New smart cards en route to satellite sites
October 8, 2007The Rural Health Education Foundation has sent out new smart cards to its Australia-wide network of more than 650 viewing sites to ensure ongoing access to Foundation satellite broadcasts.
Any site not receiving a new smart card by mid-October should contact the Foundation.
Optus Aurora platform smart cards
All smart cards used for reception of services from the Optus Aurora platform need to be official Optus smart cards. There have been some unofficial smart cards sold and these face difficulties as Optus regularly changes the operation of its conditional access system which is required to restrict access for certain services. Optus has recently upgraded its encryption system and is phasing out the existing one early in 2008.
The so called Version 1 Optus smart cards, whose serial number always starts with a 0 or a 2 will need to be replaced before early 2008. Only Version 5 smart cards are now being distributed by Optus and these will not have to be changed in order to continue to receive services from 2008.
Version 1 smart cards need to be replaced by the version 5 card recently sent to all satellite viewing sites by the Foundation. Please contact the Foundation with any questions