Archive for the 'Astra' Category
Jul 16, 2009, post by Artur Ślesik
With a new hurricane season just underway and network outages a constant risk, SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES, a division of SES S.A. (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG), today announced Spacenet has signed a multiyear satellite capacity agreement to help meet growing demand for emergency communications capabilities across North America.
“Satellite is often the only game in town when vast terrestrial networks are down. Our satellites are well positioned to provide redundancy and reliability to Spacenet and its customers across North America”
As part of the agreement, SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES is providing Spacenet with expanded capacity on its AMC-4, AMC-5 and AMC-6 satellites, enabling Spacenet to offer reliable anywhere, anytime connectivity to businesses, governments and law enforcement agencies in the event of catastrophic storms, network glitches, and other unforeseen outages. The Missouri Department of Transportation’s satellite-based continuity solution, winner of the 2009 Innovation and Technology Award at the International Satellite and Communications Exchange (ISCe) Conference, is one of a growing number of emergency networks delivered by Spacenet and SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES.
“Natural and network disasters know no boundaries, so we have enlisted SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES and three of the best-located satellites over North America to help us keep our business, government and public safety customers connected no matter what comes along,” said Glenn Katz, Spacenet’s President and Chief Operating Officer, noting the federal government’s stimulus bill is driving business in support of rural underserved markets and public safety initiatives. “We’re implementing our fixed and mobile VSAT networks and leveraging SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES’ always on connection in virtually every region of the country at the consumer and public safety level,” Katz added.
“Insurance companies, banks, grocery chains, transportation and crisis management personnel, and law enforcement officials are among the mission-critical providers that have built their emergency communications networks on the Spacenet and SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES platforms,” said Andrew Ruszkowski, Vice President of North America Enterprise Solutions for SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES. “Satellite is often the only game in town when vast terrestrial networks are down. Our satellites are well positioned to provide redundancy and reliability to Spacenet and its customers across North America,” Ruszkowski explained.
Like the Missouri DOT, corporations and organizations of all kinds are joining the Spacenet solution on the SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES platform, which integrates terrestrial communications assets with satellite connectivity to keep operations running when primary networks are affected. The Missouri DOT solution is based on fixed and transportable satellite systems and supports full voice over IP (VoIP), Radio over IP, and Internet access. Seamless transmission and control capabilities enable the satellite system to interconnect with remote tower sites and legacy systems.
May 09, 2009, post by Satellite News
In fact in Europe, even in the Western Europe, still are places where terrestrial internet access is unavailable. One of such places are Balearic Islands. There is nothing for but satellite internet services.
Apr 22, 2009 SES ASTRA has announced that it has signed a second distribution agreement for ASTRA2Connect for the Spanish market with the internet service provider Net2. Net2 will offer four different speed packages with download rates of up to 2,048 kbit/s. The technology offers an interactive broadband internet access, including internet telephony, for flat service fees, among others for households in rural areas.
ASTRA2Connect is claimed to be an ideal broadband solution for households in regions with limited or no terrestrial broadband infrastructure. “Our distribution agreement with Net2 shows again that ASTRA2Connect is ideally suited to bridge the digital divide in Europe,” said Norbert Willems, Managing Director of ASTRA Broadband Services. “Net2 is committed to provide cost-effective internet access to those regions in Spain that so far have been excluded from access to high-speed internet,” said Juan Mañosa, Marketing Director of Net2.
Pricing for Astra2Connect modems range from 299 to 350€. European ASTRA2Connect system encourages user-installation and provides detailed instructions for installing the system and correctly aligning the dish. SES ASTRA is really the leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite system in Europe. The satellite system delivers services to more than 122 million households and transmits nearly 2,500 analogue and digital television and radio channels. SES ASTRA also provides internet connections system based on satellites to enterprises, governments and their agencies using Astra and Sirius satellite systems with prime orbital positions for ASTRA and SIRIUS: 19.2° East, 28.2° East, 23.5° East, 5° East and 31.5° East.
Confirmation of this are judgements arising from real life situation of many Europeans living in the country. On one of the UK online forums we read:
I am testing out a satellite internet connection – a dish – as a temporary solution. Its 1Mb/128Kb bandwidth and inherent latency is far from what’s needed to be fully active on the web today, but it sure beats what I’ve had up until now. After a few days I got the connection upgraded to 2Mb/128Kb bandwidth, which is max available on ASTRA2Connect. Helps a bit for general surfing. […] The wireless connection I have had as only option for the last couple of years, has been a complete disaster. Now and then the connection has actually worked, but if I say it has worked acceptable for maybe 10% of the time over the last two years, I’m being awfully kind. […] Failing connection has definitely ruined my day, and staying on line has cost way too much money for little to no return. Up until now there has been nothing I could do about this communication disaster, but now – thank God – it’s over.”
Apr 07, 2009, post by Satellite News
Mobile TV in Europe delivered via satellites came closer to reality over the weekend following the successful launch of Solaris Mobile’s first S-band payload in Kazakhstan.
Dublin, Ireland-based Solaris is a joint venture between SES Astra and Eutelsat that plans to provide mobile video, navigation and emergency assistance services to broadcasters, telco operators, the automotive industry and data communication providers throughout Europe.
One major concern remains for the project in that Solaris, after three years of hard work by its Thales Alenia satellite builders and the establishment of a Dublin sales office, has not as yet received its license to operate.
The European Commission is set to award licenses this month, and possibly this week. The favorites to gain the licenses, the awarding of which has been mired in controversy, includes Solaris Mobile and Inmarsat, the UK-based satellite operator.
If so, the he decision will leave the two US bidders, ICO Global Communications and TerreStar, disappointed.
The European Commission has chosen to pool the S-band licenses from all its member states, and award them in one block. Usually, bands of spectrum are awarded or auctioned on a country-by-country basis.
It’s the first company to offer a hybrid satellite and terrestrial infrastructure for European mobile services.
Services envisaged for the S-band include mobile video broadcasting applications across Europe for a host of mobile devices including phones, PDAs, iPods, games consoles and laptops. The S-band will also be able to support the deployment of mobile interactive applications of particular benefit for the transport and automotive sectors.
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The next a few weeks will also be taken up with testing the so called W2A satellite and placing it into its correct orbital position (at 10 deg East). Commercial services are expected by the end of the year, but could be delayed if the EC delays the licensing procedure.
Solaris has six separate ‘footprints’ over Europe to aid efficiency and power levels. The primary markets are grouped linguistically and include the UK and Ireland; France, South Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland; Italy, Germany/Austria, the Iberian peninsula and Poland.
