Keeping track of your communications
Optus satellites are backed and tracked by a vast ground network of four national and two international earth stations within Australia plus two offshore facilities:
- Australia (East Coast) - Belrose and Oxford Falls in Sydney
- Australia (West Coast) - Lockridge in Perth
- Australia (South Coast) - Adelaide
- New Zealand (North Coast) - Auckland
- Papua New Guinea - Lae
In these stations, experts provide round-the-clock network monitoring, support and troubleshooting. Besides satellite tracking and data delivery, the stations also coordinate launch missions.
Belrose has been the key operations centre for Optus satellite services since 1985 and controls the satellite fleet of B3, C1, D1 and D2 and the services they carry.
Belrose Satellite Operations comprises several main teams:
- Satellite Control - monitors the satellites and earth station status, launch support, Telemetry Tracking and Command maintenance.
- Satellite Support - spacecraft engineers, satellite software and technical specialists who monitor satellite health and performance; orbit dynamics; payload management; manoeuvre planning; launch support planning and software development and maintenance.
- Satellite Network Management Centre - includes the Broadcast Operations Centre, commissioning and acceptance of new Optus network elements as well as customer earth stations; surveillance, analysis and control of Broadnet network; satellite reservations centre and Aurora Smartcard Activations and Support.
- VSAT Operations - controls and manages the VSAT (very small aperture terminal) network; VSAT provisioning and activation; service assurance and management of alarm platforms; network engineering and technical support for VSAT and Aurora.
- Earth Station Support – provides operational support for ground communications infrastructure for Belrose, Oxford Falls and New Zealand; engineering and technical support for Mobilesat; CSM and alarm infrastructure.
Belrose also provides launch support and consulting services for non-Optus satellites, whose global operations encompass Norway, Sweden, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan.
Site Statistics
| Site Area | 27,900 sqm |
|---|---|
| Earth Station Buildings | 2 (1 main building; 1 equipment building) |
| Earth Station Power Consumption | 4150.46 MWh |
| Number of air conditioning plant | 26 |
| Total UPS consumption | 560 kVA. Capacity 825 kVA |
| UPS Type | 1 x Anton Piller Rotary at 625 kVA 1 x Chloride at 200 kVA |
| Diesel Plant | 3 Cummings (1MW each) |
| Total number Antennae | 44 (Tracking 8; Fixed 36) |
| Total Number HPA’s | 61 |
The Oxford Falls Earth Station was established in 1995. The facility is Optus' international gateway for voice, data and video services from international news gatherers as well as providing international communications for key Australian government departments and pay TV providers. The antennas at Oxford Falls are pointed to 2 Intelsat satellites, as well as New Skies and Asiasat satellites. The anntennas transmit services via the fibre ring through Belrose to Rosebery. The Broadcast Operations Centre at Belrose monitors the satellite delivered component of this international traffic, and other services continue through to Optus exchanges.
Site Statistics
| Site Area | 32,153 sqm |
|---|---|
| Earth Station Buildings | 2 (1 main building; 1 equipment building) |
| Earth Station Power Consumption | 923.84 MWh |
| Number of air conditioning plant | 8 |
| Total UPS consumption | 100 kVA. Capacity 225 kVA |
| UPS Type | 1 x Thycon at 225 kVA |
| Diesel Plant | 2 x Cummings at 325 kVA each |
| Total number Antennae | 8 (Tracking 4; Fixed 4) |
| Total Number HPA’s | 13 |
Lockridge Earth Station supports international and some domestic satellite services. It is manned 24 hours a day in recognition of its key role as a Tracking, Telemetry & Control facility.
Lockridge Earth Station Site Statistics
| Site Area | 100,000 sqm | |
|---|---|---|
| Earth Station Buildings | 5 (1 main building; 4 equipment buildings) | |
| Earth Station Power Consumption | 500 Kilowatts | |
| Number of air conditioning plant | 18 | |
| Total UPS consumption | 370 kVA. Capacity 600 kVA | |
| UPS Type | 1 x Anton Piller Rotary at 500KVA 1 x Thycon at 100KVA | |
| Diesel Plant | 2 x Cummings V12 at 650 kW each | |
| Total number Antennae | 21 (Tracking 12; Fixed 10) | |
| Total Number HPA’s | 46 | |
| Perth 1 | 9 | |
| Perth 2 | 6 | |
| Perth 4 | 2 | |
| Perth 5 | 2 | |
| SES Americom | 3 | |
| PAS 10 | 6 | |
| Leasat | 2 | |
| Apstar | 5 | |
| PAS 4 | 2 | |
| Intelsat | 9 | |
Site Statistics
| Site Area | 10,000 sqm |
|---|---|
| Earth Station Buildings | 3 small buildings, 1 main building |
| Earth Station Power Consumption | 50 Kilowatts |
| Number of air conditioning plant | 5 |
| Total UPS consumption | 30 kVA, Capacity 100 kVA |
| UPS Type | 1 x Thycon 100 kVA |
| Diesel Plant | 2 x Caterpillars, 400 kVA |
| Total number Antennae | 2 (Tracking 1; Fixed 2) |
| Total Number HPA’s | 2 KPA’s |
| Customer | Intelsat |
| Service | Intelsat 10 TT&C backup site |
Site Statistics
| Site Area | 250 sqm |
|---|---|
| Earth Station Buildings | 1 equipment room |
| Earth Station Power Consumption | 20 kW |
| Number of air conditioning plant | 2 |
| Total UPS consumption | 15 kVA, Capacity 30 kVA |
| UPS Type | 1 x Thycon 30 kVA |
| Diesel Plant | n/a |
| Total number Antennae | 1 (Tracking) |
| Total Number HPA’s | 2 |