Satellite Internet Blog

Telecom Namibia selects Gilat for SkyEdge II broadband satellite network

2011-04-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

Telecom Namibia has selected Gilat to provide a SkyEdge II Broadband Satellite Network to serve various locations throughout Namibia. The new, IP oriented and higher capacity network will replace legacy equipment and enable the connection of new sites to broadband services.

According to the company, the implementation of the 600-site Sky Edge II network commenced in mid-2010 and is in final stages of completion. Telecom Namibia will use the SkyEdge II network to deliver Internet and VoIP services to residential and enterprise customers.

Laban Hiwilepo, general manager of Network Provisioning and Assurance, Telecom Namibia, said: "Gilat has been a long term partner for Telecom Namibia. Their track record in product leadership and service support was a key consideration in our selection process.

"By upgrading our network to Gilat's SkyEdge II VSAT platform, we aim to establish a more bandwidth efficient infrastructure and improve our satellite capacity utilization, enabling us to expand our customer footprint and deliver broadband access to even more locations throughout the country."

ViaSat Formalizes Agreement with JetBlue Airways for Ka-band In-flight High-Speed Internet Service

2011-04-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

ViaSat Inc. and JetBlue Airways have reached a definitive agreement to deploy the first Ka-band commercial aviation broadband network using ViaSat-1, the world's highest capacity Ka-band satellite. The agreement formalizes the memorandum of understanding, entered into last September, in which the companies announced their intention to create the industry's best in-flight broadband for commercial aviation, using ViaSat's innovative Ka-band satellite technology. Ka-band has the ability to offer higher transmission speeds, more bandwidth for each customer, and more attractive airtime pricing than other high-speed in-flight Internet access alternatives. The agreement includes an order valued at over $30 million for Ka-band airborne terminals and services to outfit the JetBlue fleet of more than 170 aircraft.

"Over the past few months we have worked closely with JetBlue and LiveTV to finalize a user-friendly and scalable satellite network for in-flight broadband," said Mark Dankberg, ViaSat CEO and chairman. "We believe the economics of Ka-band will create an environment that will engage more passengers and offer a broader range of online experiences in the air."

Under the agreement, ViaSat will provide satellite broadband terminals for installation on the airline's Airbus A320 and Embraer E190 aircraft along with two-way transmission bandwidth services using the WildBlue satellite broadband network, including the high-capacity ViaSat-1 satellite. JetBlue will be the first airline to receive the ViaSat Ka-band system, and those initial installations are expected to be quickly followed by deployment onboard the Continental Airlines fleet, as announced on March 22 by JetBlue's wholly-owned subsidiary, LiveTV, and subject to final agreement. Installations are expected to begin in 2012.

"We believe JetBlue, LiveTV, and ViaSat make a great team, enabling our customers to stay connected, informed and entertained while in the air," said Robin Hayes, JetBlue chief commercial officer. "Together, we will introduce a product that will give customers true social networking connectivity at altitude – a 21st Century product that will scale with the ever-increasing reliance we all have on our personal communications devices. We will also have the flexibility to design content and price-points around customer's needs, whether that be emailing or streaming movies, at a much more competitive price point than today's ground-to-air products."

The system, the first of its kind for commercial aviation, must be certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration. LiveTV will manage the certification, integrate the ViaSat broadband and related components onboard the aircraft, and provide the Wi-Fi enabled services into the cabin.

"We have been waiting for the right technology to deliver the highest speed and lowest cost connectivity to an aircraft," said Glenn Latta, president of LiveTV. "Our partnership with ViaSat will deliver a system that puts the airline back in control, allowing airlines the freedom to bundle and price the service in ways consistent with their brand."

The in-flight Ka-band system being developed for JetBlue is also a key step in ViaSat's expansion of its successful Yonder® global mobile satellite network to Ka-band in key international markets. ViaSat is adding capacity from regional partners to the network, such as Eutelsat in Europe and Yahsat in the Middle East, which will be accessible to a rapidly growing base of aviation, maritime, and government subscribers now getting high-speed access from Ku-band satellites.

Hughes launching Jupiter satellite in 2012, may actually provide broadband internet

2010-12-14T12:03:00.000-08:00

If you're stuck in an area that's not served by an existing broadband source, your options for hopping on the world wide web at a rate hastier than 56Kbps are limited. Severely limited. The go-to alternative for the past few years has been HughesNet, a satellite-based "broadband" service that offers users 2Mbps down / 300Kbps up for a staggering $120 per month. It's definitely a last resort, and many satellite gamers have kvetched that triple-digit ping times have all but destroyed their yearning to catch a round of Counter-Strike before hitting the sack.

If all goes well, however, this entire situation could be up-ended by 2012. Hughes just landed the financing it needs to launch a $400 million Jupiter satellite into orbit, theoretically giving it over 100 Gigabits per second of capacity and enabling it to seriously expand its customer base. Once launched, consumers could be offered download rates as high as 20Mbps, and while that's far from impressive, it's definitely a step-up for those positioned in bandwidth-starved locales. Until then, it looks like you'll still need to Photoshop your speed tests to convince yourself you're really on a high-speed connection. Jupiter™, Hughes’ next generation, Ka-band, 100+ Gbps, high-throughput satellite system. Planned for launch in 2012, Jupiter will have 100 times the capacity of conventional Ku-band satellites, and will enable Hughes to continue its leadership in delivering high-speed services to enterprises, government agencies, and consumers, now with over 500,000 subscribers in North America.

