Photo: Government of South Australia

Speedcast is deepening its relationship and support to the Northern Territory government in Australia. Speedcast will extend and expand the STARS (Satellite To All Remote Sites) program contract, providing connectivity services across hundreds of sites for the Northern Territory government (NTG). The company announced the expanded contract, Feb. 21.

As part of the expanded scope, Speedcast has introduced its edge compute platform SIGMA, as well as Low-Earth Orbit connectivity from Starlink to enhance the existing Geostationary satellite communications-based service. The new hybrid network aims to meet the growing connectivity needs of multiple government agencies, including schools and distance education, police, health and parks and wildlife, across an area of 1.3 million square kilometers.

Following a successful proof of concept, Speedcast introduced Starlink LEO connectivity to the managed solution as part of an overall shift to a hybrid connectivity approach delivered for NTG. Network traffic lands at the NT-owned teleport operated and managed by Speedcast, located in the capital city of Darwin. It is a fully managed service.

“Reliable connectivity service is essential to a region like the Northern Territory, which we have served for more than a decade. Every technology advancement in the service we deliver to NT has a material impact on the people, businesses and government of the territory and we’re proud of the long-standing partnership that makes it possible,” James Trevelyan, executive vice president of Global Sales & Marketing at Speedcast, said in a statement.