Telstra has announced a new collaboration with SpaceX’s Starlink to bring Satellite-to-Mobile (direct-to-handset) text messaging to its customers in Australia. This, Telstra states, will enable it to provide better coverage from coast to coast, especially for customers in regional and remote areas. The collaboration will initially focus on testing and refining a Satellite-to-Mobile text messaging capability for Australian conditions, ahead of a commercial launch. Telstra already has the largest mobile network in Australia covering 99.7% of the Australian population over an area of 3 million square kilometres. Yet this area represents less than 40% of Australia’s landmass and Telstra indicates that since there will always be large areas where mobile and fixed networks do not reach, this is where satellite technology will play a complementary role to its existing networks. As satellite technology continues to evolve to support voice, data and IoT the company intends to explore opportunities for the commercial launch of those new services. The new partnership is in addition to Telstra’s current work with SpaceX’s Starlink around Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellite home and small business fixed internet products.
Satellite-to-Mobile, sometimes referred as Direct to Handset or DTH technology, offers the potential for basic services, starting with text messages and, eventually, voice and low-rates of data, to be delivered via outdoor connectivity from some of Australia’s most remote locations. An SMS can be sent over Satellite-to-Mobile using the technology already inside modern smartphones. Telstra states that Satellite-to-Mobile will complement their existing land-based mobile network offering basic connectivity where it has not been previously available – the company anticipates that the service will be available from most outdoor areas on mainland Australia and Tasmania where the user has a direct line of sight to the sky. It sees the technology as continuing to mature from initially supporting sending and receiving text messages into voice and low speed data to smartphones across Australia in the longer term (again, when outdoors with a clear line of sight to the sky). Just as mobile networks didn’t replace fibre networks, Telstra states that it’s important to realise the considerable difference between the carrying capacity of satellite versus mobile technology.
Satellite-to-Mobile is most relevant to people in regional and remote areas of the country located outside their carrier’s mobile coverage footprint. Currently, Satellite-to-Mobile technology allows users to send a message only.This is currently really a “just-in-case” connectivity layer that allows a person to make contact for help or let someone know they are OK when they are outside their own carrier’s mobile coverage footprint.
So, what does this mean for Telstra’s future mobile network investments?
Telstra states that it is committed to continue enhancing its mobile network in order to meet the growing demands and increasing data usage of its customers. This process includes the continued roll out of 5G to cover 95% of the Australian population by FY25. Over the seven years to the end of FY24 Telstra has invested $11.8bn into its mobile network across the country. The company maintains its focus on network resilience across all its technologies, architecture and network operations. This includes making equipment more resilient in disaster-prone areas and increasing redundancy through adding diversified backhaul pathways including using satellite backhaul solutions. Telstra will continue this investment to improve our terrestrial mobile network, while exploring how satellite technology can play a role in remote areas of the country not covered by land-based coverage.
[Source: Telstra]
