Strategizing above and beyond in satellite solutioning for Norfolk Island

[Text on screen] Uplifting connectivity above and beyond. Telstra Satellite Services.

[Philip Reid, Acting General Manager, Norfolk Island Regional Council speaking] Norfolk Island is a very small island in the middle of the Pacific. Small population of around 2200 people and it has a very, very interesting history with multiple settlements over a number of centuries now. And it's what makes Norfolk Islanders very proud of who they are.

[Text on screen] Norfolk Island Foundation Day re-enactment. Islanders dress up like in the olden days, to re-enact what happened on foundation day, with boats docking on shores, and carrying their belongings with them.

So, the challenge with being an external territory is certainly remoteness. The ability to be able to stay connected. The Commonwealth Government needed to improve connectivity to the school and to the hospital. And they turned to Norfolk Island Regional Council to be able to support that through one of our business units, which is Norfolk Telecom. 

[Simon Peapell, Team Leader, Norfolk Telecom speaking] If you're like us and you’re unfortunate not to have an undersea cable, you’re very dependent on satellite connectivity. Prior to the upgrade there was a lot of intermittent issues with dropouts and high latency. The service wasn't really up to scratch.

[Philip Reid speaking] Online learning resources were at times just unable to be delivered to students. And that's a huge improvement now that they're seamless. Students can have the same quality, the same standards that you would expect from schools on the mainland.

[Liz Unkles, Manager, Norfolk Island, Health and Residential Aged Care Service speaking] Norfolk Island Health and Residential Aged Care Service is the only health service on Island.

We are rated as extremely rural and remote. And so, to get access to anything other than primary health and the services that we provide, it historically has been a trip off Island.

[Telehealth doctor speaking] Can I just get you to stand up. 

[Liz Unkles speaking] Good, consistent video connectivity means those people remain on Island for at least initial appointments, so it's really added to the ability to provide complex and coordinated care without a patient travelling.

[Ian Hurley, Client Partner - Government Telstra speaking] So, the solution we provided to the Island was a multi-level satellite solution that incorporated geostationary satellites, a medium Earth orbit, and we've also catered for future stuff which is what we call Low Earth Orbit, LEO. Telstra provides a managed service to support the entire solution. It wasn't an out of the box solution, it was something that needed to be designed to be fit for purpose for the Island.

[Simon Peapell speaking] The solution is clever in that we're able to take the bandwidth that's allocated specifically for health and education, and at times when health and education aren’t using that, we're able to reuse it for our mobile network and domestic internet services on the Island.

[Philip Reid speaking] It is a scalable solution. Working with Telstra means that we're able to consider different options working as closely as we can with the community on what their needs are when it comes to, the economy and when it comes to connectivity.

[Text on screen] Telstra logo.

[Text on screen] telstrainternational.com