Australian Space and Satellite Update: LEOSat Working Group setting the agenda for policy and investment

In February 2024, the Working Group published its Chairs Report for 2023 outlining its recommendations for Government. It is likely that these recommendations will serve to guide not only state and federal governments on the use of public funding but also for the private sector, particularly as new LEO satellite constellations come online.

The Working Group made the following recommendations:

Recommendation 1. Digital inclusion and Closing the Gap Target 17

Recommendation 1.1: Trial LEOSats in First Nations communities. The Working Group recommends that government should trial LEOSats as a solution for telecommunications issues in regional and rural First Nations Communities.

Recommendation 1.2: Identify and remove barriers to providing prepaid satellite internet services to consumers. It is recommended that the Government, LEOSat operators, MNOs, and others in the communications market consider how they will offer prepaid internet services.

Recommendation 2. Universal services

Recommendation 2.1: Government should consider the role of LEOSats when reviewing the universal service framework. An initial round of consultation on the existing USO framework (which provides all Australians with access to baseline fixed voice and broadband services) closed recently, however further consultation is anticipated this year.

The Working Group suggests that inclusion of LEOSats should only occur after extensive testing. The Working Group also observed that to date, the roll out of terrestrial mobile services across Australia have been subject to the decisions made by MNOs, and it has been government coinvestment that has encouraged deployment of services into less densely populated areas where it would be otherwise uncommercial. Terrestrial mobile services only cover 1/3 of the Australian continent, and there is potential for LEOSat to deliver Direct-to-Device (D2D) connectivity in the future.

Recommendation 3. Direct-to-device

Recommendation 3.1: Monitor developments in the D2D market for regulatory and policy implications. The D2D market is one which should be of particular interest, with commercial deals now being struck between LEOSat operators and traditional MNOs. The Working Group observed that the current regulatory settings appear to capture the most likely LEOSat service delivery setups and the usual telecommunications regulatory settings around competition and access apply to LEOSats. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which participates in the Working Group, noted that service providers would need to consider the appropriate types of spectrum to use and the telecommunications obligations that may apply. Separately, the ACMA had also recently concluded its own consultation into whether the current regulatory environment is appropriate for satellite direct to mobile services.

Recommendation 4. Resilience and redundancy in emergencies

Recommendation 4.1: Ensure suitability of regulatory settings to support use of LEOSats in emergencies. Australia’s unique geography and a series of natural disasters over the last few years has meant that network resiliency in emergencies is a common concern. The Working Group acknowledged that LEOSats would play a role in assisting in emergency situations.

This is particularly timely given the Australian Government is currently considering the resilience of telecommunications services more generally. Following recommendations made in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Regional mobile infrastructure inquiry, the Government is considering the introduction of temporary disaster roaming. The Government has also just published its response to the Bean Report which was commissioned in the wake of last year’s significant mobile network outage (on which we have previously written) and which recommended inter alia that work be undertaken on temporary roaming during outages caused by events other than natural disasters and that mutual assistance arrangements should be introduced between telecommunications service providers.

Recommendation 5. Business and economic benefit

Recommendation 5.1: Monitor industry developments to ensure regulatory and policy settings are fit for the evolution and adoption of new technologies.

In summary, these recommendations reflect the increased recognition of the potential for Low Earth Orbit Satellites to help address connectivity in Australia. In particular, the recommendations focus on their ability to improve emergency communication resilience and infrastructure, as well as the economic benefits which the technology also may bring.

For more information, please contact Matthew Bovaird and Charlotte Ainsworth.