VSAT technology today offers a solid platform for medium to high bandwidth applications in the enterprise domain. However many potential users harbor concerns the medium might be too costly and unreliable. How these concerns are addressed varies greatly based on the application and location. The satellite industry is dropping its old boiler plate about ease of use and speed to deploy and moving towards being something that can handle applications which require more bandwidth with a truly independent and private network.
Location, Location, Location
As mentioned above, in the past, proponents would point to the major benefit of VSAT being speed to deploy over large (un-served) areas. In developing areas, such as large areas of South America, the Middle East, Sub-Sahara, Africa and East Asia, this is still the case.
Another geographic concern is whether a particular location is likely to experience on a regular basis. However, atmospheric interference from rain is minimized or eliminated when the right tools (frequency bands, hardware, etc) are chosen for the job. The following strategic grid displays how these critical factors interact.
Andrew Hope, an industry veteran who worked in tropical and densely populated African countries, observed in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroun C-band was used almost exclusively for enterprise applications because of C’s superior performance in heavy precipitation. There were some Ku-band customers in those areas, but those were either individuals or very small businesses who were more concerned with low cost to the point reliability was not an issue at all. (Hope acknowledges that with good forward error correction coding on the transmission the issue can be minimized in exchange for a lower data rate.) The customers in more arid regions of the continent, according to Mr. Hope and his colleagues, would choose between Ku- and C-band depending on which was a more economical cost of bandwidth for their application, with C being the preference.
In more densely developed areas, where terrestrial options are almost ubiquitous, different factors are rising to the top in the choice of when to use satellite, when to use terrestrial and when they can be combined to the best effect. Although there are still many regions, in the US for example, that aren’t served by fiber/cable. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in a number of its programs promoting or mapping broadband in rural areas, will define an area as being “Served” by terrestrial broadband if it’s within a certain distance from a terrestrial “node.” (The distance from the node isn’t always consistent from program to program.) The problem with that is being in a service area for a terrestrial provider doesn’t mean you will actually be able to receive service. The company may still decide it isn’t profitable enough to lay enough cable to reach every home and place of business within the service area. This impacts enterprise customers that need to connect remote offices, storehouses or retail locations with their networks.
Where terrestrial networks are being developed, they can be confident they will be able to carve out a good market. Terrestrial is a very cost effective platform for low to medium bandwidth requirements, which can serve many applications more than adequately. However, the CAPEX for laying down a terrestrial network makes it a very significant undertaking, with the cost of each location in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars, particularly when considering costs such as inter-city/region tariffs. An example of what can happen as a result can be found in a number of African countries, whose terrestrial communications networks do not have connections between their terrestrial networks and the rest of the world. Rather than laying down wire across a physical boundary, the owners of these contained terrestrial networks contract with satellite providers to provide back-haul to the Internet or cellular telephone cloud and the rest of the world.
Of course, geographic isn’t the only sort of location to be considered. Lotteries, both in the US and abroad, tend to be good customers to the satellite broadband industry. When asked about this, David Gray, who worked on a project for the Illinois Lottery, pointed out that generally lotteries employ a self-contained point-of-sale kiosk or dispenser that sits as a tenant in somebody else’s facility. “The equipment itself has a very tailored and specific application and so, from a security and maintenance standpoint, must be minimalistic in design”. Rather than trying to come up with security measures for connection through the host facility’s internet or phone lines, the lottery equipment has its own, completely independent and private, connection provided by a small dish. There are fewer connections and fewer service providers to interface with to get the data from the kiosk to the headquarters and back. Fewer variables mean less opportunity for something to go wrong.
Another concern with location is the number of them you’re trying to reach. In a recent interview, Dan Loveless of Keystone Enterprise Services indicated a key element that satellite has over terrestrial is that it’s a true multicast platform. “If someone wanted to do a quick and dirty webcast to a few people,” Mr. Loveless explains, “terrestrial will work. “ But when you have a “one to many” situation where audio and visual quality is of concern satellite is the best option.
Increasing Demand- Increased Frequency
The demand for bandwidth, including satellite bandwidth, has gone up and continues to do so. More high definition content is being pushed through the available bandwidth with improving compression technology to mitigate the increase in requirements. There are more and more requirements for more intense data applications, such as video being used a lot in digital signage. At the same time as those applications are being developed, there are also techniques and technology coming out to provide high resolution at a more efficient rate.
Ten years ago, there was an over abundance of available satellite bandwidth, which pushed the price per megabyte down. Looking at pricing trends over the last five years across providers for full-time access have gone up as demand has caught up with existing, newly available and planned bandwidth. Ku-band service has caught up to C-band with a global footprint that includes major oceanic and air routes. Enterprise network developers can now choose the frequency based on service availability and cost alone.
The Right Tool for the Right Job
Networks that use a mix of terrestrial’s price point for low to medium bandwidth applications and satellite’s low barrier to entry and vast reach are becoming more popular. Hughes, the decades strong leader in VSAT technology for consumer and enterprise now has a strong focus in Managed Network Services, providing expertise in both terrestrial and satellite platforms. Likewise, Intelsat (which owns the single largest fleet of satellites in orbit) counts tens of thousands of miles of fiber as part of its own network.
Did We Mention Ease of Use and Speed to Deploy?
Currently, various satellite providers have very nearly all of the land, major shipping lanes and flight paths planet Earth covered. With the ability to connect to the “cloud” via satellite and distribute on a local level through fiber, cable, Wi-Fi, WiMAX or pico cell there’s no business too small or remote for broadband access.
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Michelle Elbert is the Director of Marketing of Satellite Markets and Research and concurrently a consultant for Application Technology Strategy Inc. She has extensive experience in the satellite and IT industries and has an M.B.A. from Concordia College. She can be reached at: michelle@satellitemarkets.com
