, Mr Gilmour said lowsatellite
broadband was “competition for any kind of domestic terrestrial network,
whether it’s fibre-optic cable, or a wireless tower that provides you 3G, 4G or 5G”.
He said the small satellites used different technology to conventional ones. “The
NBN satellites go up into a very high orbit called geostationary orbit that's about
36,000 kilometers above the surface. Even at the speed of light, by the time you
send a signal up, it gets processed, it comes back and gets processed, it's about a half
a second of delay.
“Now that can kill you, if you're trying to download stuff, or to play a game or
whatever.
“All of these (small) satellites are between 500 kilometers and 1000 kilometers. So
the transmission time is one 100th of a second by the time it goes up and comes
back.” Space broadband therefore would be cheaper and faster.
Mr Gilmour said the FCC was regulating space traffic to prevent these satellites
being space junk at end-of-life. Measures included small propulsion units on
satellites that pushed them into a lower orbit so they would burn up.
He said these satellite services also were “not good news for the telcos”.
The entree of global players like Amazon into what had been domestic broadband
services market also is not good news for Internet Service Providers.
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