Early customers say Sky Muster NBN satellite delivers “outstanding” broadband

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news The new Sky Muster NBN satellite service has received positive reviews from early customers, who said performance is “outstanding”, according to Activ8me, an official NBN provider.

Sky Muster – a geostationary communications satellite operated by NBN Co and built by aerospace firm SSL – will replace older satellite services and deliver fast Internet to regional locations which currently have limited or no Internet connectivity.

Installations for the Internet service are scheduled to begin in May. Eventually, more than 200,000 premises in regional Australia will receive access to the Internet at speeds up to 10 times faster than ISS satellite services, Activ8me said.

“Slow and unreliable Internet has long inhibited residents and businesses in regional Australia,” said Activ8me CEO, Tony Bundrock.

“The introduction of the Sky Muster nbn satellite is an exciting development. It will allow residents to lead more productive and connected lives, bringing with it opportunities in business, education, work, entertainment, healthcare and farming,” he said.

To date, Activ8me said, it has connected 100 customers to the Sky Muster service.

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with customers citing Sky Muster’s improved speed, connectivity and service as ‘life changing’,” said Bundrock.

Wendy Stewart, resident and business owner in Apollo Bay, Victoria, commented: “In testing Sky Muster, we’ve found the service to be outstanding. I have a daughter in year 12 who no longer has issues accessing files, conducting searches or streaming videos. It’s reliable and our business benefits from greatly increased Internet speeds.”

Activ8me suggests that, with the improved connectivity afforded by Sky Muster, farmers will be able to harness “smart farming” technology such as telemetry, which includes data loggers, sensors, batteries and transmission devices.

Such high-tech tools have the potential to increase operational efficiencies, such as improved water and energy usage, and the optimisation of crop growth.

Further, rural users will be able to access automated remote-controlled equipment and robots, and store, control and access their data online, as well as to work, study and access distance education programs remotely.

Medical care too, can remotely be accessed without having to physically visit a surgery or hospital.

“The NBN Sky Muster activation is great news for Internet users in the Southern Riverina as it will help people conduct everyday business and complete routine communication,” said Liberal Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley.

“NBN’s advanced technology will enable families, farmers and businesses to access applications. It opens the door for a countless number of opportunities across the digital world,” she added.

Activ8me pointed out that residences and businesses that are not in an NBN satellite service area, will benefit from other NBN service options such as fixed wireless, which currently services over 371,000 premises in regional Australia.

Picture above (provided by Activ8me): Left to right is Ian Roberts (Marketing GM Activ8me), The Hon. Sussan Ley (Minister for Minister for Health, Aged Care and Sport) and Joe Dennis, Senior Management Government Relations for NBN Co.

59 COMMENTS

    • I think you will find that Turnbull suggested that private industry could do it more quickly, cheaper, faster and with less risk to NBNCo.

        • 2X gets paid far too much for anything he does or says. Actually, all the current SkyBlues get paid far too much. Even I can’t vote for any of that mob of galahs.

      • I think you will find that Turnbull suggested that private industry could do it more quickly, cheaper, faster and with less risk to NBNCo.

        Except they didn’t…

  1. With 100 out of 200,000 customers connected one would expect performance to be pretty good. It will be interesting to see the performance under load.

    In five years time, it will be interesting to see if Google Loon, Facebook drones or one of the other alternatives provide higher bandwidth, lower latency and cheaper remote internet access turning these satellites into a white elephant.

    • In India they use elephants for cargo and “construction” by choice. Cows can’t carry as much, horses are expensive, and herds of either to provide the same capacity cost a lot more to feed and etc.

      So the question really is, is the Sky Muster program a true albino elephant, thus elevated to “sacred” status, thus becoming an unwanted gift?

      Of course, nothing in this post will affect the stunted thinking currently afflicting what passes for the LibNats aka “SkyBlues” due to their paucity of intellect.

      IMHO, the Sky Muster program stands as one of Labor’s great achievements, and should be placed alongside the Overland Telegraph as an example of what Australia can do if our leadership stops hiding behind colonial skirts.

