Editing Telecommunications in Australia (section)

===Satellite===
The [[Overseas Telecommunications Commission]] (OTC) was established by Australia in August 1946 with responsibility for all international telecommunications services into, through and out of Australia.

In 1981 Aussat Pty Ltd was established as a GBE to operate domestic satellite telecommunication and broadcasting services. Aussat's charter restricted it from acting as a competitor to Telecom, including a prohibition on interconnecting public switched traffic with Telecom's network.

Proposals for a merger of Aussat and OTC (thereby permitting national delivery of telecommunication services in competition with Telecom) were rejected in favor of disposal of the satellite operator to a non-government entity that would be allowed to compete with Telecom.

Satellites are used to provide telecommunications services in very remote areas. These are primarily the [[Optus fleet of satellites|Optus satellites]] C1 D1 and D2.

There are also a number of [[Earth stations in Australia|satellite earth stations]], which provide access points into the Australian networks:
*[[Intelsat]] has 10 earth stations, 4 for the [[Indian Ocean]] and 6 for the [[Pacific Ocean]].
*[[Inmarsat]] has 2 earth stations, which serve the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions.
*[[Optus fleet of satellites|SingTel Optus Earth Stations]] has several earth stations located in the major cities.
*[[Sky Muster]] satellites operated as part of the National Broadband Network.
*[[Telstra]] has a totals of 48 earth stations, Located between sites in Sydney, Perth and [[Bendigo]] serving both the Australian Continent, Asia-Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean regions.