Fast access for remote regions

By PETER GRIFFIN IT editor

Thai satellite operator Shin Satellite could be just a week away from signing a deal with Telecom and internet provider Iconz to bring high-speed internet services to the remotest parts of the country.

News agency Reuters quoted Shin chairman Dumrong Kasemset yesterday as saying deals in New Zealand were close to being signed with two companies.

Auckland internet provider Iconz has confirmed it is one of those companies. The other is believed to be Telecom, however the telco is making no comment.

The deals will allow communities beyond the reach of Telecom's Jetstream and wireless broadband services, to get high-speed internet access using a small terminal and a satellite dish.

Satellite is used in countries such as Australia to supply rural communities with decent internet access.

Iconz general manager Sean Weekes said there was business to be had in the backblocks of New Zealand where finding a reliable internet connection was no easy task.

"There's a demographic of consumer that can't get any connection other than dial-up. It will do wonders for them." But he warned that the technology had a niche target and would be more expensive than more commonly used broadband services New Zealanders had come to know.

"It mustn't be confused with DSL [Jetstream] in terms of pricing."

A 1 megabit per second (Mbps) download link would cost about $2000 a month, with the 1.2-metre satellite dish receiving the service costing $900 to $1000. That would put the service out of reach of individual families, but it could be used to service multiple sites, such as schools, council offices and local businesses.

In a separate deal, Telecom is negotiating with a satellite provider to service "region 15" of the Government's Project Probe initiative, which aims to get broadband to all schools by the end of the year.

Region 15 covers the remotest of schools, but a deal is yet to be struck, despite a March target.

Shin said last year that it would invest $15 million in building a satellite earth station in Albany to support its local services. Local contractors are understood to have been recruited.

Shin has been trialling internet services using borrowed capacity from an Intelsat satellite covering the area. But it will launch its services on its own new US$350 million "bird", the IPStar-1, which is expected to be in orbit and functioning in the next two months.

IPStar-1's will have three "spot beams" covering the country.

Weekes said Iconz had been successfully trialling the Shin service and was hiring a company that would act as installer for the service.

Shin Satellite is 51 per cent-owned by Shin Corp, the flagship of a telecoms group founded by the Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Shin's New Zealand representative, John Humphrey, said the contracts were under negotiation and work on the earth station was under way.