Case study · Government infrastructure operators
LEO transition strategy for a NSW critical infrastructure operator
“Six-week strategy engagement produced a board-approved transition pathway for the 2026–2028 window, translating into a procurement framework that replaced Sky Muster dependence with a multi-constellation resilience architecture before the wholesale transition forced the client's hand.”
Client: NSW critical infrastructure operator (anonymised)
Challenge
The client operates distributed assets across regional NSW with SCADA and asset-management dependence on Sky Muster satellite connectivity. NBN Co's announcement of the Amazon Leo replacement, with commercial launch targeted for mid-2026, created a procurement forcing-function the client had not scoped, on an operational system the client could not afford to have degrade during transition.
The board asked for a strategy engagement addressing five interlocking decisions: the connectivity mix going forward, the commercial model the client would accept, the sovereign and resilience position, the operational technology integration architecture, and the procurement sequence.
Approach
The LEO Transition Strategy engagement ran over six weeks at fixed fee. The first two weeks assembled the current-state picture: connectivity inventory, asset-management system dependence, SCADA architecture, maintenance management integration, compliance reporting. The middle two weeks tested future-state options against the board's risk appetite: Amazon Leo-only pathway, multi-constellation routing pathway with LEO primary and alternative LEO secondary, and the hybrid fixed-LEO-mobile architecture. The final two weeks translated the selected pathway into a procurement architecture.
Throughout, the engagement treated connectivity, SCADA, and asset management as a single engineering problem rather than three separate procurements.
Outcome
The board approved the recommended pathway in March 2026. The procurement architecture engagement followed immediately, using the strategy as its starting input. The first market engagement concluded in the second quarter with a multi-constellation service contract that preserved the client's sovereign governance position. The client's SCADA availability through the transition has remained at target, with no degradation attributable to connectivity change.
Metrics
- 6 weeks fixed-fee strategy engagement
- 5 decisions resolved inside the transition window
- Board approval on the recommended pathway, March 2026
- Multi-constellation routing contract executed without SCADA degradation
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