NBN Co Prepares for Commercial Launch of Satellite Service

Matt Dawson
Program Director, Satellite at NBN. Photo: NBN

[Via Satellite 03-03-2016] Australia’s National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) is gearing up for the initiation of commercial service from the first of two twin Ka-band High Throughput Satellites (HTS) in the next couple of months. The government-owned organization saw the launch of its first satellite, Sky Muster, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket in October of last year, paving the way to reaching rural parts of the country that today have either limited or no connectivity.

NBN Co completed a trial run of its Long Term Satellite Service using Sky Muster last month. In an interview with Via Satellite, NBN Co’s Program Director for Satellites Matt Dawson, said the public demonstration went a long way in dispelling the perception that because it was satellite, the service would be sub-par.

“The thing that struck me most from the reaction of the audience was that some expressed surprise at the performance, especially when we streamed HD video whilst conducting a Skype video call at the same time,” he said. “To us, the system was delivering exactly what we said it would deliver; I think though, the surprised reaction of the audience was because of previous experience with satellite technology in Australia and what it had typically been able to deliver. This was the first time Australians had experienced HTS in the Ka band and what that really translates to in terms of performance and the end user experience.”

Built by Space Systems Loral (SSL), Sky Muster boasts 101 spot beams to cover Australia and the country’s territorial islands. ViaSat completed the ground system for the satellite and its counterpart in February last year, and Arianespace is the launch provider for both spacecraft. As the wholesaler for capacity, NBN’s goal is to make sure fast, high quality broadband is available to every Australian no matter where they live in the country.

Dawson said NBN is still balancing and calibrating the system, as well as performing end-to-end business readiness testing. More tests are planned with partners ahead of launching the service commercially at scale, which Dawson said is scheduled for either late April or early May of this year.

“This month we are also commencing an end-user trial through three Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to also gain insights into the products performance. This end-to-end testing is to ensure that orders for the service and any alarms that the system may generate can progress all the way from our ISPs though our delivery partner systems, our NBN IT systems, the network, and that our operational processes are all working in harmony so that we can activate and assure services at the scale we will need to when we commercially launch the product. The whole point of testing is to discover ‘hiccups’ and fix them before we go into full-scale commercial service,” he said.

Though an important part of the NBN system, satellite is only responsible for reaching 3 percent of the total populace. To be able to service 100 percent of the Australian population, Dawson said NBN anticipates reaching 20 percent by optical Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), 38 percent by existing Fiber-to-the-Node (FTTN), 34 percent by Hybrid Fiber/Coaxial (HFC) cable already deployed by pay-TV companies, and 5 percent by Fixed Wireless (FW).

“It’s important to remember that many people that live in country areas simply don’t have access to these important quality of life aspects, already taken for granted by most of the population living in more metro areas, so the impact and improvement to the quality of life for country Australians will be substantial,” said Dawson.

Dawson listed NBN’s remaining goals for this year as delivering on its commitment to bring fast, affordable, quality satellite broadband to regional Australians as soon as possible, to launch its second satellite, to ensure the benefits through education, health and other applications are truly able to be liberated, and to make sure the service is such that customers and users find it worthwhile.

Using the Sky Muster service, NBN is planning educational services, health services, and applications for agriculture, business, and communities. NBN’s initial product launch is aimed at the residential market, followed by business-oriented products, such as emergency services. Dawson said NBN is exploring additional opportunities such as In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) — a service that has risen dramatically in importance for satellite operators. Australian airline Qantas Airways is planning to use a Ku/Ka-band antenna from ViaSat that would also be compatible with NBN satellites. He cautioned though that such a service is a ways away.

“The priority of our Sky Muster satellite service remains to bring the benefits of fast broadband to rural and remote Australians. Sky Muster as a commercial product has not yet launched to market for its core users, so you would appreciate it is too early to start exploring exactly how additional options might work. We will undertake a trial to ensure there will be no impact on our core users in homes and businesses that will use the Sky Muster service. The trial will not commence until the very end of 2016 so it is too early to talk about the specifics of the in-flight product.

As a public project, NBN has drawn some criticism for its cost, schedule and technology choices. Last month the organization rejected claims it was at risk of not meeting targets. This response followed a report by Infrastructure Australia suggesting the Australian government look to transfer NBN to private ownership after rollout is complete. The report suggested the Australian Government commission a scoping study to define a pathway to eventually privatize the company into an efficiently regulated market.

As of Feb. 18, NBN said nearly 1.8 million homes can now order a service and more than 800,000 homes are already connected and using its network. Furthermore the company said it is now tracking more than 10,000 new activations a week. By the end of this financial year NBN is on track for nearly one in four homes to be able to order its service, with that number set to grow to three in four by June of 2018.

“To bring fast, affordable high quality broadband through the satellite program to market, a lot of tax payer funded capital has been necessary (around $2 billion), so it is entirely appropriate that a high level of expenditure brings with it a high level of scrutiny,” said Dawson. “We are entirely comfortable with that aspect of life at NBN.”