Telstra and OneWeb secure deal on new satellite solutions

Telstra and OneWeb have announced an agreement to roll-out of the satellite provider's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite backhaul for a commercial mobile network. 

The two companies have agreed commercial terms and later this year will begin moving hundreds of existing remote mobile base stations currently using satellite backhaul to OneWeb’s LEO solution.

Telstra will also use OneWeb LEO services for future sites where satellite backhaul is the preferred or only viable option. 

This agreement will see up to 25 gigabit per second of capacity over LEO being delivered to Telstra’s most remote mobile sites across Australia, improving the use of real-time applications such as voice and video calling. 

This follows the memorandum of understanding signed in March last year, for the telco to use OneWeb’s LEO satellites to improve cover across APAC.

OneWeb was also involved in a deal with Telstra to build two gateway earth stations in Australia in 2019.

Telstra group executive, global networks and technology Nikos Katinakis said the long-term partnership would “help [Telstra] to improve options for consumers, small business and enterprise customers living or working in rural and regional Australia – especially those in remote areas that require added redundancy in the instance of a power or transmission incident.”

“Our initial focus is using the service as a backhaul medium to connect remote mobile base stations."

"In time, it also offers us capability to deliver voice and fixed broadband services to regional Australia.”

He added that “part of our T25 strategy was to assess evolving satellite technologies and use them to deliver better services for customers, especially in rural and remote Australia.”

Katinakis said the capability will help Telstra expand its regional coverage and supports the T25 commitment to deliver an additional 100,000 square km of mobile coverage by the end of FY25.

Telstra has been working with OneWeb to test its latest technology and will continue providing input into OneWeb’s future products and capabilities.

“We plan to extend the testing program for additional use cases including network backhaul resilience, such as a back-up to fixed backhaul for selected critical sites.”

He also said that Telstra plans to extend into emerging use cases for business, enterprise and government customers, including IoT and connectivity on the move for the emergency services agencies, mining, oil and gas sector.

OneWeb vice president APAC David Thorn said “this is a first for us in terms of its scale and integration."

"For the first time in Australia, we’re working with a major partner to deliver OneWeb’s service across an entire continent for the benefit of remote users including consumers, enterprises and government agencies.”

“From our perspective, it's one of the largest single rollouts of LEO satellite capacity for mobile backhaul worldwide."

"Telstra will also be pivotal in collaborating with us on future generations of OneWeb product development,” Thorn said.

OneWeb currently has more than 630 satellites in-orbit, with global coverage set for the end of the year.

Its services are anticipated to be delivered in Australia mid-year, and be available worldwide by early 2024.