NBN Co’s vision for broadband service delivery is to make high speed broadband available to 100% of the Australian population, via a mixture of fibre, wireless and satellite technologies. A central part of this vision is to provide a satellite broadband service across those areas of Australia not covered by fibre and wireless networks, so that all Australian residents may have access to high speed broadband.

As set out in NBN Co’s Corporate Plan, NBN Co’s fibre network footprint is designed to cover 93% of Australia’s population. NBN Co’s wireless and satellite networks together are intended to serve the remaining 7% of the population, with the satellite service planned ultimately to cover the entire continent, including the Christmas, Norfolk, Lord Howe and Cocos Islands.NBN Co’s satellite service is being designed to provide an unprecedented bandwidth and speed to areas traditionally underserved by broadband access. In this way, NBN Co will change the way telecommunications are experienced in many areas of Australia.

Introduction of Interim Satellite Services

The long term vision for NBN Co’s satellite service is planned to be realised in 2015, when NBN Co launches its Long Term Satellite Service. This service will utilise two high capacity, Ka band geostationary satellites owned and managed by NBN Co.

The Long Term Satellite Service is designed to provide an unprecedented level of bandwidth to Australian satellite internet customers. The procurement, construction and deployment of these satellites is a significant undertaking, taking years to design, build and launch. In the meantime, in order to bring forward the provision of services to Australian satellite internet customers, and to provide a level of transition from the Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) program towards the Long Term Satellite Service, NBN Co is introducing the Interim Satellite Service. The Interim Satellite Service is the result of a commercial arrangement between NBN Co and Optus, under which Optus will provide a managed service to NBN Co, utilising satellite bandwidth provided by Optus and IPStar.

The effect of the introduction of the Interim Satellite is to bring forward the provision of high-speed broadband services to many Australians who would otherwise be without broadband options. NBN Co also is concerned to maintain a high quality product, and to allocate and manage available capacity in a fair, efficient and non-discriminatory way.

NBN Co’s satellite services will be rolled out in two stages:

1.The Interim Satellite Service.

The Interim Satellite Service is designed to provide a transition from the Australian Broadband Guarantee program to NBN Co’s Long Term Satellite Service. The Interim service will provide a Layer 3 satellite broadband internet service to a limited number of 4end customer premises across Australia, utilising existing Ku band satellite capacity from Optus and IP Star.

The Interim Satellite Service is designed to roll out in two phases:

  1. The First Release phase, running from 1 July 2011 to November 2011, and

  2. The Second Release phase, running from November 2011 until 2015.

The First Release phase introduces the re-selling of an end-to-end internet service to the homevia NBN Co’s Wholesale Customers. It is intended that NBN Co’s Wholesale Customers will be able to serve up to 300 End User customers per month who do not have access to other metrocomparable broadband services. During this time, NBN Co has a planned initial capacity to offer services to seven Wholesale Customers.

The second phase of the Interim Satellite Service will be the Second Release phase, which will be available from November 2011. In this phase, the Wholesale Customer is no longer resellingan end-to-end service, and must use its own network elements to provide the service, including backhaul and traffic management, and connecting to an NBN Co Point of Interconnect located in Sydney.

The capacity available during the First Release period is intended to be expanded so that NBN Co will have capacity to activate 1,000 connections per month. The initial planned capacity for the Second Release phase is 20 Wholesale Customers. This capacity depends on network operational capacity, and therefore may increase over the life of the service.

The Interim Satellite Service will be available in all Australian States and Territories but not Australia's external territories.

2.The Long Term Satellite Service.

The Long Term Satellite Service is planned to provide a Layer 2 nationwide service with peak speeds of 12 Mbps download, and 1 Mbps upload. Based on multiple Points of Interconnect, it will utilise NBN Co’s own satellites using Ka band spectrum.

The Long Term Satellite Service will be delivered by two high capacity satellites owned by NBN Co and built for the purpose of providing services during the Long Term phase. The procurement of these satellites and the acquisition of spectrum to support the service are currently underway, with services due to commence in 2015.

The Long Term Satellite Service will be available in mainland Australia, plus all of Australia’s external territories, including Macquarie, Christmas, Cocos, Lord Howe, and Norfolk Islands. The Long Term Satellite Service is not the subject of the invitation for expressions of interest in this document.