More Future Internet Satellite's News

[zalternate]

Interesting that since ViaSat bought WildBlue, that as customers leave, ViaSat is not going to replace them on the more congested beams. That way is to give current users more bandwidth to make their Internet experience a bit better.

And information on lots of new high throughput satellite's soon to be launched for various areas of the world.

http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/100521-viasat-reposition-wildblue.html

21 May, 2010

ViaSat To Reposition WildBlue as Higher-end Service Offering

PARIS — Satellite broadband hardware and services provider ViaSat Inc. told investors it will not systematically replace subscribers leaving the WildBlue consumer broadband service in certain densely populated regions of the United States, but instead will reposition WildBlue as a higher-quality service as it prepares for a big satellite scheduled for launch in 2011.

ViaSat Chief Executive Mark D. Dankberg in the past has criticized consumer broadband efforts for short-term thinking, saying they have tried to stuff as many subscribers as possible onto a given amount of satellite bandwidth, often resulting in mediocre service. He has said satellite broadband will carve out a sizable market niche only if it approaches the bandwidth and price levels of today’s DSL service.

For Dankberg and ViaSat, the question since their purchase of WildBlue in late 2009 was whether they were willing to risk the revenue hit that would follow an attempt to give each subscriber more bandwidth by reducing WildBlue subscriptions in high-demand regions.

In a May 14 conference call with investors, Dankberg said ViaSat would be doing exactly that as it prepares the market for its large ViaSat-1 Ka-band broadband satellite designed to provide much more bandwidth than that currently offered by WildBlue.

Dankberg said Carlsbad, Calif.-based ViaSat, at the same time as it lets the subscriber count in the eastern United States drop with customer attrition, will be redoubling efforts to lure subscribers in the western U.S. states, where the WildBlue satellites have plenty of available capacity.

“Growth there would mostly offset reductions in the subscriber count in the eastern half of the U.S., as we aim to reduce network loading that we inherited from the prior management in those beams,” Dankberg said. “Demand [in the east] is still high, but we are trying to change the perception of satellite broadband. One of the factors is loading on the network. We have a different view of how that should be, compared to how it was with WildBlue when we acquired it.”

ViaSat-1 is scheduled for launch in February or March 2011. If ViaSat is correct in its analysis of the demand for low-cost, high-bandwidth satellite broadband, it will need a backup satellite. But the company is already testing the nerves of its investors with ViaSat-1, and Dankberg said a ViaSat-1 satellite would await the arrival of co-investors.

“There’s a pretty good chance this could come together in this calendar year,” Dankberg said. “But we’ll be pretty clear when that point occurs, and it hasn’t quite yet.”

He said a ViaSat-2 satellite, if ordered in late 2010, could be in orbit in 2013.

ViaSat’s principal U.S. competitor, Hughes Communications of Germantown, Md., has a similarly large-throughput satellite, called Jupiter, under construction and scheduled for launch in 2012.

Hughes and ViaSat are extending their broadband competition into Europe, with ViaSat allied with satellite fleet operator Eutelsat of Paris and Hughes allied with startup satellite broadband provider Avanti Communications of London.

Avanti’s first dedicated satellite, Hylas, is scheduled for launch late this year, as is the larger Ka-Sat under construction for Eutelsat.

Dankberg said Eutelsat’s vision of satellite broadband for consumers is similar to ViaSat’s. He said Eutelsat has indicated it would load no more than 1 million subscribers onto Ka-Sat, which has 70 gigabits per second of throughput capacity. He said Avanti’s plans have also referenced 1 million subscribers to be fitted onto two satellites with a combined capacity of around 10 gigabits per second.

Eutelsat spokeswoman Vanessa O’Connor said May 19 that the company has referred to a subscriber base of between 1 million and 2 million for Ka-Sat. Avanti has said its Hylas 1 and Hylas 2 satellites, with a combined 11.3 gigabits per second of throughput, can accommodate up to 1.35 million subscribers.

Beyond North America and Europe, Hughes and ViaSat are struggling to establish positions with several Ka-band consumer broadband satellites that several governments are considering to provide broadband to rural regions.

ViaSat has lined up Yahsat of the United Arab Emirates as a partner. Yahsat is launching two satellites in 2011.

The Australian government is weighing a private-public partnership to launch two Ka-band satellites to cover Australia’s territory as part of the National Broadband Network. A decision to proceed with construction of the satellites has not been made, but both ViaSat and Hughes are primed to enter the market.

Hughes on May 13 announced the formation of a Hughes Australia subsidiary, “demonstrating the company’s commitment to serve this strategic and rapidly growing market, particularly in the area of Ka-band satellite technology and services.”

Dankberg said ViaSat expects the Australian project to move forward this year. Other, similar networks are being debated in Latin America, Russia, parts of Asia and Africa, he said.

ViaSat is also seeing increased government, especially military, demand for airborne broadband to deliver intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data over the Middle East using ViaSat’s ArcLight modem technology developed for commercial markets.

“Our success [in airborne ISR] has made it evident how applying advanced commercial satellite technologies can really outperform existing government organic capabilities,” Dankberg said. “That’s an important theme for us, especially as these new commercial Ka-band satellite platforms are being launched in the next year or so in Europe, the United States and then the Middle East.”

Edited May 22, 2010 by zalternate

[WebUser]

They need to be in the $50 range or less without an unreasonable FAP cap.

