NBN Co, the company overseeing Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) project, has announced a ‘key milestone’ for the Long Term Satellite Service (LTSS), having completed the construction of the ninth Satellite Ground Station at Waroona in Western Australia.

With this being the penultimate station – there will be a total of ten sites when the network rollout is complete – the company noted that each comprises two, 13.5 metre satellite dishes, though the sites at Wolumla and Kalgoorlie have an extra two dishes each for back-up, telemetry and tracking. Once complete, the NBN’s network of Satellite Ground Stations are expected to enable the launch of the LTSS by early 2016, or ‘sooner, if possible’.

Matt Dawson, NBN Program Director Satellite, said of the development: ‘The completion of NBN’s ninth Satellite Ground Station is a key milestone in delivering fast, reliable internet to remote and regional Australia … When fully operational, each NBN satellite Ground Station will be capable of transmitting ten gigabits per second.’