Two-Way Services Must Fit To Win
This pattern of technology development is definitely a situation where a rising tide lifts all ships. As each of the satellite solution providers tries to outgun the competition, the result is a dazzling array of choices for customers.
"Because connectivity is a critical application to the vast majority of enterprises we serve and has become so important to most companies - especially content providers or contributors - we say that it is survival-dependent," says Calder. "Or customers receive high-end service in return for very high availabilities, custom applications, simplicity of implementation and better throughput. Buyers are looking for a solution to a specific problem. For example, if you need dial-tone and Web access five-hours driving time from the nearest town, a VSAT with integrated VoIP equipment might just be the most cost-effective solution available. Likewise, if you need to distribute multi-gigabyte video files to thousands of movie screens, as we are doing for Technicolor, Internet solutions will not cut it. But satellite will," he adds.
PEPs, better acceleration techniques and more efficient use of the bandwidth provided by satellite are always welcome, but these alone will not increase VSAT penetration, says Calder. "These are primarily needed for Internet browsing-type applications and inherently not relevant for asymmetric IP multicasting, where IP-level [forward error correction] and proxy servers for backlink correction at the packet level are more important," says Clifton. "The roll-out of WiMax will start to challenge the traditional markets for two-way VSAT solutions. In addition, the new DVB-S2 standard, especially when married with DVB-RCS for the return path, with its throughput improvement and dynamic optimization of throughput is expected to have a significant impact."
McPhaden credits the de facto standardization to IP for making it much easier to sell two-way VSAT networks in particular. "The customers are more interested in reliable service and service level agreements and less on the details of the coding/modulation schemes used to accomplish this," he says. PEPs, header compression and other techniques also are having an impact "PEPs, IPSec and other IP enhancements are being demanded by the customers to improve the user experience and provide fast, reliable communication links," he says. "As corporations fully embrace VoIP, the demands for true [quality of service] on satellite links will become more pronounced. Best-efforts services will not be acceptable to a corporate customer or perhaps even to a consumer."
Other new technologies that should emerge in the 2007-2008 time frame and help satellite compete in the two-way marketplace are streaming IPTV and other video-related applications, as well as the convergence of video-data-voice services, Meyran says.
The Competition Only Increases Throughout Time
As the satellite industry awaits second generation DVB-RCS, along with other enhancements such as improved forward error correction and the widespread adoption of advanced compression techniques like MPEG-4, the terrestrial wireless data services sector marches on. Ku-band solutions dominate this market right now, but one cannot rule out Ka-band possibilities taking off in the near future.
For the satellite industry to keep pace with terrestrial providers, mature mobile services, or so-called coms-on-the-move, need to emerge, propelled primarily by the availability of lower-cost satellite antennas and the right mix of services.
"Two-way data transmission has been available to maritime industry for a while. They are finally solving the issues for vehicles. Practical coms-on-the-move solutions will present a number of new opportunities for two-way data transmission," says Douglas.
The satellite industry has no intention of simply folding up its tent and walking away from the lucrative and fast-changing two-way marketplace. If anything, the satellite service providers will continue to bear down and focus on what customers really need at the right price. Not every door will open, but satellite footprints will be everywhere in case anyone needs them.
Peter J. Brown is Via Satellite's Senior Multimedia & Homeland Security Editor.
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