A technical requirement for setting up satellite Internet at one's home or business in North America is that the satellite dish for sending and receiving signals must have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. That is because the satellites are in a geostationary, or fixed-position, orbit 22,000 miles (36,000 km) over the equator. (This requirement is one more reason why satellite Internet does not lend itself to urban landscapes.)

In-flight Internet Coming to an Intercontinental Flights

2010-11-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

Lots of big airlines have grabbed onto the in-flight-Internet trend. Because most of the newcomers are heavily involved with intercontinental travel, they're installing satellite rather than ground-based systems. Within the next year or so, you'll be able to connect to the Internet on a blue ribbon list of major intercontinental players, and woe to those competitors that lag.

Nine North American lines are in various stages of completing installation of the Gogo system for domestic travel: Air Canada, AirTran, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, United, US Airways, and Virgin America. Gogo, which relies on ground-based transmitter/receiver stations, seems to be robust and probably offers good Wi-Fi performance at the lowest cost. But because it's ground-based, it can't connect over the oceans. As far as I know, Gogo is the only ground-based system active in the marketplace, and I'd be surprised if anyone else tries to displace it in North America.

The only way to get Internet access over extended water bodies is via satellite, and a handful of satellite operators have already cut deals with many of the world's top airlines:

* JetBlue just signed up with ViaSat for its entire fleet, with service starting in 2012. Probably, JetBlue wants to be able to offer Internet connection on its increasing number of overwater flights in the Caribbean area.
* Southwest has started to outfit its planes with the Row44 system. It remains to be seen how Southwest will rationalize its 737 fleet with the Gogo-equipped AirTran fleet after the acquisition.
* So far, the most widely accepted satellite system is OnAir, boasting a customer list that includes Air Asia, British Airways, Egypt Air, Emirates, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, Singapore, TAP Portugal, and Wataniya. Some are already operating, on some planes; others will be installed over the next two years.
* Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa have signed up for Panasonic's Exconnect system, and Qatar Airways opted for the TopSeries system from Thales.

So far, none of the major intercontinental lines has announced satellite Internet pricing for flights to/from the United States. As I noted in the earlier report, you can buy Gogo access through a variety of "passes," ranging from $4.95 for a single short flight to$34.95 a month for unlimited access on all participating airlines. Presumably, transoceanic satellite service will be priced near these levels or higher. Also, some airlines will likely offer satellite Wi-Fi "free" to travelers in premium cabins, travelers on premium tickets, and top-level frequent flyers.

Noticeably absent from the list of satellite adopters are any big domestic U.S. airlines for their overseas services. Although the jury is still out on how many travelers will use satellite Internet, my guess is that it will become quite popular, and that lack of overwater service will be still another competitive difficulty for U.S. lines that already suffer from chronic low-satisfaction ratings.

Another complication: So far, none of the big three alliances seems to have standardized on one system. Within Star Alliance, for example, Singapore is with OnAir while Lufthansa has gone with Exconnect. Incompatibilities like this among alliance members could become vexatious if travelers have to buy into the various systems separately. Presumably, these lines will work out the details.

Regardless of technology or supplier, I'm pretty sure that, this time, in-flight Internet will catch on in a big way. The ability to do online searches, business, entertainment, email, and all those other Internet tasks while you're stuck on an airplane would seem to be extremely attractive to a large number of travelers. If you like the idea of spending some of those boring flight hours online, you'll probably have lots of choices, starting next year.

Would you pay for Internet on intercontinental flights? Share your thoughts by submitting a comment below!

iDirect Unveils Software Upgrade for Evolution Platform

2010-07-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

VT iDirect has released iDX 2.1, the latest software upgrade to its Evolution platform. iDirect’s Evolution line is based on the DVB-S2 transmission standard with Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM). iDX 2.1 aims to increase DVB-S2/ACM efficiency gains through faster data processing speeds, while introducing network scalability improvements and new functionality to iDirect’s group quality of service technology. iDirect is a world leader in satellite-based IP communications technology.

With the release of iDX 2.0, iDirect has integrated 2D 16-State FEC coding technology into its overall platform to give customers an increase of up to 20 percent in their inbound IP throughput without sacrificing link performance.

“To date, iDirect partners have launched more than 200 Evolution networks. In addition, the world’s top five satellite operators and major telecom carriers have now deployed or are migrating to Evolution,” iDirect said in a company statement.

Why you should avoid satellite Internet

2010-07-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Satellite internet is often called the better alternative, and that it has so many wonderful features and ways to save you money. In all reality, the only people who should be bothering with satellite Internet are those who live in the middle of nowhere and have no other option, besides dial-up, for high speed Internet. Here's why:

#1 Reason to Avoid Satellite Internet: Usage Limits

The big names in satellite Internet, HighesNet and Wild Blue, both have usage limits. That means you can only use the Internet so much per day, or month. You have a set amount of downloading and uploading. If you go over that amount, say goodbye to your Internet.

