Surfing the Skies. Internet access via satellite is an idea that's slowly coming down to Earth [C* reference]
thestandard.net
February 01, 1999
By Alex Lash
For years, consumers have been waiting for the magic of
broadband access to the Web. But the rollout of cable
modems and DSL phone lines – commonly viewed as
the definitive solutions to providing consumers with the
speed that many workers already enjoy in the office –
has been slow. This delay has left an opening for a third
alternative many people had already written off:
satellites.
And it's not just pie-in-the-sky. There's been plenty of
hype about upstart satellite companies' plans to build an
"Internet in the sky." Teledesic, the grandest
experiment, is planning a constellation of hundreds of
low-earth-orbit satellites (LEOS) flying less than 1,000
miles above the Earth, promising anytime, anywhere
voice and data services. Backed by billionaires Craig
McCaw and Bill Gates, among others, Teledesic is still
several years and at least $10 billion away from
completion.
A simpler form of Net-over-satellite access is already a
reality, however. Subscribers to services like Hughes
Electronics' DirecPC service can receive a thick stream
of Web pages, Usenet groups and e-mail on their
pizza-size satellite dishes. Sending data is another
matter, requiring a phone line, a modem and an ISP
account (see "Beam Me Down, Data," below).
This "hybrid" solution hasn't exactly set the world on
fire. DirecPC has only sold between 80,000 and 90,000
dishes. Nonetheless, competitors are testing the waters.
This spring, EchoStar will bundle Microsoft's WebTV
with its Dish Network home service, although initially
Net access will be delivered over phone lines. The same
goes for Loral Space & Communications' upcoming
Cyberstar service.
Consumer Internet access via satellites wouldn't even
be on the horizon if cable and telephone companies had
been faster to the punch. Digital subscriber lines (DSL)
are still a trial technology in most areas of North
America, with an estimated 40,000 paying lines installed.
Cable companies are faring a little better, with about
530,000 subscribers signed up. In both cases, rollouts
are slow. The Yankee Group estimates that 40 percent of
the U.S. still won't have access to either technology in
four years' time.
Thus, providers like DirecPC and Echostar-Microsoft
have an opportunity to market to people who either
aren't within the reach of cable or DSL, or beat those
services on price.
As is so often the case with prospective consumer
technologies, businesses are proving the potential of
accessing the Net via satellite. Mail Boxes Etc., a
business-center chain with 3,100 franchises, is replacing
its intranet wires with VSAT, or very small aperture
terminal, satellite dishes.
Using VSAT networks for such things as daily
inventory updates is nothing new. There's a good
chance that when you swipe your credit card at the
pump of your local gas station, a dish on the roof zaps
the details to a data center and completes the
transaction within seconds.
Mail Boxes Etc., a San Diego-based subsidiary of U.S.
Office Products, is adding a twist to this process. Its
franchises will use VSATs to give walk-in customers
Internet access. Along with word processing and
desktop publishing, customers will get the Net with their
$10- to $12-per-hour computer rental fee. That traffic will
share the same two-way network with MBE's internal
data – credit-card purchases, marketing material,
company e-mail and the like.
"To go with a terrestrial solution, we'd have to deal with
a bunch of telcos," says MBE executive VP Tom Herskowitz. "Now we have a single
provider: Hughes."
Herskowitz says he'll keep costs down by making the satellite hookup mandatory for
almost all MBE franchises, thereby guaranteeing Hughes hefty volume as the system
rolls out. Herskowitz hopes to have at least 350 franchises looking skyward by the end
of the year.
DirecTV's recent purchase of its troubled rival Primestar could enable it to further speed
deployment of its services to both homes and businesses. The direct-to-home satellite
market already reaches 30 million homes worldwide, and that's sure to pique the interest
of Net content providers that can't get access to TCI's cable network.
Still, skeptics say that the need to use a phone line with satellite systems will limit their
appeal. And Mitchell Berman, senior VP of marketing and operations at OpenTV, an
interactive TV software vendor that competes with WebTV, wonders whether the
satellite TV demographic is ready for the Net.
"On Saturday night in Iowa, I know who's sitting on a couch with a remote control in
their hands," he says. "It's $40 to $50 a month just to watch TV over cable or satellite,
and now you're asking them to reach in a second time [for the Internet]?"
The advent of two-way broadband services that use LEOSes promises to change the
market dramatically. But when that will happen remains an open question.
Iridium, the first of the LEOS systems, is up and activated, with 66 satellites. For now,
though, it's strictly a voice and paging service with a miniscule 2400 baud rate, and it
requires expensive, bulky phones. Iridium's parent, Motorola, has floated the idea of
upgrading the service for broadband data, but officials are mum about concrete plans
and say they'll wait to gauge reaction to the initial voice and paging rollout.
Skybridge, a division of French telecommunications giant Alcatel, is shooting to deploy
an 80-satellite LEOS system designed for broadband data communications by 2001;
Teledesic plans to launch a whopping 288 by 2003. But getting huge fleets into orbit is
rife with peril – exploding rockets and space debris, for example. Numerous technical
challenges also remain.
"Investors will look to Iridium's success as a bellwether, even for [later] broadband
projects," says Tom Watts, managing director of Merrill Lynch's satellite equity
research. One good sign: Iridium's 66 birds emerged from November's Leonid meteor
showers unscathed.
What the new LEOS projects and today's Net-satellite services have in common,
though, is an enemy: cable-modem services and DSL. It would be ironic if exotic
space-age technology turned out to be a more practical alternative to the lowly coaxial
cable and the copper telephone line.
THE STATE OF HIGH-SPEED ACCESS
Digital Subscriber Line Access (North America)
Subscribers at the end of 1998: 39,000
Projected subscribers by end of 1999: 248,000
Home DSL passes: 34.7 million
Source: TeleChoice
Cable-Modem Access (North America)
AtHome Subscribers: 330,000
Road Runner subscribers: 180,000
Subscribers to other services: 25,000
Projected subscribers by end of 1999: 1.5 million
Homes cable passses: 22 million
Source: Company Information and Kinetic Research
Satellite Access (Worldwide)
Home DirecPC dishes shipped: 80,000 to 90,000*
Business VSAT terminals installed: 220,000
Source: Company Information and Satellite Industry Association
* No subscriber numbers available.
BEAM ME DOWN, DATA
Still A Hybrid
Capable of speeds of up to 400Kbps incoming, DirecPC isn't as fast as other broadband
services, but it's available almost anywhere. A phone line is needed for outbound traffic,
which is routed through an ISP to DirecPC's Earth station and out to the Net. Incoming
e-mail and Web pages are beamed from the Earth station to a satellite and back home.
What seems roundabout can take less than a second – if there's no Net congestion.
Two-Way Creativity
With a two-way VSAT network, Mail Boxes Etc. plans to beam company data from its
headquarters in San Diego to a satellite and down to its 3,100 franchises (and vice
versa). Net traffic will travel to the satellite through Hughes' Earth station near Los
Angeles. Mail Boxes Etc. is opting for 512Kbps downstream and 128Kbps upstream,
leaving enough bandwidth for walk-in customers who want to rent a computer and surf.
Mentioned in this article
PEOPLE
Bill Gates Chairman and CEO, Microsoft
COMPANIES
Teledesic Kirkland, WA
Hughes Electronics El Segundo, CA
Microsoft Redmond, WA
Loral Space & Communications New York, NY
Echostar Littleton, CO
Mail Boxes Etc. San Diego, CA
U.S. Office Products Washington, DC
Motorola Schaumburg, IL
Merrill Lynch New York, NY
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