New Hybrid Australian Comms Player Goes After Regions

Petroc Wilton

CommsDay

9 July 2010

A new Brisbane-based telco is targeting businesses operating in regional Australia, offering coverage over 100% of the country’s landmass via a blend of satellite and wireless technology.

According to Indigo Telecom, current 3G mobile reception extends over just 28% of the nation geographically, leaving around 617,000 people working in remote areas without reliable mobile coverage – as well as up to 400,000 who regularly travel in underserved areas for extended periods. It’s a market the firm is looking to address via its hybrid network, plus a range of Thuraya satellite and dual-mode handsets

and mobile data terminals.

CEO David Ruddiman told CommsDay that the launch had been three years in the making. “We’ve been working very closely with the Australian Communications and Media Authority over the last few years, the attorney-general’s department and the like,” he said. “We obviously had to become a carrier, and then we had to secure nominated carrier rights to the satellite that we are now provisioning the services over as part of the overall network coverage solution that we have.”

Ruddiman also explained the mix of terrestrial and satellite connectivity making up the company’s network.

“We use terrestrial 2.5G GSM capacity on the Telstra network that we acquire wholesale... and we effectively interconnect that into a geostationary satellite sitting northwest of Australia, on the equator, which is an L-band satellite with very little capacity utilisation so there’s massive capacity available to us,” he said. “And that gives us an extended footprint in terms of our coverage area of about 75% of the earth’s service. So we can truly provide services that give you 100% coverage across Australia’s landmass and out to sea.”

The firm is hoping to work closely with government and Defence clients, but is also targeting enterprise – especially mining, oil and gas firms. Ruddiman said that initial interest had been strong. “There is a huge amount of interest, particularly in the verticals; we’re working with a number of partners who are system integrators or value added service providers within those vertical markets,” he said. “So we will assist them with provisioning the connectivity that they need to the box that they’re an integrator of.”

Indigo has also pledged to invest 20% of its annual capex on new R&D projects to provide solutions for both Australian and international export markets. It intends to create 50 new jobs in the next six months and to grow to 100 employees within a year.