LONDON: Optus collaboration with an international satellite start-up using its laser beam technology to boost its satellite offering.
The Telco’s partnership with UK-based Laser Light will see them work together on transmitting data using optical spectrum instead of radio frequency.
Laser Light, which is building the world’s first all-optical satellite ring, known as HALO, will utilise Optus’ Australian satellite facilities and terrestrial fibre networks to enhance its global network capabilities.
According to Optus, the collaboration will enable it to offer increased bandwidth for its customers by improving data transmission rates and more cost-effective network management between Laser Light’s All-Optical Hybrid Global Network and Optus’ fixed fibre networks.
Optus will become a preferred supplier and local distributor of SPACECABL, Laser Light’s space-based laser communications service.
By combining the reach of satellites, with the power of laser optics, HALO is designed to deliver data transmission rates up to 100 times greater than conventional high-frequency satellite systems.
The system, understood to be the world’s first all-optical (laser-based) commercial satellite, is expected to be commercially available by 2018.
“As the bandwidth requirement continues to extend, this has the opportunity to deliver higher bandwidth to anywhere in the country. It would be like having a cable to absolutely anywhere in the country. Its early days but it’s very exciting,” Opus’s head of satellite, Paul Sheridan, told The Australian.
Laser Light is aiming to launch eight to 12 satellites in medium Earth orbit, which will connect with up to 100 ground nodes connected by a lattice of fibre-optic links to create wide-area networks in hard to reach geographies.
When operational, the HALO Network is designed as a seamless communications system, capable of quickly and cost effectively connecting any two points on the globe through its satellite platform, planned 100 Points of Presence (“PoP”), and Optus’ terrestrial fibre networks.
“Our aim is to work with, not compete, with the world’s leading telecommunications companies to provide a mutually-beneficial integrated communications infrastructure,” Clifford Beek, Laser Light’s President, Carriers Services, said.
“We are delighted to be collaborating with Optus, Australia’s leading satellite authority. This venture is an important step forward in providing us with complementary terrestrial connectivity across the entirety of Australia.”
The Laser Light deal comes two years after Opus’s parent Singtel considered and then abandoned a $2 billion-plus sale of the satellite business after investors backed away at the business’s valuation.
Meanwhile, Optus has also launched family sharing, allowing family members the ability to share data allocations across plans.
The update means a family can pool separate mobile plans together on one bill and share the data. Additionally, the Telco also said it is now offering unlimited standard national talk and texts across its entire post-paid range.
Optus’ managing director of marketing and product Vicki Brady said, “We believe there are around one million households who would want to sign up for Family Sharing. All families have different data needs, with some people in the house using more than others. Now customers can combine all the mobile plans in their home on the same bill and make the most of their data.
“Currently around 68 per cent of our My Plan customers are using less than 50 per cent of their monthly data inclusions.
“We know that 18-20 year olds use 2.7 times more data than those over 45 years old. With our new Family Sharing offer, these customers can pool their data so that heavy and light data users can maximise their mobile plans and consolidate their bills,” she said.