No big deal, you say? You don't download movies or music so you'll have no problem with usage limits. Don't jump to conclusions. Downloading includes playing games online; Farmville on Facebook will suck up your usage in no time. Downloading also includes every single time you open and close a web page. Basically everything you do online takes up some of your usage limit.

When do get the usage you used one day back? For Wild Blue, generally after a month. Don't forget, though, that the day your usage disappears, more is being added on for that day's use. Every day you are removing usage and heaping more on. HughesNet is daily, meaning you get full usage back after one day.

Services like Wild Blue like to forget to mention usage limits to the unsuspecting. At least until it is too late and your Internet has slowed down to snail mode. They do allow you to check your limit, but the little online graph does little to help you understand or keep track. It would be nice to know when you spent a huge day downloading so you can keep an eye on when it will drop off the usage.

#2 Reason to Avoid Satellite Internet: Cost

Cable Internet can offer you those deals where you get phone, Internet, and TV for one price. With satellite Internet that isn't so much an option. Directv does have a deal with Wild Blue, but they just combine your bill. With satellite Internet you are paying more for limited use. Wild Blue's middle plan of 12,000mb use a month costs $70. At HughesNet, you will pay $70-$80 for 425mb a day. Most cable companies will offer you bundles that include phone, Internet, and TV for a discounted price.

Also, if you accidentally go over your usage limit you will still be paying for it while you wait for the usage to drop down to usable quality.

Of course, that doesn't include the set up costs. With Wild Blue, expect to pay at least $200 to have the satellite installed and up and running. They will even charge you for a pole to put it on. With HughesNet, you can expect to pay up to $400 or more. They offer rebates to lower the cost, but how many people bother with those? All of them require a contract of 18 months to 2 years, making them difficult to get rid of if you decide you don't like satellite Internet.

#3 Reason to Avoid Satellite Internet: The Weather

Anyone with satellite TV knows the feeling of watching your favorite show or sports event, and then it suddenly starts to rain. You hope the rain stops or stays light, while you stare at the screen, just waiting for those evil lines to distort the screen and then your show disappears altogether. All you can do is wait for the rain to stop or slow down.

Expect the exact same thing with satellite Internet. Rain, clouds, and heavy snow will all affect your Internet. You can lose service completely until the weather clears. That means, if you depend on the satellite Internet for your phone service, you will be out of luck. Of course, this helps you lower your usage for a month from then, but does little if you are working or watching a movie. Also, you're still paying that huge monthly fee for Internet you can't use.

Citrix Innovation Award 2010 for satellite-based IT solution XWARP™

2010-04-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

ND SatCom, an SES ASTRA company, is on the short list for the Citrix Innovation Award 2010 with its satellite-based IT solution XWARP™. The award winner will be announced during the Citrix Synergy event in San Francisco from May 12-14, 2010. XWARP™ is the first satellite-based IT solution which offers companies with a distributed workforce or their IT service providers, almost latency-free software performance by separating the user interface from the application running on the server. XWARP™ enables satellite internet connections to run at LAN speed with the lowest satellite bandwidth consumption, even in the most remote areas.

This is an extremely efficient and high performance product that provides responsiveness that is better than many internal, LAN-based SAP implementations without using a lot of satellite bandwidth. XWARP™ incorporates years of network optimization background and a relentless focus on end-user experience from Citrix to deliver one of the most compelling and innovative satellite-based offerings.

ND SatCom introduced hosted virtual desktops for centralized management and delivery of its applications to branch office employees, and hosted Blade PC desktops for its CAD engineers, providing the superior performance of HDX technology for graphics-intensive applications. Additionally, ND SatCom completely replaced its existing server virtualization environment with Citrix.

Reliable Satellite Internet Services for Soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq

2010-03-23T17:41:00.000-07:00

For the U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, lack of poor communication infrastructure poses lots of problems to communicate back home to their families and anywhere in the globe. Satellite Internet providers are committed to provide high speed internet services to cater the needs of communicating them back home with their respective families.

Their services offer two-way high-speed Internet access with no phone lines or any dial-up modem. It’s always online, ADSL quality and affordable. The offered satellite system is ideally suited for all types of broadband requirements such as Internet, browsing, etc.

Some of them understands the needs and have taken it a step further whereby providing free satellite internet systems for the military troops, soldiers, marines in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They can share the internet connection with other users via WiFi or a basic LAN. This is an ideal solution for soldiers with a laptop in hand and connecting to Internet in their camps.

Gilat enters deal to acquire RaySat

2010-03-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. announced plans to acquire U.S. company and military satellite communications technologies developer Raysat Antenna Systems.

Israel's company Gilat says it entered into a deal to purchase RAS, a developer of mobile satellite antenna technologies, to strengthen its footprint in the security and defense satellite communications market.

Under the acquisition deal worth approximately $25 million, the U.S. unit of RAS will become part of Gilat's Spacenet Integrated Government Solutions subsidiary. Officials say the acquisition is expected to be completed before October.

