Viasat makes case for exclusive access to 5G spectrum

US satellite giant Viasat is flexing its muscles locally to secure its access to the 28 gigahertz spectrum.

Richard Baldrige: ‘There’s no need to allocate all 5G spectrum to operators’

US satellite giant Viasat is flexing its muscles locally to secure its access to the 28 gigahertz spectrum, as the Australian Communications and Media Authority considers selling it to wireless operators hungry for 5G spectrum.

Viasat president and chief operating officer Richard Baldridge, in Australia recently to press the case for the company, told The Australian that any sale of the spectrum could jeopardise Viasat’s longstanding presence in Australia.

The company provides ground infrastructure for NBN Co’s Sky Muster satellites and also works with Qantas to provide in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic services.

The 28 and 26GHz bands fall within the broader category of millimetre wave spectrum and are widely expected to be the first to be allocated for the delivery of high-speed 5G wireless broadband services.

ACMA last year started discussionson the future of the 28GHz band spectrum, which is dedicated solely for satellite services and point-to-point connections.

Viasat’s latest satellite, ViaSat-3 APAC, which is scheduled to be launched by the end of 2022, is designed to deliver services in the Asia-Pacific region. It’s one of three satellites that Viasat says can deliver gigabit speeds for enterprise use and download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second to homes.

Australia has been slated as one potential location for the ground infrastructure to support the ViaSat-3 APAC satellite but Mr Baldridge said without exclusive access to the 28GHz spectrum, the company might have to rethink its decision.

“We are hoping Australia will be the right place for us to locate all of our ground infrastructure but that’s really dependent on whether we have access to fibre and the 28GHz spectrum, which we need to uplink the ground equipment to the satellite,” he told The Australian.

Mr Baldridge said the 28GHz spectrum was not the right fit for mobile operators.

“It’s not very useful for mobility. It doesn’t penetrate walls and doesn’t travel long distances,” he said.

“My job in Australia is really to get that message out there and educate people that there’s no need to allocate all 5G spectrum to operators.’’

Mr Baldridge said satellite operators could play an important role in a 5G environment.

He said the company had had conversations with Telstra with regards to the fate of the 28 GHz spectrum.

“We are in conversations with Telstra, which in recent years has not really been in this space,” he said. “It’s a big opportunity for us. We are going to places where it’s uneconomical for the telcos to go and it doesn’t have to be either wireless or satellite 5G, it can be both.”