Indigo Telecom banishes the black spot

AUSTRALIA no longer has mobile phone black spots - at least, not if you subscribe to Indigo Telecom’s new satellite service.

Indigo launched in Brisbane last week with the promise of 100 per cent mobile coverage of Australia using the latest satellite technology.

An Australian company that leverages the technology and expertise of UK-based Indigo Telecom Group, Indigo Telecom Australia is aiming for ownership of telecommunications over the 72 per cent of Australia that doesn’t have 3G mobile service.

That embraces 617,000 people, Indigo calculates, plus another 400,000 who regularly travel into remote locations on business.

It also hopes to add to that million-strong potential client base those who regularly venture off the beaten track for travel or sport.

In fact, Indigo claims that its satellites cover two-thirds of the globe - and that users can use their units anywhere in this range with no global roaming cost penalty.

Those who have used satellite telephony in the past tend not to have fond memories of the experience, but Indigo chief executive David Ruddiman says the technology has come a long way in the past few years.

Satellite latency - the delay between one person saying something and another hearing it - has long been a flaw in satellite telephony.

Mr Ruddiman said that latency is still there, but it has been minimised to the point where it seldom interferes in the flow of conversation.

“Our latency is very slight - as good as some mobile phone calls if you were calling an overseas country.”

Nor are Indigo’s handsets the bricks of old.

“Our handsets are the size of many of the GSM handsets that we currently use. The form factor is really condensed, lightweight and very robust.”

Indigo has also pared back costs to put its handsets and call charges within the range of small businesses.

“With the choice of no contract and standard call charges of $1 per minute for Indigo-to-Indigo calls, and $1.30 per minute for Indigo-to-landline or GSM calls, Indigo’s call charges offer our customers pricing that is competitive when viewed against call plans of your traditional GSM mobile network operators,” Mr Ruddiman said.

Indigo also has in its favour the Federal government subsidies intended to boost communications capability in rural and remote Australia.

Australians living, working or travelling outside standard terrestrial mobile coverage areas can apply for the Federal Government’s Satellite Phone Subsidy Scheme, which subsidises up to 85 per cent of the retail price of a satellite handset, up to a maximum of $1000.

With the subsidy, the standard Indigo handset, the toughened Thuraya XT, costs $499.

Indigo offers two other units: the Thuraya SG, a dual-mode model that offers “seamless roaming” between GSM and satellite services with the convenience of a single SIM card and number; and the Thuraya IP, a small portable modem that supports up to 444 kilobits per second of streaming data.

Mr Ruddiman said the technology has been deployed and improved on for a decade by Indigo Telecom Group, a UK based company with offices in Africa, the Middle East and North America and coverage in 140 countries.

There are “hundreds of thousands” of subscribers globally, according to Mr Ruddiman, “many of them government, defence and enterprise who require critical comms, so the technology is well tested”.