Bringing Internet to Remote Areas: The Best and Most Affordable Technology in Orbit

In Australia, the Government’s initiative to offer fast broadband internet to all Australians in a timely manner and at convenient prices is taking shape in the form of the National Broadband Network also known as the nbn. By acting as a wholesaler, NBN Co. Limited hopes to encourage a more competitive telecommunications environment translated into supply diversity, as all phone and internet providers are offered similar conditions when accessing the nbn network. The goal is to have a market that offers the consumer a multitude of choices, at competitive prices.

Providers offer convenient NBN plans and they assist consumers with switching to the new network. As the roll-out takes place, consumers are given time to switch to the new technology, choosing the most suited speed tier and pricing.

Taking into account the nation’s geographical particularities, the project doesn’t rely on just one type of technology to deliver speed and quality at optimal costs.

If nbn Fixed Line connections are the norm for metropolitan areas on Australia’s mainland, remote mainland locations and offshore territories access fast internet through the latest technology, based on using the 2 Sky Muster satellites.

The two satellites are dedicated to providing fast internet connectivity and the service is available to more than 400,000 premises.

The Best Satellite Broadband

In a report prepared for nbn by Ovum Ltd., a renowned telecommunications market researcher, it was concluded that the satellite broadband service offered by Australian providers using the Sky Muster technology is the best on a global scale, in terms of speed, data allowance and cost. The report, called “Satellite Broadband: A Global Comparison”, included a number of 18 other global operators, apart from 3 Australian retail service providers.

Data Allowance

Out of all the service providers that were analyzed, only one offered an “unlimited” peak period data allowance. The 100 GB peak period data allowance offered by one of the Australian providers equals the best data allowance levels available globally. The other 2 Australian providers, offering plans with 65 GB and 60GB as maximum peak period data allowance still ranked higher than many other international providers.

Download Speed

Currently 2 wholesale speed tiers are being offered by nbn to retail service providers-nbn 25 and nbn 12. The first one, as the name suggests, provides a download speed of 12 Mbps and an upload speed of 1 Mbps, while for the other tier the download speed is 25 Mbps and the upload speed is 5 Mbps. The report clearly shows that the Australian providers and just one other international provider offer the fastest download speed.

Price per GB

In order to establish a common ground for analyzing the price per GB, researchers used the lowest price per GB plan on the fastest speed. One of the Australian providers had the most affordable top speed plan (25 Mbps download speed).

Conclusion

The cited report clearly shows that Australia’s attempt to bridge the digital divide between metropolitan and rural or remote areas has produced one of the best satellite broadband services in the world, not just in terms of technical performance but also in terms of retail affordability.

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