Australia - Mobile Satellite Services

Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd, July 2012, Pages: 13

Mobile satellite services are crucial in Australia to ensure universal access to basic telephony products in very remote areas. Australia’s experience of satellites dates back to the 1950s and 1960s. Australian entrepreneur, the late Kerry Packer, was among the first to recognise the commercial potential of satellite communications. In 1977 he commissioned a report to investigate the launch of an Australian satellite. Subsequently Aussat was established by the government in 1981 and was later sold after huge financial losses to Optus in 1992.

In 2012 Optus and Telstra are still the major infrastructure providers of mobile satellite services though the majority of terrestrial-based satellite services continue to be fixed services. Mobile satellite services are required for operations such as sea-based communications and outback mining companies, where there is limited or no 2G/3G mobile phone coverage and fleet-tracking services. However service charges remain high, which generally restricts growth in the use of services.
In this report BuddeComm provides an overview of the market, an overview of the operators and some statistics on users and revenue. For information on satellite-based internet services and providers, see separate report: Australia - Telecoms - High-speed satellite services.

Hot topics and technologies mentioned
Hot topics and technologies mentioned in this report include – subscribers, market share, satellite mobile voice, satellite mobile data, SMS.

1. Synopsis
2. Mobile satellite services
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Second generation satellites with Globalstar to benefit rural Australians
2.3 Twitter on satellite phones
3. Public subsidies and regulation
3.1 Overview
3.2 Mobile satellite service band plan
3.3 Mobile satellite phone subsidies
3.3.1 Background information
3.3.2 Satellite Phone Subsidy Scheme
3.3.3 Call to extend scheme to boost mobile coverage as it remains major problem for the region
4. Overview of operators
4.1 Telstra
4.1.1 Overview
4.1.2 Innovative satellite and 3G solutions
4.1.3 Iterra (VSATs)
4.2 Optus
4.2.1 MobileSat
4.2.2 Thuraya
4.3 Pivotal Group
4.3.1 Company Overview
4.3.2 Satellite services
4.3.3 PT. Pivotel Amalgam Indonesia
4.4 VIX QuikTrak
4.4.1 Company overview
4.5 AST Australia
4.5.1 Company overview
4.6 Addcom
4.6.1 Company overview
4.6.2 Local CallSAT
4.7 Indigo Telecom
4.7.1 Company overview
4.7.2 Expansion a key to success for the company
4.8 FedSat – Australia’s low earth orbit satellite (historic)
5. Usage and revenue estimates
5.1 Background information
5.2 Revenue
6. Related reports
Table 1 – Revenue by business area – Jan 2011
Table 2 – Pivotel Globalstar satellite data costs – July 2012
Table 3 – Estimate mobile satellite users – 2007 - 2012
Table 4 – Optus satellite revenue – 2007 - 2013
Chart 1 – Overview of mobile satellite users – 2007 - 2012
Chart 2 – Overview of Optus satellite revenue – 2007 - 2013
Exhibit 1 – Pivotel Communications Pty Limited at a glance – 2012

- AST Group
- Globalstar
- Inmarsat
- Iridium
- Just Mobile
- Optus
- Pivotel
- Reward Mobile
- Telstra
- Think Mobile
- Thuraya
- TracerTrak
- Vodafone

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