The National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) has announced it has selected Roma, in Queensland’s western Darling Downs, as the host of a new satellite ground station that will play a crucial role in providing remote communities with the NBN satellite service.

 

NBN Co plans to construct a single-storey building with two 13.5-metre diameter satellite dishes on a site on Kimbler Road, approximately four kilometres east of Roma. 

 

 “Roma has experienced a great deal of progress and development over the years. This initiative should help bring south west Queensland into the 21st Century. We look forward to being part of an important national project to connect Australians living in rural and remote parts of the country to the NBN,” Mayor of Maranoa Regional Council Cr Robert Lougnan said.

 

The satellite ground station at Roma is one of 10 such facilities nationwide that will support the NBN Co’s Long Term Satellite Service, which is expected to begin operating in 2015. Two NBN communications satellites are currently under construction and will deliver wholesale speeds of up to 12Mbps.*

 

Matt Dawson, NBN Co’s Program Director, Satellites, said: “Roma is ideally situated to play a central role in delivering better broadband to the outback. It has the ideal climate and is close to reliable power and other infrastructure including the NBN’s core fibre transit network– the main fibre transmission lines linking towns and our exchanges.”