      • LOL
        Neither party used the word Skymuster once during the election.There is good reason.It’s an anchor tied around the goolies of tax payers forever.This scam is supposed to serve 400,000 for a decade.
        Apparently living a stones throw from a regional city , and surrounded by mobile towers, with fibre nearby is still classified as a remote location
        ROFL.
        Labors great achievement?
        Yeah nah.

        • The Coalition have put on more customers in more areas than wa originally planned for satellite NBN, so that’s nothing to do with Labor.

          • Utter tosh
            Skymuster was always going to be oversubscribed and obsolete.These outcomes are the ALPs baby which were inherited by whoever came after them.
            The trouble with rusted on techno-apologists is they are blind to the reality that at $7000 subsidy per 400,000 thousands residences to deliver a backward racing failure is almost criminal.
            The genius that is Senator Conjob dropped this lemon in our laps,period.
            Plus the ALP have already stated they would force the same satellite outcomes as the modified accelerated obsolescence a la LNP.

          • Nothing funnier than a LibTroll whinging about the satellites his party said weren’t even needed!

            Back under your bridge troll!

          • Skymuster was always going to be oversubscribed and obsolete.

            Rubbish, Ka Band satellites are cutting edge (even Iridium is going to replace its current satellite constellation with them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation#Next-generation_constellation).

            The original NBN only had 200k connecting via satellite and FW. http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/documents/nbn-co-corporate-plan-6-aug-2012.pdf

            The current nbn™ plan is for 400k on Sat and 600k on FW. http://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco2/documents/nbn-corporate-plan-2016.pdf

            It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who is doing the over subscribing…

          • @ Tinman.
            You sound like you have a fiscal reason to barrack for the flying lemons.

            I could not give a FRA who is doing the oversubscribing,(not the point)I am saying the satellite option is a waste of time and money.

            Deja,de ja vu.
            The best of third rate internet tech is not worthy of the outcome and the $7000 it takes from public funds to be forced onto a slug.

            Repeat >it is defunct before full customer assignment.Find a politician willing to resign if this race horse satellite fails(it will) .
            Good luck.

    • Yep, there’s always some wonderful holy grail technology “just XX years away”, to justify why we shouldn’t spend money on technology we have now, that works now, to meet a requirement that we have now.

      A bit like the justification for rolling out FttN included “future improvements to VDSL” that hadn’t even been demonstrated in a research lab, so that it might *approach* the capability of the GPON FttH network that was being rolled out right then – which itself could be upgraded tenfold or a hundredfold…

    • Sky Fairies might come down and give us high speed internet as well.

      There is always some magic technology that is just around the corner that when actually investigated cannot be rolled out on a large scale.

      If we did FTTP, we wouldn’t have to worry and it would give us fixed wireless connections everywhere.

      As it is, FTTN/HFC can’t even keep up with what we have today, let alone 4k.

      29.5 billion for 25mbps by 2016 – They failed on every metric and it doesn’t even give us an roi.

    • @ Matthew its 400k customers LNP doubled the amount the satellites will have to connect under MTM.

  2. I’m sure the service would perform very well with only 100 customers sharing 135Gbps of bandwidth!
    The new satellites are an improvement, sure – but lets wait til there are 200000+ customers signed up, and see how good the speeds at peak times are then!
    I hope they’ll still be usable, as I’m relying on this service myself.
    Pity the data plans SUCK though!!! ( Maximum of 45-50 GB peak time , being 7am to 1am)
    Was looking forward to 250GB+ on fixed wireless, only to find out I’m 5k’s out of range, so relegated to satellite for now.
    Ultimately we may have to build a private microwave link to town from our farms, as we’re only 20k’s out of town which has fiber backhaul, and only 5k’s out of range of fixed wireless, so not the end of the (broadband) world.
    It is a modest improvement over mobile broadband, but doesn’t meet our long term expectations for a modern broadband service, at least in terms of data allowances anyway. Speeds should be fine for now though.
    Hopefully the NBN will extend the range of fixed wireless soon, or roll out fiber (FTTdp) to the farms that are closer to town like us.

