Question and Answer

Jim Gandolfi, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Hughes Network Systems-San Diego Division

May 05, 2004
How can satellite-delivered Wi-Fi access be an economical choice for opening up an additional revenue stream for an enterprise customer?

Business Potential for Wi-Fi: Today the business potential of public Internet access for enterprise customers is driven by businesspeople keeping in contact with their employers or customers. Tomorrow, however, the customers will include businesspeople, as well as individuals of all ages who have incorporated the electronic information age into their daily activities. The dramatic use of e-commerce in 2003 demonstrates the explosive acceptance of the electronic information age in our society. For example:

* In 2003, Apple sold 30 million music downloads

* Six million people purchased products or services daily on the Web

These trends will continue with the introduction of new portable electronic media devices, helping to create more demand for access to content-enriched information.

Tomorrow’s "Hot Spot" will evolve from a connection point to the Web for e-mail, to one that will provide content that is valuable to visitors to the Hot Spot. This content may include anything from promotional offerings from local businesses, to a calendar of local events, to access to video and music that can be downloaded for personal entertainment. By 2010, it is estimated that destination Hot Spots will be host to 27 million users.

Value of Satellite: Small, medium and large businesses continue to see the need to include broadband connectivity to their individual or corporate locations for a host of applications ranging from credit card authorizations through training. As we look at the public Internet side of communication needs, the traffic model is one where the majority of the communication is coming from the Internet or the customer’s business location to the laptop, which fits nicely with the capability of today’s satellite technology.

Satellite networks can effectively address two common concerns about sharing bandwidth between Intranet and Internet users-security and prioritization. Typically VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) are capable of supporting multiple LANs. This provides a partitioning of traffic that keeps consumer and internal corporate traffic on separate logical networks, creating a secure separation. Similarly, traffic can be prioritized so that critical applications-such as credit authorizations-will always have first access to network resources over Internet browsing, for example.

When an enterprise rolls out a new customer-facing service such as Wi-Fi, it has to be available in all locations to provide the consistency of service to ensure repeat business. If the enterprise is a medium-sized or larger operation, it is highly unlikely that it can get affordable terrestrial services to all of its locations.

Economical Choice: The break even point for customer facing Wi-Fi using satellite can be as low as three users per day-and that would also cover the cost of the corporate Intranet. Satellite is your economical and efficient solution for public-facing Wi-Fi, as well as for corporate communication requirements. To learn more check out www.wifiaccess.hns.com.