Telstra is expanding its presence in the rapidly growing satellite telecommunications market, building and maintaining three new dedicated teleports across Australia to provide satellite gateway services for OneWeb in the Southern Hemisphere.   

The first of the new teleports, located in Darwin Tivendale, is scheduled to begin installation in March with go-live planned in July. Two further sites, Charlton Toowoomba and Wangara, Perth, Wash., are planned for completion later in 2022. Each facility will provide turnkey ground station support for OneWeb’s growing fleet of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.

These facilities are being delivered as part of a 10-year deal between Telstra and OneWeb. Telstra’s turnkey approach for OneWeb includes designing, building and activating the teleports with ground station capabilities to meet OneWeb’s requirements. Telstra will also provide 24/7 monitoring and quality assurance services at each location. 

“OneWeb had exacting requirements from the outset, and we worked in close partnership with them from site selection through construction,” said Vish Vishwanathan, vice president Wholesale & Satellite, Telstra Americas. “Teleports are complex sites involving access to secure and resilient infrastructure and on-the-ground expertise, which Telstra has provided to OneWeb throughout this project.” 

Telco providers typically own and operate significant terrestrial and subsea assets, including fiber networks, IP backbones and data centers. These resources provide the critical ground service required to support satellite operators’ growing constellations, reduce their costs of entry into new markets and minimize the need for personnel to maintain their own terrestrial infrastructures.

“LEO satellite technology is transforming the global connectivity landscape, not only by creating new business opportunities, but also giving more businesses, communities and governments the internet access they need for progress,” said Michele Franci, chief of Delivery and Operations at OneWeb. “More connectivity options benefit everyone and our approach in establishing strategic partnerships with experienced providers like Telstra is core to how we deliver the OneWeb mission.”  

OneWeb has two-thirds of its constellation launched and is providing coverage above the 50th parallel North—reaching areas that have historically been hard to connect with distributed communities and challenging terrain. This includes Alaska, Canada and the wider Arctic Region. 

Earlier in March, OneWeb signed an MOU with Telstra to explore new connectivity solutions for Australia and the Asia pacific regions.