Auckland station to have key role with US Navy

By ADAM GIFFORD

The Stratos land earth station in Auckland will play a key role in the satellite communication specialist's new $US137 million ($324 million) contract with the United States Navy.

Stratos' Asia Pacific vice-president, Michael Smith, said the 12-person team at Albany had been part of the bidding process and would be involved in boosting the capacity of their station and managing the global network.

"The Auckland dish provides cover from the eastern Mediterranean over to the western coast of continental United States, so for this piece of business it's the linchpin in our global coverage," Mr Smith said.

He said the high military and media activity surrounding the war in Afghanistan meant Auckland "is a very busy place for us right now".

The land earth station now channels signals from US Navy ships in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf off the satellites and on to terrestrial telephone networks.

The new contract, which was tendered before the terrorist attacks on September 11, is to provide the US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (Spawar) with two-way satellite bandwidth for use with Inmarsat B systems aboard ships worldwide.

The estimated value of the contract is $US137 million over five years, although in unusual circumstances, such as a prolonged war, the value could rise to a maximum of $US537 million.

Stratos will provide Inmarsat connectivity to support processing the Navy's Secure Telephone Unit version III calls, data calls, official telephone lines and unofficial voice for Afloat Personal Telecommunications Service.

It will need to provide up to 200 Inmarsat lease channels to support Inmarsat B high speed data transmission services of up to 128 kbps a channel, enough for video-conferencing if required.

It will also provide terrestrial connectivity between its land earth stations and Navy points of presence in Wahiawa (Hawaii), Norfolk (Virginia), Naples and Bahrain.

Toronto-based Stratos, which bought the Auckland LES as part of its acquisition of British Telecom's worldwide satellite facilities, is the fastest-growing technology company on the Canadian stock exchange.

Fourth-quarter results come out next week. In the first three quarters, Stratos reported revenue of $US208 million, up $US125 million from the same period in 2000.

Mr Smith said Stratos now had sufficient bulk and experience in remote communications of all kinds to be fiercely competitive in price, service and reliability. It is one of five companies which dominate the satellite communications market.

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