Connectivity for the Office / Homestead
Satellite connectivity has been used for phone calls since the Iridium satellite installation was established in 1997. Since then, cellular data (3G, 4G, 5G) has reduced the reliance on satellite phones, with their use favoured now by those in remote areas (globally), including the ocean.
Over the past 5-10 years a large number of satellites have been launched to service both The Internet of Things devices and high-speed internet.
Note: the high-speed satellite offerings will work at any location where a suitable receiver dish is located.
Office High-Speed Internet (via Satellites)
NBN Sky Muster
An early provider of this service in Australia was Sky Muster, delivered by NBN. The Sky Muster satellites are two geostationary (GEO) communications satellites. Sky Muster has had at least one major upgrade since first being launched in 2015.
Sky Muster I (NBN-Co 1A) operates in a geostationary orbit of 140° East. Its orbital position is 35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi) at the equator, north of Australia.
Sky Muster II (NBN-Co 1B) was launched on 5 October 2016 and operates in a geostationary orbit of 145° East.
A list of current Sky Muster retailers, and pricing, can be found and this Link. Other providers include Starlink and OneWeb.
Connectivity for IoT devices
Note: for an understanding of satellite connectivity for office high-speed internet refer to this Link.
In addition to providing fast, cost-effective and reliable connectivity for homesteads and offices, satellites can also offer a cost-effective solution to transmit device data from the field to the cloud.
A cost-effective example of a device solution using satellite connectivity is provided in the Shamrock Station case study, a property of over 100,000 hectares not currently suited to establishing a LPWAN service such as Sigfox, LoRaWAN or Taggle.
Shamrock has installed 50 water point sensors and 1 video camera from Farmbot.