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Fri 29 JUN

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Tasmania to host latest NBN satellite ground station

Posted on Friday 29 June 2012 by Matt Dawson

Geeveston's biggest tourist attraction -- the Tahune Forest Skywalk. Photo: Stephan Ridgeway (creative commons 2.0 attribution licence)
The Tasmanian town of Geeveston in the Huon Valley is the latest location to be selected for a National Broadband Network (NBN) satellite ground station to ensure Australians in isolated areas can connect to fast broadband.

The ground station will be an essential transmission centre connecting the ground-based National Broadband Network to NBN Co's two high performance satellites.

The satellites, in turn, will to beam the NBN to homes, farms and businesses in remote areas. Locations in Tasmania such as Port Davey, Strathgordon and Cradle Mountain are set to benefit from the service which is expected to be up and running by the end of 2015.

NBN Co chose a site on Harwoods Road, approximately six kilometres north of Geeveston, in consultation with Huon Valley Council.

Construction is expected to begin early next year with the facility scheduled to be up and running by 2015. Once built, the ground station is planned to comprise a single storey building with two 13.5-metre diameter satellite dishes.

The NBN satellite service is designed to bridge the divide between the city and the bush and ensure all Australians can receive fast broadband. The site at Castle Forbes Bay near Geeveston is ideally located for this purpose. It is also close to reliable power and other infrastructure including the NBN's core fibre transit network - the main fibre transmission lines linking towns and our exchanges.

We're grateful for the support of Huon Valley Council. Mayor Robert Armstrong said: "We welcome NBN Co's investment in the Huon Valley region and we look forward to being part of an important national project to connect Australians living in rural and remote parts of the country to the NBN."

Councillor Armstrong added that the development application (DA) will be required to go through the usual planning approvals process and be properly considered by Council for compliance with planning requirements.

NBN Co plans to make more information available about the construction of the site in coming months. Community members will be welcome to make comments and ask questions during the DA process.

The satellite ground station at Geeveston is a key component of NBN Co's Long Term Satellite Service, designed to bring broadband at speeds of up to 12 Megabits per second* to wholesale customers who deliver retail services to homes, farms and businesses in the outback and other isolated parts of Australia.

The Castle Forbes Bay facility is the third of 10 sites to be chosen for an NBN satellite ground station, following the announcement of two ground stations in NSW in Bourke in the north west of the state and Wolumla on the Far South Coast. Geeveston and Castle Forbes Bay themselves have been earmarked to receive broadband via fibre optic cable as part of the NBN rollout plan.

In the meantime, an Interim Satellite Service is available now to eligible premises, including government schools and facilities, and currently has more than 7,000 active customers. For further information, please see www.nbnco.com.au/satellite, or call our Contact Centre on 1800 881 816.


View more about:
Satellite, Geeveston TAS, TAS, Satellite ground stations

By Matt Dawson, Program Manager, Satellite

Matt is responsible for delivering NBN Co's Interim and Long Term Satellite solutions — the latter being one of Australia's largest aerospace projects in the past decade. Matt is managing the process from scoping and design through to the satellites' launch into geostationary orbit, along with the necessary ground stations, support and control capabilities.

Legal stuff you need to know:

When we talk about speeds delivered over the National Broadband Network, we are referring to the wholesale speed to telephone and internet service providers. The speed you can achieve, and services you can use, on your individual connection will depend on many factors including the services you subscribe to, the software and communication protocols you use, quality of your equipment and connection to your home/business, the broadband plans offered by your telephone or internet provider and how it designs its network to cater for multiple users.

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