Telstra boosts Thai satellite broadband project

The geo-stationary satellite, ipstar, is owned by Thai company Shin Satellite, which last year entered a memorandum of understanding with Reach - a joint venture between Telstra and Hong Kong-based PCCW. The 6.3 tonne satellite ipstar-1 has an aggregate capacity of 40 gigabits per second, compared to a conventional satellite's capacity of 2-3 Gbps.

Telstra Wholesale has been contracted to design and construct multi-million dollar satellite earth station facilities at Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill, which are planned to be finished later this year.

"Ipstar has superior capabilities that will create a unique and cost effective means of communication for consumers and businesses across Australia for applications such as Virtual Private Network, telephony on IP, video conferencing and video on demand," said Dr Nongluck Phinainitsart, president of Shin Satellite.

Telstra spokesperson Rod Bruem told ZDNet Australia   it had not yet been decided who would supply the long-haul data from the earth stations. The ipstar satellite has both the old Ku-band transponders and the next-generation Ka-band transponders.