"With this acquisition, we plan to bring together two innovative leaders in the industry with complementary technologies," Amiram Levinberg, Gilat chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"We believe that this partnership will lead to a new level of high-speed, highly mobile communications for the military, emergency response organizations and other markets with a need for fast, flexible, on the move communications."

Gilat Announces Integrated Satellite On The Move solutions

2010-03-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. and Orbit Technology Group announced today that they have completed integration for Satellite Communications On-The-Move (SOTM) solutions to serve a wide range of industries.

The new SOTM solutions provided by Gilat includes its advanced VSAT platforms with Orbit's Stabilized Satellite Communication Systems. These serve the complex mobile communications requirements of the ground and maritime markets.

Gilat is a leading provider of products and services for satellite-based communications networks. Orbit is a recognized leader in the development of advanced solutions for Stabilized Mobile Satellite Communication and Tracking Antennas.

Recently, the integrated Gilat-Orbit SOTM solution was successfully deployed by Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the national railway company of Kazakhstan. Gilat provided the integrated solution to enable the delivery of broadband wireless services to train passengers, representing the first satellite-based broadband service for train passengers in the region.

Gilat's SkyEdge II VSATs together with Orbit's maritime antennas were also deployed on offshore oil platforms, vessels and exploration sites operated by China's CNOOC Oil Base Group.

Joshua Levinberg, Executive Vice President, Corporate Business Development & Strategy, said, "We see the SOTM market as a growing market and an important building block in our growth strategy. Orbit has proven to be an excellent partner for efficient solutions in the various SOTM markets. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Orbit and to providing integrated solutions that meet the demanding requirements of these important markets."

Avi Cohen, Orbit's President and CEO, said, "The market for SOTM solutions is growing rapidly. The integration of our Stabilized Satellite Communication Mobile SatCom systems with Gilat VSAT technology creates an excellent SOTM solution for key markets. In addition, Gilat's vast global network of experienced professionals delivers the dedicated support required to ensure the success of our joint solution."

Hughes HN9400 - High Capacity, Dual Ka/Ku-Band Platform

2010-03-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Spearheading the industry's move to high capacity Ka-band satellite systems, Hughes will unveil the HN9400, the newest member of its market-leading family of routers, designed to deliver the maximum performance on today's Ku- or Ka-band platforms, while being future-proof for next generation, high-throughput systems.

The HN9400 is fully compliant with the highly successful IPoS/DVB-S2/ACM industry standard, supporting up to 60 Mbps of throughput on the forward channel. Incorporating advanced adaptive LDPC coding on the return channel provides up to 20 percent improvement in link performance, thereby enabling very efficient use of satellite capacity. Capable of operating in Ka- or Ku-bands and with upstream rates of up to 3 Mbps, the HN9400 is an ideal platform to deliver even the most bandwidth-demanding services on today's satellites, while being future-proof for next-generation, high-throughput systems.

See all the Hughes service and technology innovations at Booth 1203 during the Satellite 2010 Conference, March 15-18, at the Gaylord National Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland.

How To Hack Satellite Internet

2010-02-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

A Spanish researcher demos new satellite-hijacking tricks with cybercriminal potential.

Satellites can bring a digital signal to places where the Internet seems like a miracle: off-the-grid desert solar farms, the Arctic or an aircraft carrier at sea. But in beaming data to and from the world's most remote places, satellite Internet may also offer its signal to a less benign recipient: any digital miscreant within thousands of miles.

In a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, Spanish cybersecurity researcher Leonardo Nve presented a variety of tricks for gaining access to and exploiting satellite Internet connections. Using less than $75 in tools, Nve, a researcher with security firm S21Sec, says that he can intercept Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) signals to get free high-speed Internet. And while that's not a particularly new trick--hackers have long been able to intercept satellite TV or other sky-borne signals--Nve also went a step further, describing how he was able to use satellite signals to anonymize his Internet connection, gain access to private networks and even intercept satellite Internet users' requests for Web pages and replace them with spoofed sites.

"What's interesting about this is that it's very, very easy," says Nve. "Anyone can do it: phishers or Chinese hackers … it's like a very big Wi-Fi network that's easy to access."

In a penetration test on a client's network, Nve used a Skystar 2 PCI satellite receiver card, a piece of hardware that can be bought on eBay ( EBAY - news - people ) for $30 or less, along with open source Linux DVB software applications and the network data analysis or "sniffing" tool Wireshark.

Exploiting that signal, Nve says he was able to impersonate any user connecting to the Internet via satellite, effectively creating a high-speed, untraceable anonymous Internet connection that that can be used for nefarious online activities.

Nve also reversed the trick, impersonating Web sites that a satellite user is attempting to visit by intercepting a Domain Name System (DNS) request--a request for an Internet service provider (ISP) to convert a spelled out Web site name into the numerical IP address where it's stored--and sending back an answer faster than the ISP. That allows him to replace a Web site that a user navigates to directly with a site of his choosing, creating the potential for undetectable cybercrime sites that steal passwords or installs malicious software.

