SES opens O3b facility in Australia
December 14, 2020
By Chris Forrester
Satellite operator SES has opened an O3b ground station in Australia. It ensures that enhanced connectivity services can be supplied to businesses and communities across Australia and the Pacific Islands.
The new satellite ground station is based at the Pivotel teleport in Dubbo, New South Wales.
Specifically, the expanded facility will support O3b’s next-generation mPOWER fleet of satellites with multiple gigabits-per-second beams of data services to customers, providing fibre-like connectivity with more bandwidth and improved flexibility to remote and underserved regions across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.
The Dubbo gateway will commence operations in the second half of 2021 and will track SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation operating at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) 8,000km away from Earth. This ground station will also support telemetry, tracking and commanding systems needed to control the satellites during the early stages of launch and complete integration with the Satellite Operations Centre.
Pivotel has been hosting an O3b gateway since 2013, when SES’s current MEO constellation was launched. Through the O3b gateway, SES has been instrumental in enabling the delivery of connectivity services to communities and the regional government entities of countries such as Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Federated States of Micronesia.
SES says: “This technology has enabled some of these countries to roll out low latency 4G/4G+ networks via satellite – a first for the satellite industry. Remote mine locations have also benefited from this technology, accelerating their digitisation plans and staff welfare through high-speed Internet.”
“Pivotel and SES have enjoyed a long-standing relationship that stems back to the initial days of O3b services,” adds John Turnbull, Director for Australia and the Pacific region of SES. “With such an important and powerful project, SES is thrilled to be continuing this partnership with Pivotel. Working to integrate leading technology from both businesses, we have captured the key elements of high-performance connectivity that can truly benefit everyone in the region regardless of how remote they may be.”