Eutelsat completes backhaul rollout in Australia with Telstra. Photo: Eutelsat

Eutelsat has revealed details of a large backhaul rollout in Australia. Working with the Australian telco, Telstra, the operator has launched the largest rollout of Eutelsat OneWeb LEO backhaul in Australia. The launch follows the signing of a strategic multi-year agreement last year that will enable Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) capacity delivered to Telstra’s most remote mobile customers across Australia to enhance their experience when using real-time applications such as voice and video calling. Eutelsat announced the rollout on Feb. 12.

More than 300 remote mobile base station sites currently using satellite backhaul will be connected to Eutelsat OneWeb’s LEO solution over the next 18 months. The capability will allow Telstra to expand mobile coverage as it supports new site deployments. Australia is one of several markets now fully operational, as Eutelsat OneWeb completes the roll-out of its ground segment to enable global coverage.

“Eutelsat OneWeb’s LEO solution will help us improve the customer experience in regional and remote areas with lower latency, higher speeds, and a more consistent experience. There’s also potential for OneWeb, as a backup backhaul solution, to improve reliability in areas where terrestrial backhaul is susceptible to natural disasters, and where communities find themselves in isolation to have a LEO backhaul that guarantees that level of quality service,” Iskra Nikolova, Telstra executive for Network and Technology, said in a statement.