In his tests on the client's network, Nve says he was also able to hijack signals using GRE or TCP protocols that enterprises use to communicate between PCs and servers or between offices, using the connections to gain access to a corporation or government agency's local area network.

The Barcelona-based researcher tested his methods on geosynchronous satellites aimed at Europe, Africa and South America. But he says there's little doubt that the same tricks would work on satellites facing North America or anywhere else.

What makes his attacks possible, Nve says, is that DVB signals are usually left unencrypted. That lack of simple security, he says, stems from the logistical and legal complications of scrambling the signal, which might make it harder to share data among companies or agencies and--given that a satellite signal covers many countries--could run into red tape surrounding international use of cryptography. "Each [country] can have its own law for crypto," says Nve. "It's easier not to have encryption at the DVB layer."

Nve isn't the first to show the vulnerability of supposedly secure satellite connections. John Walker, a British satellite enthusiast, told the BBC in 2002 that he could watch unencrypted NATO video feeds from surveillance sorties in the Balkans. And the same lack of encryption allowed insurgents to hack into the video feed of unmanned U.S. drone planes scouting Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal reported in December.

In fact, the techniques that Nve demonstrated are probably known to other satellite hackers but never publicized, says Jim Geovedi, a satellite security researcher and consultant with the firm Bellua in Indonesia. He compares satellite hacking to early phone hacking or "phreaking," a practice that's not well protected against but performed by only a small number of people worldwide. "This satellite hacking thing is still considered blackbox knowledge," he wrote in an e-mail to Forbes. "I believe there are many people out there who conduct similar research. They may have some cool tricks but have kept them secret for ages."

At last year's Black Hat D.C. conference, British cybersecurity researcher Adam Laurie demonstrated how he intercepts satellite signals with techniques similar to Nve, using a DreamBox satellite receiver and Wireshark. But Nve argues that his method is far cheaper--Laurie's DreamBox setup cost around $750--and that he's the first to demonstrate satellite signal hijacking rather than mere interception.

"I'm not just talking about watching TV," says Nve. "I'm talking about doing some very scary things."

Arctic satellite feeds suffer sun transit outages

2010-02-25T16:16:00.000-08:00

Twice-a-year communication glitches arrive again. Long distance telephone, internet and satellite television users throughout most of the Arctic will once again suffer short, daily outages due to the twice-a-year sun transit problem.

Telesat Canada’s sun transit calculator shows that for Iqaluit, short service interruptions of between eight and 15 minutes will occur every day between Feb. 23 and March 4, around 2:30 p.m. each day. In Nunavik, interference starts Feb. 24 and will occur every day between 3:18 p.m. and 3:26 p.m., Saima Mark, the assistant director of the Kativik Regional Government’s administration department told the KRG council this week.

Sun transit interruptions occur when the sun crosses the equator and aligns behind a satellite, overwhelming satellite signals with thermal energy. The phenomenon occurs annually for about two weeks during the spring and fall equinoxes. The sun transit problem affects all communication systems carried by satellites, including internet, long distance telephone, television, debit card payment systems and other services.

Despite the temporary problems due to the solar transit, workers at the KRG who run the Nunavik’s Tamaani internet service said bandwidth for all users has doubled since the beginning of 2010, and that the minimum speed has increased to 256 kilobits from 128 kilobits. But this is still much less than the two megabytes per second that Quebec wants to see as the minimum standard throughout the province.

“We don’t really have high speed internet,” Maggie Emudluk, the chairperson of the KRG. “We are still lagging behind as compared to the south.” This is mainly due to the cost of using satellites for internet communications, which means 30 megabytes of transmission that would cost $65 in the South cost $1.2 million in Nunavik, Emudluk said.

ViaSat To Buy Internet Provider WildBlue

2009-10-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

ViaSat Inc. (VSAT) agreed to acquire satellite-Internet provider WildBlue Communications Inc. for $568 million in cash and stock in a deal that comes as Liberty Media Corp., owner of 37% of WildBlue, is reordering its holdings.

WildBlue, which provides high-speed Internet access largely to rural areas, is more than one-third owned by a Liberty Media tracking stock, Liberty Entertainment (LMDIA). Those operations are in the process of being spun off completely from Liberty Media, a deal which many have expected will ease a potential acquisition of DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV). Liberty Media owns 52% of the largest satellite-television provider in the U.S.

ViaSat, a provider of satellite and other wireless-communication products, said WildBlue has over 400,000 customers. The deal paves the way for an expansion of WildBlue's broadband service using ViaSat technology, including a ViaSat-1 satellite scheduled to launch in early 2011, ViaSat said. WildBlue developed its satellite in 1997 and launched its commercial service in 2005.

By joining forces, the two companies seek to reduce the long-term costs and risks of expanding Internet access via satellite. The spread of these services has been impeded by hefty start-up costs, as well as technical challenges that historically made it hard for satellites to compete with cable- and phone-based rivals on price and quality.

Under the agreement, expected to close between January and April, ViaSat will issue $125 million of stock, within a range of 4.3 million to 5.7 million shares. The company has about 32 million outstanding. It will also pay $443 million of cash, but the cost will be $68 million less when accounting for the cash on WildBlue's books. The company will need financing to pay for the cash portion of the takeover. WildBlue's owners, which also include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Intelsat Ltd. and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, will be able to nominate one person to ViaSat's board.

