Australian telco Optus made a major announcement last month when it confirmed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for a OneSat software-defined satellite. Optus 11 will be deployed for Australia and New Zealand in 2023 at the current Optus D1 orbital location of 160 degrees East.  Ben White, Optus managing director of Wholesale, Satellite and Strategy told Via…

Optus extended its partnership with Foxtel, with an extension for the provision of satellite services until 2031. Foxtel is a media company, while Optus Satellite owns and operates Australia and New Zealand’s largest fleet of spacecraft with five satellites currently in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) that service broadcast, corporate, and government customers. Foxtel and Optus have…

Optus has awarded Airbus Defence and Space a contract for a fully reconfigurable telecommunications satellite based on Airbus’ new OneSat product line. This is Airbus’ first satellite order from Optus, the leading Australian satellite operator, and the company’s fourth OneSat order. Airbus said in a Thursday release that the Optus 11 spacecraft will include an…

Viasat Inc. and Indigenous companies in Australia’s Northern Territory have opened a ground station facility in Alice Springs. The facility was built, project-managed, and owned by Indigenous companies, the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) and its subsidiaries Ekistica Ltd. and CfAT Satellite Enterprises, in partnership with Indigenous Business Australia (IBA).  The Viasat Real-Time Earth (RTE)…