Telecom 99: Satellites - Today's reality or pie in the sky?
By Theresa Foley
04 October 1999
We preview some of the IP and satellite broadband systems that will debut at Geneva and
wonder just how many products are, in fact, ready to ship.
Satellite companies will be showing off their Internet Protocol (IP) products and services in
Geneva this October, trying to catch the eye of global networking customers who spend a
vast amount of money on leased-line alternatives.
The focus on IP is a shift for the satellite community: away from the global mobile and rural
telephony satellite services that were in the limelight four years ago at the last Telecom,
long before the products were available.
For the most part, the IP products are here now. "The biggest, most obvious change is that
the whole world has gone to IP," says Tom Robey, Scientific Atlanta's director of market
and business development. Scientific Atlanta Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, makes a range of
satellite and terrestrial transmission products. Previously, it was marketing separate satellite
receiving systems for video, data and telephony, but now the company has shifted the
focus of its satellite line to three IP-based products. The challenge of dealing with a list of
"funny legacy protocols" to support different customers has gone, says Robey. "Now all
the customers ask for is TCP/IP."
The satellite vendors are coming up with innovative products, but the technology still trails
behind terrestrial cable in the battle for broadband access, according to Uwe Trode,
Scientific Atlanta's manager of marketing communications. "The Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC)
network has clearly won out," he says. For HFC customers in Geneva, Scientific Atlanta will
show a new "digital reverse technology" that allows a return path on two-way cables to
carry four times as much traffic as before by multiplexing signals together.
A leading satellite industry analyst, Stephane Chenard of Euroconsult, says the satellite
vendors have their work cut out for them in Geneva as their efforts, so far, to crack the data
networking market have been disappointing. The Internet industry is moving ahead, while
the satellite companies take forever to get their ideas into the market, he adds.
"It's one thing to draw a cartoon house on a piece of paper with a satellite dish on top. It's
another to have a product in a box with a price sheet, a user manual and a guy with a pair of
pliers. It hasn't happened," Chenard claims.
Two proposed satellite broadband systems from SkyBridge LC, Washington DC and
Teledesic LLC, Bellevue, Washington, are among the best examples of satellite companies
that are not dirtying their hands with end-user dealings, and both may suffer, he points out.
"Who cares how many satellites they have? People want to know when they can get the
product. Can they debug it easily? They haven't done their homework on the terminal. They
haven't taken the first step," he says.
Chenard says real marketing is done "in the trenches, between customers," rather than at
trade shows.
In Geneva, he expects, "it will be salesman talking to salesman. There won't be one user on
the floor." The companies promoting satellite network solutions put "lots of shiny boxes"
on their stands, but they are not operating in a realistic setting, and the companies, for the
most part, refuse to divulge details about the rollout and installation of products.
While Chenard is right that futuristic broadband projects are years away from reality, just as
the global mobile telephony satellites were at the last Telecom, the existing geostationary
satellite fleet is serving a growing number of IP services and Internet infrastructure
applications.
Regardless of how small their niche is, attendees will find IP-based solutions on many
stands. Direct competitors such as Hughes Network Systems, Germantown, Maryland, and
GE Spacenet of Princeton, New Jersey, which are vying to become the world's leading
supplier of satellite VSAT dishes and services, will be showing their latest network
solutions.
Hughes Network Systems will introduce a multimedia VSAT called DirecWay aimed at those
businesses needing high capacity IP-based services. GE Spacenet will have its SkyBlaster
PC-based Broadband Satellite IP Network satellite dish and receiver in Geneva. It is hoping
to boost sales of the product, which has already sold 30,000 units in its first six months on
the market. SkyBlaster, at about $1,000 for the hardware according to an earlier Merrill
Lynch analyst report, is relatively low cost and capable of two-way performance with 40
megabits per second in one direction and 156 kilobits per second in the other.
GE Spacenet managers believe it has solid e-commerce applications, and cite this as the
main reason for previous purchases, all of which have been in the United States.
Eutelsat, the Paris-based European satellite operator, will show an Internet consumer
service launched in Germany this year, costing DM59 ($32) a month, that uses a
43-centimeter antenna. Eutelsat currently provides a space segment for IP-based services in
Europe and across the Atlantic, with the opening of its Atlantic Gate satellite position at
12.5 deg West, a location aimed at IP customers. Eutelsat will also be promoting IP services
on the Siberian European Satellite (SESAT), to be launched in the second half of November
to beam services into Asian markets such as India.
"Eutelsat is the first satellite operator in Europe to offer capacity for fully meshed
broadband networks billed on a pay-per-use basis. Because this offer is dynamically
allocated it can satisfy a wide berth of customers, from multinationals for corporate intranets
and video-conferencing, to smaller companies and SOHOs," says Guiliano Berretta, Eutelsat
director general.
Teleglobe, the Canadian international carrier that has leased several transponders on
Eutelsat's Atlantic Gate satellites, will be showing its Digital Video Broadcast/IP satellite
service, which uses a DVB platform in combination with IP to transmit newsfeeds, streaming
and cacheing traffic more efficiently.
Teleglobe claims to have the largest number of carrier and ISP customers buying satellite
Internet backbone services. "Customers today are looking for cost-effective, flexible and
scalable connectivity alternatives for Internet access. With DVB/IP satellite service, ISPs
and large corporations will gain greater efficiency through this advanced bandwidth
management platform," says Bob Collet, Teleglobe's vice president and general manager,
Internet and Data Services.
Newcomers will also be trying to make a splash at Telecom. Lockheed Martin Global
Telecommunications, Bethesda, Maryland, will be demonstrating an IP-based virtual private
network that provides a secure backbone to exchange critical data at its booth.
Lockheed's presence at the show should be heightened by the recent approval of its
acquisition of 49% of Comsat Corp.'s stock, and the resulting stake it will acquire in Intelsat,
of which Comsat owns nearly 20%. Lockheed has been struggling to enter the telecoms
business for some time, and the acquisition should provide the company with a much larger
array of resources and tools to serve the market.
For customers who want mobile data connectivity in areas not served by terrestrial
networks, satellite mobile ISDN services will be shown on several stands, including
Inmarsat and Comsat.
Inmarsat's new product, called Global Area Network, is a laptop-sized fold-out satellite
antenna that connects at speeds of 64 Kbps; hardware costs $10,000-$11,000 and
per-minute usage costs $6.50. Inmarsat will also show a packet data system that will be
available in early 2000 to accompany the mobile ISDN services.
According to Michael Storey, president and chief executive of Inmarsat, London, the mobile
ISDN service will mean "dramatically lower costs and improved efficiency for those clients
requiring mobile Internet access independent of their headquarters office."
For attendees who remember the hype surrounding mobile satellite services at Telecom 95,
there will be the opportunity to compare the products to the promises.
Both Globalstar LP, San Jose, California and Iridium LLC, of Washington DC, will be
allowing free phone calls at the exhibition.
Globalstar has yet to make its official commercial start-up, which is expected in some places
by early 2000, while Iridium is struggling to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings with a
viable new business structure.
Both companies could use some favorable reviews - if not some orders for telephones.
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URL : totaltele.com
¸ EMAP Media 1999 |