  3. sats dont exist its all ground based tech,remember turnbullshit wanted a bently sent rather than a mitzy $500000000 into the un known,ohh and isnt it funny of the family from apollo bay its all ground based

    • Hi Pat,
      You must be confusing fixed wireless with satellite. They are two different things. One is terrestrial the other is extra terrestrial.
      Regards
      Brodie

  4. Of course performance is going to be great! NBNco haven’t had a chance to oversell it yet like they did with the other satellite capacity.

  5. Nice advert.
    Who wrote it? Nash or Fifield?
    Skymuster is a piece of crap and it will end up like the ISS.Slow,expensive,bloated and dysfunctional.Read whirlpool forum,It drops out in misty rain.Many customers cannot even get connected,There is no TIO or other advocacy.A license to print money.RSPs will clean up, protected by a clause to allow blaming NBN etc.

    Most expensive vat of tax payer funded snake oil in recent history.

  6. Biggest Waste of time and money can buy, nice paid article indeed…. Sky muster must be the slowest broadband NBN I have ever wasted my money on, can’t even live stream anything, skype only just works. unable to download anything with a large file.
    If you can help it, do not go Skymuster…

    • What area are you in Benny?

      NBN Satellite was only supposed to be for rural where they couldn’t actually get anything else, but you sould like you have other options available?

  7. To quote an authority on the subject of money well spent,and fit for purpose bandwidth/speeds/capacity and reliability,
    which are my points>
    https://delimiter.com.au/2016/02/15/nbn-blogger-predicted-fttn-congestion-seven-months-ago/#comment-717369
    ____________________________________
    “You’ve totally missed the point.

    It’s not about cost, it’s about capacity.

    Bandwidth requirements go up 50% a year (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/law-of-bandwidth/) and FttN is pretty well done, any other icreases in it’s

    speed mean you need to put nodes closer and closer to the end point.

    They are building a network that won’t be fit for purpose within the next few years, that’s not money well spent…”
    ____________________________________
    Let me guess you will play the ‘I was talking about FTTN’ card?
    Meaning satellite customers don’t matter.

    Hypocrite much?

    Principle is the same .>
    They are building a network that won’t be fit for purpose within the next few years, that’s not money well spent…

    Your partisan bias is ultra stark Tinman.
    A lemon is a lemon.

    • Settle down sunshine ;o)

      The NBN satellite system was only even meant to support <3% of the population of Australia. I had nothing to do with it being repurposed to support a lot more, and I agree that once the LPA overload it, it'll be shit (like everything else the LPA touch).

      Feel free to keep voting LPA/Nat and ignoring reality though Sly ;o)

      • Steetle down y/self meat brick.
        Lame attempt at history rewriting.Troll action personnified.
        I have never, will never vote LNP Nats.Review your every post. All pro Labor no matter what the tech issue is.You did a 180 degree backflip on ‘fit for purpose’ ‘money well spent’ and I exposed you.
        Union hacks are as predictable and as hypocritical as LNP trolls.
        How dare you muddy the waters on what we all want.>>> A justifiable investment in real future proof internet.<<<
        No wonder we get the political outcomes we do.

        • Steetle[sic] down y/self[sic] meat[sic] brick[sic].

          Deep breath matey, calm down ;o)

          My posts are not “Pro Labor”, I didn’t even vote for them in the election just gone. Labor is just lucky they actually listened to the experts that advised them, unlike your sides “let’s call a mate in the BT exec team” crew…

          I have never, will never vote LNP Nats.

          So you just drew a penis on your ballot? How empowering!

          Review your every post. All pro Labor no matter what the tech issue is.

          BS, I agree with Malcolm that the HFC still has legs in it, and even 2-3 years ago I was getting grief here over my support of FttB.

          At least we can agree on one thing:

          No wonder we get the political outcomes we do.

          With people like you around, yeah, no wonder…

          • Yeah nah,
            Keep dragging it o moderation matey,I resisted drawing your image on my ballot paper and voted for an option outside of your partisan myopia.
            The only time you sided with TBull was when you thought he spoke the truth according to your shopping list.It’s a common ailment.

