Vocus has linked up with Canadian satellite provider Telesat to bring its network of low-Earth orbit satellites to Australia, a market currently dominated by Elon Musk’s popular Starlink.
The multi-year contract includes building a new landing station in New South Wales and connecting it via fibre to Telesat’s new Lightspeed LEO satellite network to deliver secure, low-latency satellite services across the region.
Telesat expects to launch its LEO satellites late next year, according to chief network information officer Asit Tandon, with the landing station playing “a key role in satellite testing and customer field trials before global service delivery”.
Once the network becomes operational, Vocus will roll out Telesat’s MEP 3.0 compliant Lightspeed Carrier Ethernet services, which are backed by committed information rates (CIR) and service level agreements designed to deliver resilient, low-latency connectivity.
According to Vocus, Telesat’s Lightspeed service offers terminal-to-terminal direct connectivity capability, allowing the network to bypasses land-based infrastructure and public internet.
It means “a naval vessel [can] communicate via the Telesat Lightspeed satellites directly with ground-deployed soldiers via the optical laser-linked space network,” Vocus’ head of Space and Wireless Operations, Ashley Neale, said.
“This capability will be extremely valuable to customers with mission-critical communications requirements and a desire to preserve data sovereignty even outside of Australia’s geographic borders,” Mr Neale
Vocus’ announcement follows the federal government’s commitment earlier this year to deliver Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation (UOMO) legislation that will require mobile network operators to provide coverage almost anywhere in Australia by 2027.
Starlink and other LEOSat providers will be instrumental for network operators to develop national coverage for services such as Triple Zero, extend outdoor voice and SMS coverage into existing mobile black spots and improve signal availability during disasters.
Other LEOSat providers to gain regulatory approval to operate in Australia in recent years include Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
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