Topic: Satellite

21NET has secured a £10m contract to provide an advanced satellite system to provide broadband for high speed trains.

The service will have to cope with trains travelling at over 300km/h and will take satellite signals from the train roof to the carriages.
The bad news is that the service will only be able to passengers on Thalys, with the first 27 high speed trains to having the system will be on Thalys services travelling between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. Here in the UK the company says that the lack of any high speed trains, and the height of railway bridges will cause problems for the satellites, so there are no plans to being it to this side of the channel.

'Poor man of Europe' yet again!!

Although you may have thought satellite-based broadband was a technology which never really caught on, Eutelsat, the European satellite operator, is to launch a satellite in June this year to provide a broadband service.

The satellite operator said prices will be comparable with traditional broadband networks but will reach areas where low population density means these services have yet to be extended. This will include most of Europe including Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

Not many other details have been released, but whether UK users will take advantage is very doubtful with the current near blanket coverage broadband in the UK, added to the fact that satellite broadband has always been slow and expensive compared to fixed line alternatives.

That said, the service is already in use in North America through WildBlue Communications and since its launch in 2005 it has been used by more than 100,000 customers.

Revisions to current planning regulations have been introduced to ensure all householders in Wales are able to access both satellite TV and wireless broadband services via antenna, without having to seek planning permission.

At the present planning regulations only allow householders to install one antenna on their home without planning permission. To receive both wireless broadband and satellite TV, two antennas are needed so unlucky homeowners had to go through this process, now the revised regulations will allow two antennas to be installed, subject to size and location restrictions, without  having to obtain planning permission.

A new era of "Broadband for a Mobile Planet" is promised with the launch of the second of three satellites on Saturday.

The Inmarsat-4 F2 is the second of three satellites which will support the Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), and like its sister satellites, the F2 carries a single global beam that covers up to one-third of the Earth's surface, 19 wide spot beams and 228 narrow spot beams. This means that 85% of the earths surface, or 98% of the population, will be covered enabling communications of up to 512Kbps. While this may not encourage many home users in the UK, for those in more remote areas of the world it could be the only broadband access which is available. Mobile broadband access will also be possible without the need to be close to any Wi-Fi access points.

Broadband should be possible even in remote areas if a project, co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) is successful.

The wonderfully named Internet via Satellite for Promoting Inclusion of Rural Economies, luckily INSPIRE for short, hopes to fill the need for broadband in remote areas of the EU. A report forecasts that a large number of households in the 25 member European Union will have no access to broadband services in 2010, either at home or work, so this project plans to overcome the economic and technical limitations of terrestrial broadband services.

It plans to use a mix of satellite and wireless broadband Internet access technology in 600 small communities located in two regions of the UK, connecting 6000 users, which will make the project financially viable. The contract has been awarded to London based Avanti Screenmedia.

But with BT's broadband coverage approaching 100% is seems that finding enough potential users may become a problem.

Back in February we reported that T-Mobile would roll out Wi-Fi on Southern rail trains using WiMax technology.

Now a group of IT companies, including Cisco, are negotiating with train operators to offer them broadband Wi-Fi connections, but using satellite technology, which they claim can offer real time digital television and high speed internet access onboard moving trains.

As many satellite users have found connections typically suffer poor latency, as the network traffic over a much larger distance than a land based alternatives. Another problem is that of reception with satellite being more critical to interference and signal reflections from large buildings in built up areas, and don't forget trains use quite a few tunnels!

For those beyond the reach of traditional broadband services such as ADSL and Cable, satellite has long been a feasible, but expensive option of obtaining increased data rates. Now set to contradict that consensus, come Tariam a UK satellite connectivity supplier - offering not only two way broadband, unlike rivals, such as CentralPointBroadband, which requires maintaining a dialup connection to send data, but with unlimited bandwidth bundled in as well!

Tariam offer an impressive variety of two way packages ranging from 512kpbs/128kbps through to 2Mbit down and 1Mbit up, although with rather unimpressive price points - although to be fair the products are aimed towards businesses as opposed to the home user. Tariam's "entry level" 512kpbs down, 128kbps up costs £999 for the hardware, £300 for installation plus a monthly £59.99 - all plus VAT. The "TSat 2000" option (that 2Mbit down, 1Mbit up we mentioned) costs (sit down!) £3299 for the hardware, £700 for the installation and £749 per month, although this does include up to 29 static IP addresses. Again, prices are exclusive of VAT.

You would be forgiven in thinking that BT's profits are safe for the time being with their ADSL offerings costing a fraction of these . According to one of the Directors at Tariam, there's a bit of an exodus going on as though with ADSL users migrating to satellite :

Still, if the alternative to satellite is no broadband, who can blame those tempted by the unlimited bandwidth, and more importantly, two way communication. You can find out more at the Tariam Homepage.

Alvarion Ltd has announced that BT's trials of its Radio Broadband (Broadband Wireless Access) technology have been successfully concluded, and that BT has signed an initial contract with Alvarion to help bring the solution to market. An initial order has already been placed by BT, for equipment for its first sites in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is set to be the first region to deploy Radio Broadband, following a DETI contract awarded to BT on March 29, to provide 100% broadband coverage in Northern Ireland by December 2005. Radio Broadband will be an integral part of this total coverage solution.
The network pilots were conducted in Porthleven (Cornwall), Pwllheli (Wales), Ballingry (Scotland) and Campsie (Northern Ireland).

Feedback on the trials was positive, with 73% of trialists extremely or very satisfied with the product. 89% of those involved in the trial also indicated that they would be interested in subscribing on a permanent basis. It is likely that radio broadband will play a key part in addressing those 565 exchanges across the UK where ADSL is not commercially viable, working with partners to provide the most cost effective technical solution.

The full details can be found at Alvarion.

Fancy satellite? Well Satellite provider Tariam have announced an new 1Mbps service aimed at those who still cannot get broadband because of their location.
Differing from some satellite offerings this is a true 2 way service with an upload speed of 256kbps, which is the equivalent of a 1Mbps ADSL service provided by BTretail.

If you need any proof that this is not aimed at the home user, the monthly price, weighs in at £159.99, also these is a one off charge of £300 installation and £949 for the equipment. While this sounds expensive, compared to the alternative of a leased line, many SME's would find this very reasonable. Also included is free support for the fist year.

Do you have £20,000 down the back of the sofa ? Thats that wireless solutions provider Alvarion are charging to get on the first steps to set up a wireless network upto 50 users.

ZDNet details the offering, and provides details such as the downlink being upto 1.4Mbps for each user. Alvarion are estimating that a breakeven point would be charging £50 per user in subscription fees, plus £100 for installation, which is not a bad price to pay for a potential 1.4Mbps.

One clear point raised though, is that the £20,000 is not the only funds required. Excluded is the cost of the backhaul itself - ie the connection to the internet itself.