            Your one of many who see Mal as a convert.He aint.
            Skymuster is as you would phrase it(well done)

            “They are building a network that won’t be fit for purpose within the next few years, that’s not money well spent…”

            Because as you also rightly claim>

            “They are building a network that won’t be fit for purpose within the next few years, that’s not money well spent…”

            I haven’t seen anyone attack their own position so vehemently in quite some time.
            Gold star >you

          • I resisted drawing your image on my ballot paper and voted for an option outside of your partisan myopia.

            Whoever you think I voted for, you’re more than likely wrong ;o)

            I have no idea why you’re so down on the NBN Satellite (pre-Malcolm), but the original purpose of it was actually “a good thing”.

            Rural Aussies have been shafted for years when it comes to internet access. The LPA are trying to reframe the satellite plan to cover suburban (and even urban) Aussies, and that’s just wrong, there are a whole swag of better options for anyone near a decent comms backbone.

            I get your pissed off about it, but I think you’re tilting at windmills (which I’ve done myself, check the Delimiter history at how I slagged off Conroy about being so anal about FttB).

            The original satellite plan was a good one that allowed people no where near comms infrastructure to access decent internet (compared to the no internet they had previously had, or internet at hundreds of dollars a month).

            The current LPA plan where they are trying to dump people near dark fibre (like they were with the entirety of Western Tasmania) onto the satellite system is just going to hurt everyone.

    • Sly, here are the facts.

      The Libs have in fact doubled the number of premises to be covered by the LTSS and reduced the number of Fixed Wireless premises.

      So page 71 of the 2010 Corp Plan has “up to 200k users” for LTSS and page 16 of the 2016 Corp Plan has “more than 400k” for LTSS.

      2010: http://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco/documents/nbn-co-3-year-gbe-corporate-plan-final-17-dec-10.pdf

      2016: http://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco2/documents/nbn-corporate-plan-2016.pdf

      The CP2016 also now says “~590k Fixed Wireless” vs 800,000 FW for the CP2010 plan (1mil -200k for LTSS page 77)

      • Look Derek,
        you and Tinman spend all your time flaming anyone who dares to point in the direction of Labor.Not interested mate.
        Both camps are shafting rural Australia.None more than pork barrel Barney.But Labor are MIA on this because they invented the sucker.
        This discussion is about the dead head satellite ripoff and this advertorial above.
        Skymuster won’t make 10,000 customers happy.Your point is moot.
        (enter freshly tagged Tinman)

          • There are thousands of communities who have fibre in close proximity and mobile towers within viable diatance and topography suitable to develop hybrid systems or wait for new tech.You would have to be a Neanderthal to lock every such locality onto a decade of satellite misery simply to chase political expediency,with the publics money.There is nothing smart,sustainable or future-proof in Skymuster.
            Ever going there was the stuff of delusional aspiration.
            Ever defending it is the stuff of partisan muppetisim.

          • Are you calling me a partisan muppet?
            Are you calling me a lying idiot?
            Are you calling me a partisan loyalist?

            You don’t know me.

          • There are thousands of communities who have fibre in close proximity and mobile towers within viable diatance and topography suitable to develop hybrid systems or wait for new tech.You would have to be a Neanderthal to lock every such locality onto a decade of satellite misery simply to chase political expediency,with the publics money.There is nothing smart,sustainable or future-proof in Skymuster.

            Yes, there are thousands of them.

            Sky Muster wasn’t intended for them, it was for the ~200k that live outside the town and cities of Australia, you can thank the LPA for people that are actually living near dark fibre (like those in Western Tas) for being dumped onto Satellite.

            Sky Muster was for the people that voted Nats in the election just gone, those that live way outside of towns and cities, those that just got shafted in places like New England.

        • so sly, basically you are ragging on labor for trying to provide better services to the bush, considering the nationals have done sfa for Comms in the bush in the last 20 years you should be bagging them.

          They after all rolled over on the bush so John Howard could flog off our national telco built with tax payer dollars so he could engage in more pork barreling.

          • I’m ragging on lying idiots and their cheer squads on the net, who stoop to pigeon hole for troll effect because they have nothing outside partisan loyalty to contribute to the discussion..

