Vocus locks into government interest in Starlink

Vocus says that all three levels of government in Australia are embracing low earth orbit (LEO) satellite-based internet services “for a variety of use cases”.

Speaking at the Tech in Gov conference yesterday, Vocus chief executive for enterprise and government Andrew Wildblood said the telco had been “blown away” by government interest in the LEOsat technology.

Vocus is offering services via Starlink initially, and has also signed on to use OneWeb when its network is live.

“Federal, state, and local governments are already embracing LEOs,”Wildblood said.

Wildblood named early users as including Northern Beaches Council in Sydney, which is using Starlink to connect 37 sites; The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) and Community Enterprise Queensland.

It said Starlink had also found a use in the Northern Territory, where services “are being used to connect regional councils in remote indigenous communities, by the Northern Land Council for their remote ranger stations, and by community health service providers in remote areas like the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.”

In addition, Wildblood said that state police and emergency services operators are among trialists and users.

Wildblood used part of his speech to address sovereignty concerns with governments making use of global LEOsat networks, noting that traffic still needed to be backhauled locally with terrestrial infrastructure.

“Some have questioned whether Australian government agencies should utilise the LEOs of an international operator,” Wildblood said.

“The high-speeds and low-latencies of LEOs are dependent on extensive ground infrastructure and fibre, so processing and storage can occur as close to the edge of the network as possible.

“Today, Vocus has deployed 16 LEO ground stations on our fibre backbone – more than any other operator in Australia – and this is expected to densify as demand grows.”

Wildblood added that Australia would be among the key beneficiaries of the growth of LEOsat technology.

“It is the first truly universal high-speed broadband service connecting the most remote locations at home and abroad, and we are just beginning to see how government customers will leverage it.”