[tommie gorman]

They need to be in the $50 range or less without an unreasonable FAP cap.

And that right there is 90% of all complaints. I sure new ones would arise if those were fixed, but it would actually make satelite livable for more. And less would run to EVDO when given the chance. For now EVDO is even cheaper besides better service. I did not hesitate when given the chance. I RAN >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..........................

[zalternate]

And that right there is 90% of all complaints. I sure new ones would arise if those were fixed, but it would actually make satelite livable for more. And less would run to EVDO when given the chance. For now EVDO is even cheaper besides better service. I did not hesitate when given the chance. I RAN >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..........................

And here I thought that 90% of the complaints were for "slower than dialup" in the evening.

If people paying about $80 a month could keep a speed of 1.5Mbps 24/7 , they would be happier. And a FAP limit per month of about 30GB's. 'Almost' like 'cheap' DSL.

[WebUser]

Well, I'm on StarBand at $50 with a rolling 7 day 1Gb cap which averages about 130Mb/day. Speeds are fine for the most part on the new satellite, but we still get some rain-fade in heavy weather. I take steps such as blocking images to stay well under the cap most days, but even at that I hit about 110Mb the other day just using boards like this. They have a free (non-metered) period between 12Midnight and 6AM Eastern which I use for software updates.

[zalternate]

Well, I'm on StarBand at $50 with a rolling 7 day 1Gb cap which averages about 130Mb/day. Speeds are fine for the most part on the new satellite, but we still get some rain-fade in heavy weather. I take steps such as blocking images to stay well under the cap most days, but even at that I hit about 110Mb the other day just using boards like this. They have a free (non-metered) period between 12Midnight and 6AM Eastern which I use for software updates.

In 'options'(my settings), under 'forum' , you can disable all the user pics and smilee's.

This is from a canadian site for Starband....

http://bigskysat.com/starband_faq

Please note that the FAP thresholds are only monitored between the hours of 6:00am and 12:00am.

Nova Pro 1000 (1024/128)

Download Threshold (rolling 7 day period) - 2000 Mbytes

Download Exit threshold (rolling 7 day period) - 1500 Mbytes

Nova Pro 1500 (1.5/256)

Download Threshold (rolling 7 day period) - 5000 Mbytes

Download Exit threshold (rolling 7 day period) - 4000 Mbytes

[generallee76]

Interesting that since ViaSat bought WildBlue, that as customers leave, ViaSat is not going to replace them on the more congested beams. That way is to give current users more bandwidth to make their Internet experience a bit better.

And information on lots of new high throughput satellite's soon to be launched for various areas of the world.

http://www.spacenews...n-wildblue.html

I thank you for this information on this subject. Yes, I am still stuck with Wildblue seeing that AT&T has yet to upgrade the local cell tower to 3G as they said that they would....So much for that.....I hope more people drop off this beam I am on. Its said to be one of the Nations most congested, I can only at this point HOPE.

[Roco]

OK Sat is none of my buisness ,The UK is a small island , I don't know anyone over here on sat , it's either Adsl via phone line or Fibre optic cable in the larger towns , but I was thinking ( dangerous for me ,I might have to go and lay down ) sure America and Canada are vast , and beyond my comprehension on size , but railways cross both , laid wayback in the good old days , I figure a Sat is a short lived costly item , never going to have great speed or pings , surly it's cheaper long term to lay cable , maybe to the nearest town then wirelless link from there , ? , the UK now has Adsl to 90% of folk , some I agree are only seeing about 1.5 Mbps , the remaining 10% are slowly getting radio relay links , maybe having one national phone company back 40 years was a good thing ( anyone had the right to a phone line no matter how remote , ) Sorry if my comments sound stupid , but it's the only way I learn BTW , I just re- thougth this post , in the England I guess you can't be further than 30 miles away from a town , and mountains are no bigger than a nipple on a virigin , ADSL on the phone line ? 8 years back my line was good for a max of 2Mbps , same line now gives me 6 Mbps , soon to be going to 24Mbps , ( fibre to the local cabinet , 400 yards away ) to me Sat dosn't seem the way forward , Regards Roco UK

[zalternate]

OK Sat is none of my buisness ,The UK is a small island , I don't know anyone over here on sat , it's either Adsl via phone line or Fibre optic cable in the larger towns

Might you have a talk with our government? You hit the nail on the head. But then again, our Government is two years behind in all their data anyways. So it's like talking to a outhouse. It stinks and isn't of much use other than slinging your crap in it.

But I always mention that DSL could be expanded easily with a small government subsidy. That way it can be available to a grouped community of 30 homes(Well a 6 mile circle. 15,000 feet reach from the box). And then the sparsely populated areas could have a WISP(some are a bit dodgey) or Cellular high speed Internet. And then satellite for the really sparse areas.

Edited June 21, 2010 by zalternate

[Doug Huffman]

Might you have a talk with our government? You hit the nail on the head. But then again, our Government is two years behind in all their data anyways. So it's like talking to a outhouse. It stinks and isn't of much use other than slinging your crap in it.

It is amazing how easily a pair of old socialists agree with each other.

The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.

[zalternate]

It is amazing how easily a pair of old socialists agree with each other.

A funny one was when I contacted the BC Government broadband expansion division a while back and they called some computer repair guy an ISP. I think they just look in the phone book sometimes.

So hows WildBlue user complaints/cheers lately anyways?