subject: Communicating With the Outside World from the Australian Outback by:Liza Shul [print this page] Moving for any amount of time into Australia's rural outback from the city is certainly an adventure. Before you'll have to get used to the lack of shopping arcades and the layer of red dust, you'll have to face the potential lack of communication with friends and family back home.
So how do those who live in the Australian outback areas where the connection to the outside world is limited get by? What about those people at remote mine sites? What about TV, the web, calling friends and family back in the city?
Thankfully, mine sites and other remote areas have access to technology that allows their occupants to connect with the outside world.
Television
Remote Australian areas can get television with systems like MATV (Master Antenna Television). MATV allows remote residents to view free to air Australian television such as SBS and ABC as well as subscription TV like Ezestream. Ezestream is a digital television and entertainment system which allows customers to access movies after they have finished being shown in cinemas. It provides three channels of popular blockbusters to viewers. Movies are updated by changing the system cartridge every two weeks. This way, mine site workers can still keep up with the latest movie releases so no, they aren't forced to watch daytime TV from five years ago.
Radio
Remote locations in Australia have the capability to implement re-broadcasting FM radio systems.
Phone
One phone communication solution for people living in remote locations and Australian mine sites is satellite phones. Unlike a regular mobile phone, satellite phones connect to satellites orbiting Earth as opposed to phone towers on the ground. Satellite phones are more bulky than your average mobile (think 1990s mobile devices), but can be lifesavers for people in remote areas. Some satellite phones' coverage can even span the entire planet - find me a regular mobile phone that can do that.
Internet
Perhaps what most people who are considering moving to the outback (or have friends or family who are) worry about the most is internet access. After all, access to the internet guarantees the capability to contact people back home. This is where BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) comes in. BGAN allows access to the internet via portable terminals which can be used to connect a laptop to the web in remote areas. These terminals connect to a satellite which must be in the line of sight of the terminal. Higher end BGAN systems can offer download speeds of up to 492 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 400 kilobits per second. Because data has to travel such great distances, you can expect to experience some lag while using BGAN.
BGAN coverage is global except for the North and South poles, which means you can use it to connect to the internet from virtually any location on the planet.
There are other Internet solutions for remote locations, but BGAN remains the fastest portable terminal global data link option.
As we can see, there are various options of keeping in touch with people back home not just for those moving to a remote location in the Australian outback, but people in remote areas all over the world. In this day and age, there is virtually no place that's truly closed off and unreachable.
About the author
SAS Telecom ("SAS") is one of Australia's leading providers of communications infrastructure, specialising in high quality solutions for a wide range of rural and urban applications, including television, data, telephone and radio systems, as well as providing communications via satellite.
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