The company reported improved results in its latest quarter amid what ViaSat Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Dankberg in August called a "robust" order pipeline.

ViaSat's new satellite will have nearly all of its capacity aimed at regions where Wild Blue is most capacity-constrained, including large parts of the Eastern U.S. and sections of the West Coast. While initially targeting millions of rural customers for whom satellites currently are the only feasible way to access the Internet, the expanded service will eventually also compete head-to-head with broadband services provided by cable-television and telecom rivals in suburban areas. According to some ViaSat projections, the combined entity could attract as many as 35,000 customers a month. That would be a substantially higher rate than during Wild Blue's first months of operation.

iDirect introduces DVB-S2 Evolution Modem X3

2009-09-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

iDirect introduces the new line of DVB-S2 enabled sat modem under the Evolution series X3. This modem also enables cheaper service price under the shared iDirect service.

VAR companies are launching iDirect's DVB-S2 Evolution Modem. With this modem, we offer a new solution for internet via satellite which will allow increased bandwidth efficiency. This new DVB Evolution product with adaptive coding and modulation will allow increased availability to customers.

iDirect’s Evolution product line by iDirect is built on the DVB-S2 standard with Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM). The new product suite comprises iDirect’s Evolution routers, line cards and iDX software. Service providers can leverage this product line to build next-generation satellite networks that significantly improve bandwidth efficiency and lower operating costs.

New Inclined Orbit Satellite Tracking Algorithm

2009-06-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

C-COM has developed a proprietary inclined orbit satellite tracking algorithm which will provide C-COM customers the ability to use inclined orbit satellites for their space segment needs.

Inclined orbit satellites are end of life satellites that may have an additional useful life span from 6 month to a few years, however they are no longer in their prescribed controlled orbit due to lack of fuel.

From the point of view of a satellite owner, the economics of this situation are compelling. On one hand, the revenue derived from leasing transponder time on an inclined-orbit satellite is considerably less than the revenue which could be realized from a truly geostationary satellite. On the other hand, propellent usage is cut dramatically, thereby extending the useful life of the satellite, often by several years. The potential revenue to be derived from this extended life more than offsets the revenue lost through reduced transponder pricing. It comes as no surprise, then, that many satellite owners have allowed their geostationary satellites to drift into inclined irbits.

An inclined-orbit satellite poses a problem for the end user: the earth station antenna must track the satellite. For this purpose, the antenna must be equipped with a dual-axis steerable mount and a tracking controller. A dual-axis steerable mount is a motorized mount which can be moved independently about two axes: east-west and up-down. Those moves are program-controlled. This type of controller mathematically calculates the pointing angles to the satellite and moves the antenna accordingly. Calculations are based on program data entered into the controller.

This type of controller is capable of moving the antenna continuously, rather than in a series of steps. This technique is advantageous in low-signal situations where any change in AGC voltage would result in degraded signal quality.

With this feature enabled, the iNetVu controller will ensure that the mobile antenna maintains its maximum peaked signal on the configured inclined orbit satellite irrespective of their inclination angle. They have decided to develop this proprietary inclined orbit application for iNetVu controllers based on demand from the customers. This added feature will provide existing and future customers with the ability to use any inclined orbit satellite, should there be one available to them, and take advantage of the lower cost space segment offered over these satellites.

ViaSat gambles on future of broadband satellite

2009-05-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

ViaSat gambles on future of broadband satellite, hoping to draw rural customers with no access to high-speed Internet service. It's been 16 months since ViaSat Chief Executive Mark Dankberg unveiled plans to build a $400 million broadband satellite – calling it the biggest growth opportunity the Carlsbad company might ever see. And it's been 16 months since the company's shares tanked, falling 29 percent the week after the announcement.

Building its own satellite is a swing-for-the-fences strategy that could transform the company but could also strike out. Today, ViaSat has invested $100 million and counting toward the satellite, which is under construction at Space Systems/Loral in the Bay Area. It's on schedule to launch in about 20 months. ViaSat's effort to build its own satellite rests on a theory that is somewhat unproved: Are millions of rural households outside the reach of cable or DSL willing to pay the monthly fee and installation costs for high-speed Internet service via satellite? The answer is not as obvious as it might seem in the Digital Age. Current satellite-based Internet providers have less than 1 percent of the market share of total broadband subscribers in the United States.

When the Pew Internet and American Life Project asked households in 2007 and 2008 why they hadn't signed up for high-speed Internet, more than half said they didn't see the point. Price was the second-largest factor for not subscribing. The Obama administration, however, definitely thinks there's a need. The economic stimulus package includes $7.2 billion to give all Americans high-speed Internet access – especially those in rural areas where cable or DSL isn't available. That's why ViaSat and the satellite industry have become more vocal recently in touting their broadband programs. They want to make sure that satellite has a seat at the table with all the other technologies competing for stimulus funds.

