The satellite industry has launched an initiative that seeks to streamline earth station type-approvals procedures through the endorsement of a global standard and the expansion of an industry-authorized network of testing entities, the Global VSAT Forum (GVF) said earlier this month.

This movement for streamlined earth station type-approvals builds on a successful program that provides type approvals for terminals and terminal subsystems already in affect in the industry.

The terminal type-approvals process dates back about seven years. Back then, companies within the satellite industry came together to develop a common set of standards to allow various satellite operators to recognize type-approvals granted by certified testing entities. Prior to that, a terminal or terminal subsystem manufacturer would have to go through what was typically a redundant test to gain type approval to allow a terminal to be used on each operator’s systems. To address that, the MRA (Mutual Recognition Arrangement) Working Group was formed within the GVF and the group developed a document that outlined the technical standards that would be applied to the type-approvals process and if a manufacturer successfully completed the testing against the standards, the type-approvals would be recognized by all operators without the need for the manufacturer to go through numerous redundant testing.

A Changing Industry

With this mechanism already in place, the GVF will be looking to expand its role to cover earth station type-approvals.

“Times have changed,” GVF Secretary General David Hartshorn told Satellite News. “There are some interesting trends, First of all you have more intense competition than ever before for all parties concerned. At the same time, you have higher volumes of sales than at any other time in history. You have a very strong and arguably the strongest demand ever. This is a function of many factors, not the least of which VSAT terminals are now dropping below the $1,000 point and the supply of bandwidth and the technology and that enables efficiencies in the use of bandwidth have enabled the lowest cost of bandwidth in history.”

And because of the increased competition and dropping price points on both hardware and bandwidth,” there is pressure on the operators to cut cost more anywhere they possibly can,” Hartshorn added. “So they are trying to find ways to get themselves out of the business if issuing type-approvals, of conducting tests, of having in-house expertise dedicated to this sort of operational endeavor, as has been the case in the past. They are just trying to distance themselves from it to the extent they can while maintaining quality of service.”

And to address the issue of cutting those operational costs, the MRA Working Group will be looking at ways to standardize the earth station type-approvals process in much of the same way they did with the type-approvals process for terminals and terminal subsystems.

“The answer is we already developed the solution for the problem,” Hartshorn said.

Meeting At Satellite 2005

To help push the move toward standardized testing procedures for earth station type-approvals, the GVF MRA Working Group will be hosting an open March 21 at the Washington International Convention Center from 1:00 p.m. EST to 5:00 p.m. EST, immediately preceding the SATELLITE 2005 Conference & Exhibition. Serving as acting chair for the meeting will be Calvin Harriott, a GVF Associate Member and independent consultant who recently was unanimously elected as the organization’s eighth Accredited Test Entity by members of the MRA Working Group.

“This meeting is being held to put on the table the availability of [the GVF MRA Working Group] to tackle this fairly substantial challenge,” Hartshorn said.

Hartshorn noted that one of the solutions to the earth station type-approvals question “would be potentially to endorse a global standard related to satellite earth stations. We should consider as a strong candidate the International Telecommunication Union standards on earth stations and performance.”

Parties interested in participating in the meeting should contact Hartshorn via e-mail at [email protected].

–Gregory Twachtman

(David Hartshorn, GVF, +44 1727-884 739)