<The bandwidth plot thickens yet again.>
Leo.
Maybe another CorelVideo prospect? ( ala Cancom )
Internet in
Mideast and Asia
(11/6)
By SEAN EVERS
c.1997 Bloomberg News
DUBAI -- If you live in a part of the world where phone quality is
unreliable and want to dig around on the Internet, ZakNet's alternative
to a phone-based system may be of interest.
ZakNet, a Kuwait company, is touting speed as the main advantage of
its satellite-based Internet delivery system. ''If you have experienced
the Internet very fast via satellite, we have 'zakked' you,'' says Mario
Pino, general manager of ZakSat General Trading Company, which
developed the ZakNet system.
As an example, take Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0, one of the
programs used for browsing the Internet's Worldwide Web service.
Chances are that even with a modem capable of handling 33.6 kilobits
a second, one of the fastest available for home use, it will take more
than two hours to download it from Microsoft's computers in Seattle,
Wash., Pino says.
It takes less than 14 minutes through ZakNet.
While ZakNet isn't the first satellite-delivered Internet service, it is the
first Internet provider to use what's known as MPEG 2 digital-video
broadcast, or DVB, technology, said Paul Kirwan, managing
consultant at Microsoft Middle East, which is helping ZakNet develop
and market the system.
And while speed is the immediate advantage, the digital-broadcast
standard will in time help it broaden its product range. ''ZakNet, by
having a compatible system, will be able to send a lot more than just
the Internet, such as movies and cybershopping, in time merging TV
and the computer,'' said Kirwan.
If that happens, ZakNet is likely to benefit from the broadcasting
franchises of its parent, ZakSat, which owns satellite and cable
television distribution rights. And it's likely to happen. On Saturday,
ZakNet demonstrated its third-generation product, which lets
computer users receive its satellite TV programs direct to their
computers.
''By early 1998 ZakNet, in partnership with our U.S. joint venture
OmniBox Inc., will bring to the market a single device capable of
delivering Internet, games, cybershopping and digital television,'' said
ZakSat's Pino.
ZakNet subscribers install a 1.8-meter-by-2-meter satellite dish and
put an additional printed-circuit board into their computers. That lets
them receive Internet data at 200 kilobits a second, almost twice as
fast as ISDN digital-line connections, and almost 10 times faster than
conventional analog telephone line access at 22.8 kilobits a second.
Commands to the service provider are still sent through the telephone
system.
''Zak has changed how I think about and use the Internet,'' said Adel
Al-Fahad, professor of computer engineering at Kuwait College of
Technological Studies, a ZakNet subscriber. ''Instead of just thinking
of the Internet as a place where I can find interesting documents to
read, it is now like a pop-up book full of real-time sounds and video.''
With ZakNet's marketing pointing to speed as the main advantage,
that lays it open to competition from faster modems, more advanced
phone lines, and new technologies.
'''In the U.S. a comparable technology to ZakNet, Hughes
Electronics' DirecPC, is gathering dust on the shelf, as there are faster,
cheaper options available to most Americans,'' said David Goodtree,
an analyst with Massachusetts-based Forrester Research.
He's referring to Internet delivered through the fiber-optic cables used
by cable-television services. Cable modem, as the technology is
called, provides Internet access as fast as 1 megabyte a second, about
five times faster than satellite delivery, said Goodyear. ''And it costs
$40 a month, with no installation charge,'' referring to cable modem.
ZakSat said its cable-television service has no plans to introduce cable
modems in Kuwait.
ZakNet says it invested almost $100 million to develop the ZakNet
card in cooperation with Groupe Sagem SA, a French research and
development company. It also established partnerships with Compaq
Computer Corp. for hardware, with Cisco Systems Inc. for
communication routers, and Microsoft Corp. for development and
marketing.
Broadcasting from the Asiasat II satellite, ZakNet hopes to have
150,000 subscribers in three years. Asiasat reaches 63 countries from
Turkey to Australia, or 3.8 billion people, more than half the world's
population. The company has shipped 15,000 PC cards so far, and
has orders for another 7,000. Installation in Kuwait costs $350-$500
and there's a monthly charge of $20-$65 the company said.
ZakSat is a partnership between privately owned Ziad Al Kazemi
Trading Co. and state-owned Kuwait Investment Projects Company. |
