Hughes Broadband Satellite Technology Helps Bridge the Digital Divide in Australia


April 28

Orion Satellite Systems of Australia has purchased and commissioned a state-of-the-art DVB-S2/IPoS with Adaptive Coding Modulation (ACM) satellite system from Hughes to provide broadband Internet access service to remote areas in Australia. Orion Satellite Systems is one of the registered providers of broadband satellite services under the Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) program.

The HN system from Hughes is fully compliant with the DVB-S2/IPoS air interface standard, including the Adaptive Coding Modulation (ACM) feature, which yields higher throughputs and more efficient bandwidth utilization. The Hughes implementation of DVB-S2/IPoS with the ACM feature means the combination of coding and modulation of the system outbound channel can be configured for each remote terminal, thereby resulting in optimal transmission efficiency. This ability to custom design the outbound channel per terminal enables an operator to realize an additional 50 percent throughput increase over the DVB-S specification.

Andrew Johnson, managing director of Orion Satellite Systems, said, "We believe there is a very large untapped market in Australia with an estimated 200,000 potential subscribers who have no access to broadband. We are very confident of the service we will be able to provide with Hughes
providing the technology."

"Hughes has one of the largest installed bases of broadband satellite terminals in Australia and we are very pleased that Orion has chosen our technology," said Ramesh Ramaswamy, assistant vice president, International Marketing at Hughes. "Our system brings additional capacity where it was not previously available, which gives Orion the ability to maximize the
efficiency of bandwidth utilization and contain costs as they grow their business."