The monthly cost for satellite broadband isn't much higher than for cable or DSL. It's more the upfront costs. Upfront fees vary, and specials can lower them. But to get satellite broadband service, households need a dish and modem installed. While the equipment can be purchased or leased, upfront costs and installation often range from $200 to $600.

Although ViaSat's satellite is nearly two years from launch, the company hopes that ViaSat 1 will benefit from federal programs encouraging expanded broadband access. ViaSat 1will be a new generation of satellite aiming to have a tenfold increase in the broadband capacity compared with existing satellites from competitors WildBlue Communications and Hughes. That translates into faster service for customers. ViaSat1 is proposed at 100 gigabits per second total capacity. It promises to deliver download speeds to Internet subscribers of between 2 megabits to 10 megabits per second.

WildBlue and Hughes, the largest companies offering satellite Internet service in the United States, each has about 10 gigabits of capacity. Existing satellite plans offer download speeds of 512 kilobits to 1.5 megabits per second for basic service. Faster speeds are available, but the monthly fees are well over $100. Viasat is proposing to provide just a lot more bandwidth than either of the established services, that's everything in a nutshell about what the differences are. While some Wall Street analysts see promise in ViaSat's satellite venture, it's an expensive gamble. There could be technical delays, which can quickly jolt costs skyward. Moreover, the satellite industry is littered with epic money-burning failures. And it takes years to build a satellite – leaving room for competing technologies such as WiMax or fourth-generation cellular networks to gain a foothold in rural markets. But perhaps the biggest risk is whether demand really exists for high-speed Internet outside of regions covered by DSL and cable at proposed prices. Analysts estimate that 10 million to 15 million households in the United States don't have access to broadband through cable or DSL. Existing satellite Internet providers combined have only 875,000 subscribers out of the 106 million households with broadband. There's certainly not a large percentage (of the population) in US that can't be reached by cable or DSL. Satellite has been available to fill that gap, but the problem has been the pricing has not been attractive. They haven't really established a huge user base.

Basically the market is constrained. It seems WildBlue does not have much capacity left in high-demand areas. Neither does Hughes. One question is how big would the market be if you went in with 10 times the bandwidth those guys have? ViaSat believes that it would be much bigger – particularly if it can offer high speeds at roughly the same costs. It expects retail prices for the service will cost about $50 a month for a basic plan, which is competitive with existing broadband services today. The company does not want to sell directly to consumers. It plans to be a wholesale provider of bandwidth to Internet service providers, or ISPs. WildBlue could be a potential ISP partner. So could rural telephone companies and satellite TV providers.

Founded in 1986, ViaSat spun out of San Diego wireless pioneer Linkabit. Its bread-and-butter business is making complex communications equipment for the military, such as modems that fit in the nose cones of fighter jets to allow pilots to see data from the battlefield.

Eutelsat's ToowayT satellite Internet service

2009-05-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

Eutelsat Communications, the European leader for satellite communications, has launched its revolutionary new Tooway™ consumer Internet access service in the UK making Lord Carter's Digital Britain vision of universal internet access a reality.

Using satellite technology available from just £29.99 per month, Tooway™ can now offer the UK's rural homes, and those in slowband areas, access to 2 megabit per second (2Mbps) broadband services without the need for any existing telephone line. Tooway™ can deliver broadband for all, as called for by Lord Carter in the Digital Britain interim report published in January this year. The service is also triple play-ready, allowing distributors to offer additional TV and IP telephony services using the same equipment. Tooway™ will be delivered in the UK via a network of certified local distributors, including Bentley Walker Satellite Internet Solutions, Avonline Ltd in Bristol, Satellite Solutions Worldwide Ltd in Oxfordshire and Remote Data Services Ltd in Perthshire, Scotland. The Tooway™ solution consists of a small satellite dish and a modem connected to the PC via Ethernet, giving customers Internet access following a simple installation.

According to Broadband think tank Point Topic large sections of the UK are still without the minimum 2Mbps broadband speed Lord Carter recommends. Around 15 per cent of homes in the East Midlands are currently out of range, as are almost 16 per cent of homes in the North East, nearly 20 per cent in the South West, and around 14 per cent in the South East. The traditional route of extending cable connections capable of running the service to these homes would be expensive and well beyond the 2012 deadline set by Lord Carter.

"Tooway will help make Lord Carter's vision for Digital Britain a reality by revolutionising the consumer market for satellite Internet access," said Arduino Patacchini, Director of Multimedia and Value Added Services at Eutelsat. "Tooway™ is able to offer true broadband access with total independence from existing infrastructures. It has the technology and capacity to become the definitive, low-cost solution for geographical areas that are affected by the digital divide."

Tooway is the first satellite two-way broadband service offering similar speeds and costs to ADSL. The service is based on Eutelsat's satellite coverage, the commercial and infrastructure operating experience of Eutelsat's subsidiary Skylogic and ViaSat's SurfBeam technology. The technology used by Tooway™ comes to Europe after acquiring extensive experience on the North American market, where ViaSat already provides the equipment and network for over 400,000 homes with satellite broadband access fully independent from the terrestrial network. Today, Tooway™ is already serving customers in 20 European countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland with other countries across Europe rolling out over the coming months.

