James Frost enjoys 100mb/second internet on the government's NBN when trialled in the Brunswick area of Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis Source: The Australian

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and NBN Co chief Mike Quigley made the announcement in Canberra today.

Some 200,000 customers too distant from a major centre hooked up to a fibre connection will get their share of the National Broadband Network from space. (http://tiny.cc/qptvq)

The Government expects the expansion of high-speed broadband services to the most outlying communities will encourage better health services, education and commercial possibilities.

And the connections from space will complete what the Government and NBN Co hopes will be "a ubiquitous broadband service to the entire nation".

The satellite service will be subsidised by other users and will not be available to anyone able to join the fibre delivery system.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the Ka-band satellites would be built by Space Systems/Loral in California and launched six months apart in 2015.

"The satellites will have the capacity to serve 200,000 homes and businesses in rural and remote parts of the country,'' said Senator Conroy.

"They will bring these premises an affordable, world class broadband connection."

Senator Conroy said no Australian companies could have built the satellites. There were only five companies in the world which could - three in the United States and two in Europe.

He said: "These satellites will allow remote communities to consult medical specialists anywhere in Australia by video conference. They will allow students in the bush to draw on content-rich, high-bandwidth, digital resources from around the world.

"Using these satellites, rural businesses can more easily expand into markets nationally and internationally."

The cross-subsidy means the houses getting the satellite broadband will be paying the same charges as suburban homes linked by fibre cable, but city subscribers will not be able to use it.

"The reason we can deliver the quality of service, with the high download and upload speeds, is because we are restricting the number of people who are using it," said Senator Conroy.

"If you were to announce that you wanted 25 per cent of Australians to be on a wireless satellite footprint, you would collapse this satellite. This satellite could not deliver these services at these prices and these speeds."

But Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull attacked the cost of the satellite network saying no consideration had been given to money.

Mr Turnbull said if the Government could get a Holden or Falcon it would instead buy a Jaguar or Rolls Royce.
And he said the NBN is massively behind its targets on fibre connections.

"Our criticism today is not about the virtues of getting broadband into the bush... What our complaint is, is that this is yet again a sign of a government that cannot manage money, that is taking too long, that is spending too much."

Loral currently is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with European satellite provider ViaSat which it hopes to resolve by out-of-court negotiation. (http://tiny.cc/2f6gc)

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