The Adelaide teleport is one of two facilities operated by an independent satellite company in Australia. Located in Southern Australia, the facility uplinks to 8 geostationary satellites across both the Ku band and C band spectrum. Telecommunications port are the crucial earth stations connecting to the satellites and transmitting and receiving signals to end-users using VSAT systems. As such, they are often highly-secured facilities, and in the case of the Adelaide Teleport, considered as Military Accredited Global Access Points.
NewSat, Australia’s largest satellite communications company, is providing vital communications for Australian Defence personnel located in far-flung places. They are also now preparing to launch its very own communications satellite.
Mike Keneally, Vice-President of Satellite Strategy, speaks to Grant Smith about the company’s Government Accredited Adelaide and Perth teleports, the services the Teleports provide Australian and US Defence Force personnel and Jabiru-1, Australia’ first locally owned commercial satellite.
See:
‘Voyager 1′ Before the Voyager Interstellar Mission
Military and Defence
NewSat provide welfare communications for US Military personnel in over 15 locations throughout Afghanistan. Welfare communications for soldiers is extremely important. Defence forces around the world are now “committed to soldier retention”. A decade ago soldiers had ½ an hour once a fortnight to utilise satellite communications for personal use. This placed enormous strain on soldiers and families which meant soldiers retention rate was low. Now defence forces around the world have the mentality “recruit the soldier, retain the family” and will provide an “always-on broadband connection, no matter where they are, for phone and Internet”.
Military is completely reliant on satellite communications to meet their needs in their difficult and dangerous environment. Mission critical communications in war zones require constant transmission and delivery of highly sensitive and secure information. Satellite communications are the paramount for military and defence operations worldwide.