Tooway operates in the Ku-band in the UK. It is delivered using Eutelsat's EUROBIRD™ 3 satellite at 33º East. The service offers two-way satellite access to users without the need for a telephone line, delivering speeds of 2Mbps on the downlink and 256 Kbps on the uplink.

In 2010, Eutelsat will expand the service with additional high speed Internet access up to 10Mbps. These revolutionary broadband speeds will come from the launch of KA-SAT, a dedicated new satellite from Eutelsat, specifically designed for broadband delivery in Europe. The satellite, which has the combined capacity of forty traditional satellites, will enable Eutelsat to deliver Internet access to up to two million European homes at a similar speed, price and quality to that of terrestrial ADSL2 services.

Satellite Internet Project backed by Google

2008-10-04T15:17:00.000-07:00

Internet firm Google and Europe's biggest bank HSBC have thrown their weight behind a plan to provide cheap, high-speed Web access via satellite to millions in Africa and other emerging markets. Google has joined forces with the bank and cable operator Liberty Global to back a group called O3b Networks, which stands for the "other 3 billion" people who do not have access.

It will provide high-speed backhaul for telecoms operators and Internet providers, which can then sell services to businesses and consumers. O3b networks said in a statement the satellites would be constructed by Thales Alenia Space and should be operational by the end of 2010. The coverage would reach from Spain to South Africa, include most of South America, large parts of Asia and all South Pacific Islands.

The project intends to offer fibre performance over satellite to parts of the world where it is not commercially viable or practical to deploy a fibre network. Because its satellites orbit earth at lower altitudes than those used to beam TV signals to homes, they work better for Internet access where latency -- the amount of time it takes for bits of information to travel from source to destination.

In some parts of the world, the company will compete with fibre-optic cables currently under construction -- for instance, over a dozen cables have been announced connecting Africa to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The group is also hoping that Internet access will prove as popular as mobile phone services have in recent years.

Spaceway 3

2008-05-24T09:46:00.001-07:00

Spaceway, built by Hughes Corporation, is a family of next generation satellites already in space for use with satellite internet and satellite TV. Spaceway-1 and Spaceway-2 are used by DirecTV to provide Satellite Television and HD TV service. Spaceway-3 provides additional bandwidth for HughesNet High Speed Satellite Internet subscribers. The new HN9000 modem will be used to access the High Speed Internet provided by Spaceway-3. If you are a new customer using the HN9000 modem we would like comments and customer feedback on this blog. If you are considering becoming a new Hughes Satellite Internet customer and have more questions about Spaceway service, please leave your comments on this blog and our team will do our best to answer them. You can also see Wikipedia Spaceway for more information.

New Mobile Internet Antenna

2007-05-28T21:26:00.001-07:00

A small canadian company has announced the availability of its latest iNetVu Mobile satellite antenna platforms, which was developed to work with the new Ka frequency band, a breakthrough satellite communications technology.

The iNetVu Ka66 has been designed to take advantage of this new satellite service which delivers dramatic improvements in two-way, high-speed Internet services for consumers and businesses throughout North America. The Ka66 Mobile Platform has been tested over Telesat Canada's Anik F2 Satellite.

The iNetVu Ka66 will be able to deliver two-way satellite based Internet solutions, VoIP and Video cost effectively, using a low profile mobile or transportable antenna system that can deliver comparable performance to significantly larger and more expensive products. Users of the iNetVu Ka66 mobile satellite Internet platforms will be able to automatically locate the satellite from a vehicle or moveable structure by a simple push of a button and be instantly and securely connected to the Internet at broadband speeds.

ViaSat Enhances LinkStar System

2007-05-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

ViaSat's newly enhanced LinkStarS2 VSAT networking system incorporates the new DVB-S2 waveform, offering up to 30% greater bandwidth efficiency and substantially reducing network operating costs. The S2-capable LinkStar hub integrates remote LinkWayS2 mesh VSAT terminals into the same network, enabling flexible hybrid star/mesh network architectures.

LinkStarS2 and LinkWayS2 can now interoperate seamlessly, offering maximum network design flexibility. ViaSat's LinkWay broadband IP mesh network is meeting the needs of business, military, and government clients with applications ranging from broadband IP enterprise networks to distance learning. The addition of a DVB-S2 receiver to LinkWay enables hybrid star/mesh networks managed by a single LinkStarS2 hub.

The LinkStar S2 system builds on the leading DVB-RCS capable VSAT system, with over 100 networks and 75,000 remote terminals worldwide. The new S2-capable LinkStar S2 hubs and remote terminals are compatible with standard DVB-S LinkStar remotes and offer a simple, cost effective transition to the benefits of DVB-S2.

DVB-S2 is the latest advance in transmission technique from the Digital Video Broadcasting Project industry consortium and features a variety of technology enhancements over the current DVB-S standard. The new standard is designed to cut the cost-per-bit to transmit data by satellite by providing more efficient use of satellite transponders.

ViaSat has a full line of VSAT products for data and voice applications, and is a market leader in Ka-band satellite systems, from user terminals to large gateways.