Australia's Great Linux-Based Satellite Network

yBshy4 writes "This article may interest the Slashdot folk. LinuxWorld Australia is reporting on Australia's largest satellite network, covering some 800,000 square kilometres, or most of the state of New South Wales, has gone live. The network consists of 75 Linux-based satellite routers that provide Wi-Fi (802.11b) connectivity to country towns that are unable to get DSL. The routers are engineered by Ursys and run Debian providing gateway services such as DNS and mail. According to the article, Ursys chose Debian 'because of its packaging support, which facilitates the ability to push updates to the routers remotely.' Ursys tried to use Windows but it was 'too unstable.' Hopefully this is an important step to providing better Internet access to regional areas across Australia. Anyone know of similar Internet access projects around the world?"

Re:My wallet just shriveled.

[rokzy]

plus 1GB is an annoying amount of data.

far too much for "just emailing the family".

far too little for downloads.

Re:My wallet just shriveled.

[ender81b]

Indeed, i've found (working at an isp) that 99.5% of people with broadband use less than 500 meg a month. Ah well, they got to make their money somehow.

Re:My wallet just shriveled.

[Gern0t]

But the article says:

"The satellite data service costs $3500 per month for 1GB per month and can be shared between 12 to 20 people for "normal" Web access."

3500/20 = 175 AUDs = 120 USD. This figure still looks expensive for just 1 GB traffic. But maybe an upgrade might be not to expensive.

All in all

"The Rural Link network is intended for country community groups, health facilities and council and community technology centres ..."

So it's not sold to the individual consumer but to public/private organizations. Of courese prices differ in this market segment.

Re:My wallet just shriveled.

[thogard]

I can get 2mb 1:1 from Melbourne from a number of providers for AU$3000/mo including tail charges. The costs of the .5 km to the major link is about $800/mo of it. Once your on the top end of filling up a T3, your up for about AU$200 per megabit (vs $150/mb in the US). On top of that I can get a 622 mb fiber link thanks to NDC & Telstra for about $3k/mo between to points in the cbd. The reason bandwidth costs so much is not enough people push the price down.