NBN to consider “all options” when replacing satellites

NBN Co will be looking at a range of options as to how to replace its Sky Muster satellites when they reach the end of their life at decade’s end, CEO Stephen Rue told a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday.

“When the ϐirst custom-built Sky Muster satellite was launched in 2015, it was cutting edge,” Rue said. “Eight years later we are seeing growing constellations of low-earth orbit satellites, or LEOs, which address a drawback of geo-stationary satellites: latency.”

 “As our satellites reach the midpoint of their life-cycle, it is prudent for us to look at all options on the table for a replace[1]ment satellite strategy. This could include LEO technologies, or more traditional GEO-based satellites or other terrestrial based technologies,” Rue (pictured) said.

Rue and fellow executive, chief development ofϐicer for rural and remote, Gavin Williams, were questioned by Coalition senators about what they perceived as the inferiority of Sky Muster versus the Starlink service.

“NBN has a value proposition that includes free access to the service, free installs, and we maintain the service with our sovereign capability,” Williams said.

“The prices that are offered by Sky Muster are signiϐicantly lower than some of the alternatives. So, we have planning for them as low as $35 a month. Affordability is a real issue that we hear about,” Williams added.

Elaborating on Rue’s comments about future options, Williams explained: “There’s been more change in the last 3 years in the satellite industry than in the last 30 years.

So, it is absolutely incumbent on us to look at all options. And they could include fur[1]ther expansion of our ϐixed wireless service…. And then there’s new satellite technologies, low earth orbit technologies that we’ll be looking at, as to their efϐicacy, as Mr. Rue said in his opening statements. But there are signiϐicant developments in other types of satellite service as well.”

Rue said: “When the (Sky Muster) satellite was launched, it was leading edge. 

There’s no doubt that technology has moved on over time. In fact, that’s why we con[1]tinue to invest so much across our whole network. And the opportunity of the ϐixed wireless expansion is to actually de-load some of the beams within the satellite, and that’s why Mr. Williams’ team has been trialling the ability to have 100 megabits per second plans and uncapped plans as well.”

 Rue also justiϐied the need for the Fibre Connect program which enables FTTP up[1]grades in FTTC and FTTN areas.

“There is still more work to do if we are to keep pace with other countries, with ac[1]cess to high-speed broadband improving dramatically in recent years. In New Zea[1]land, for example, 68 percent of residential broadband users are on 300 Mbps plans.

The European Union is consulting on a “Gigabit Infrastructure Act” to reduce costs for a faster rollout of gigabit networks with the goal of making Gigabit connectivity avail[1]able to all EU citizens and businesses by 2030,” he told the committee.

“So, to keep up, we need to monitor these global technology trends and continue to invest to improve our network capability. We also need to look at the drivers of de[1]mand in the market as fundamental changes take place in society and through the economy… think data analytics, virtual reality, home security, new entertainment and streaming applications and devices and, of course, artiϐicial intelligence.”

Rue said that about 60% of the NBN ϐixed network was gigabit capable and the eventual goal was 90%.

He also said that he believed use of the NBN would continue to grow in coming years despite the developing capacities of satellite and wireless competitors.

“Over time, as data grows which it will, there is no better service than a ϐixed line service, because it provides the capacity that’s needed. And with it, the challenges for a network, like, ϐixed wireless or satellite, is the need to ongoing put capacity in. It's very hard to put capacity in satellites. You got to keep launching more and more satel[1]lites. So, over time, those services will be good for a cohort of low use customers. But as data grows, a majority of Australians will need a ϐixed line network.”

Grahame Lynch, Commsday

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