[Satellite TODAY [05-21-13] In the June edition, we took an in-depth look at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India China, South Africa) markets for satellite. We also looked at DTH in India, network management, and feature extensive analysis of the hosted payload market, as well big interviews with Vitaly Lopota, president, RSC Energia and Dave Alpert, CTO, HBO Europe. Here are the 10 best quotes from this edition:

 

“Because the fiber distance and network distances are fairly short, and we are fiber rich now in this part of the world, it is economically advantageous to not do this via satellite.” – Dave Alpert, CTO, HBO Europe, talks about the fiber/satellite equation for HBO Europe.

 

“Initially we faced some technical issues with some of the first flights reporting a connection which was not entirely stable and, as a result, many passengers were not able to get a decent high-speed connection. When we checked our systems, it revealed that only 70 percent satellite availability was registered during the flight so, there was a question of reliability. Since then, we have worked with vendors to come up with a technical solution, and now our airplanes are able to get a decent connection over 95 percent of the time. We had to install new software in order to get a much better experience for passengers.” – Sergey Popov, deputy technical director, Interior & IFE Strategy, Transaero Airlines, admits implementing an in-flight connectivity solution has been far from easy.

 

“All of the DTH operators could do with double the capacity we have right now. DirecTV is apparently uplinking 3,000 channels today in a fairly homogenous market. Can you imagine the capacity that India will need going forward with its linguistic and cultural diversity? We use 12 transponders right now. We could double the number and that would still not meet our needs.” – Yigit Riza, CTO, Tata Sky, speaks of the DTH operator’s huge demand for satellite capacity in India

 

“The government said in a recent declaration that India as a market has less than 13 million broadband customers. Unless the sustained last mile bandwidth goes beyond 2 Mbps, it is not sufficient to get a good business case for OTT.” – Aniraj Ramabhadran, head of Devices, Reliance Digital TV, does not see a good business case for OTT in India.

 

“If we look at capacity in terms of communications technology, there is a definite need for affordable capacity at very high bandwidth, specifically in the rollout of a number of potential services, which the government could offer to the developing communities in South Africa. I am talking about health, education services etc.” – Francois Denner, space program manager, SANSA, examines the role of satellite in South Africa.

“Innovations I am most excited about include modem advances that enable satellite signals to adapt and not go down in rainy or degraded environments. Those systems are really coming into the forefront.” – Chris Schram, executive vice president of operations for O3b, talks about some key innovations in network management.

“Ninety percent of our technical support calls are related to network management issues at the remote site. Video streaming is a big challenge because it takes up bandwidth on a continuous basis.” – Max Usatov, CTO of BusinessCom Networks, discusses trends in network management.

“We’re looking at doing potential hosted payload solutions to support virtually all of our missions, from overhead persistent infrared for the nation’s early missile warnings to communications and weather missions. If we’re going to put something on orbit, one of the initial questions now that we ask is, ‘Does it make sense to do a hosted payload?’” – Col. Scott Beidleman, director, development planning, SMC, offers some insight into the potential for hosted payloads for the U.S. military.

“Despite the high level of connectivity in the United States, only a relatively small number of subscribers are connected to satellite broadband services on a daily basis. The needs of the Russian market are even higher. Progress here will depend on satellite technologies, which is why RSC Energia in cooperation with EADS-Astrium is developing a joint venture to create Ka-band satellites for Russian consumers.” – Vitaly Lopota, president, RSC Energia, talks satellite broadband in Russia.