          • Statements like this just show how uneducated you are on telecommunications!

            Labors NBN policy specifically included towns of 500 premises with fibre passing through them in the FTTP footprint.

            Compare this to the lnp who deleted entire towns from the fixed line rollout.

            Also, the vast bulk of regional mobile towers (not in towns with fibre) are connected via microwave links.

          • WTF?
            You link the story above, to which we are commenting on, which is advertorial garbage with no connection to the current lived experience of the suckers netted so far??Really?
            ?
            A six pack of happy campers in a sea of anger and failed to deliver?

            Read this>
            How’s it going in the real world ,outside of Murdoch ,this sponsored page, and militant union spin?
            https://twitter.com/fixbushinternet
            Early days and it is ISS all over again.On steroids.Imagine 400,000 doses of steroids.
            https://twitter.com/fixbushinternet

            https://www.facebook.com/groups/BIRRR/?_fb_noscript=1

            $ 2.8B Mirage?

            Thanks Mal.Thanks Conjob.T

          • Sly, WTF do you think half the people here have been arguing for these last 4 years?

            The current system is a bastardised version of the original one, the original satellite system was only supposed to support those Australians outside the cities and towns that had no other way of accessing a connection to the internet.

  8. “I’m ragging on lying idiots and their cheer squads on the net”

    And there you are right on cue.
    All bow before partisan keepers of knowledge.(complete with > !)
    It’s still a ripoff scam,unaccountable,blank cheque, tax payer funded parasitic lemon.
    Defend it at your own peril.

    • Seriously man, take a chill pill.

      Who do you think the original satellite system was designed for? If you say “Someone just outa town”, you’re 100% wrong.

      If you thinking more like someone 100km from Broken Hill, you’re probably getting closer to how they were thinking.

      • I’m as chilled as bro.And I’m staying on topic,albeit a challenge with the Labor tag team denying their own history.

        The majority of ISS and potential Skymuster customers are anything but ‘100kms from Broken Hill’ type residences.Many can see towers from their own roofs.Educate yourself.

        • So you’re actually talking about Fixed Wireless?

          And what are you referring to when you say “ISS”? I keep thinking you’re talking about the International Space Station!

          • Like I said educate yourself.You’re at the end of a serious discussion, masquerading as an authority , defending labor for political gamesmanship, but you don’t even know what Interim Satellite Service is.

          • You’re at the end of a serious discussion, masquerading as an authority

            I’m in the middle of a very, very long discussion having informed myself from the available facts/material.

            I am not an authority…I’ve just read a lot.

            defending labor for political gamesmanship

            Fuck Labor, why would I defend them? I didn’t even vote for them…I just wants to see Australia benefit from the NBN.

            Interim Satellite Service

            I know what the ISS is now you’ve actually clarified what you were referencing.

            The interim service was shit and nothing like the LTSS (though Malcolm is doing his best…)

      • I’m as chilled as bro.And I’m staying on topic,albeit a challenge with the Labor tag team denying their own history.

        Good to hear, I’m more than happy to discuss things, and don’t agree with you that Labor got everything right. The only stuff they did get right was what they used from the expert panel that they got the original plan from.

        • Sly, you are a first rate moron, debating you is pointless as you have nothing worthwhile to say and no friggin clue.


  9. Good to hear, I’m more than happy to discuss things, and don’t agree with you that Labor got everything right”

    WTF?
    When did I ever even give you a microscopic idea that Labor got regional internet right?
    They started the Skymuster failure by denying how much on an epic fail ISS was..Period.

    Try hard to own your previous statements.It’s called credibilty.

    • Good to hear, I’m more than happy to discuss things, and don’t agree with you that Labor got everything right

      Hell, even I don’t agree Labor got everything right, and what they did get right was more due to good luck than anything else.

      Can we at least agree that the original plan of Sky muster connecting actual, real, rural Aussies was a good idea?

      The current plan sucks balls and will overload the satellites and effect those that actually really need it, the original plan sucked balls in other areas (FttB for instance). They (NBNCo/nbn™) need to some up with a plan that takes the best bits from both plans.

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