The Northern Territory government has asked that the company building the National Broadband Network (NBN) swap plans to provide the NBN to dozens of remote communities via satellite for a fixed wireless solution using existing fibre technology, saying the Sky Muster satellite is not reliable enough to provide necessary health, education and business services.
In a submission to an inquiry being held by the Commonwealth's Joint Standing Committee on the NBN, the NT said the “technically inferior” satellite service and its idiosyncratic nature would make it “difficult, costly or impossible” to ensure delivery of some online applications, and this had particular ramifications for health.