Archive for the ‘Satellite Internet’ Category
WALES SWITCHES ON TO SATELLITE BROADBAND
Welsh householders and businesses are increasingly turning to new satellite broadband technology to solve their internet access problems.
Sales in Wales of the Avonline Tooway satellite broadband service are up by 60 per cent in the past three months following a roadshow which toured Wales in the autumn to demonstrate how the new service could deliver fast broadband speeds to any home in the principality.
People living in the counties of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire led the switchover, with those in Ceredigion and Powys also keen to make the change.
Despite a nationwide investment commitment to deliver Next Generation broadband to every home and business in the future, right now, too many people in rural or remote areas remain unable to adequately access the internet because of the distance they live from a telephone exchange or fibre-optic network. Currently more than one in 10 UK households is unable to receive a 2Mbps broadband connection – the minimum target requirement set by the UK Government.
A new generation of Ka technology satellites went live last year. They beam fast, reliable broadband across the whole of the country. Users can choose a download speed of 6 Mbps, 8 Mbps or 10 Mbps with prices starting at £24.95 per month
“Satellite internet access guarantees the same high level of performance in every location regardless of landscape – on the top of a mountain, in the middle of the countryside, in a small isolated village or a city street. All you need is a small 74cm dish and a modem,” said Mark Wynn of satellite broadband specialist company Avonline. “It doesn’t matter if plans for high-speed fibre optic or advanced copper networks are not due to arrive for years.”
He believes the surge in sales can be attributed to greater understanding of the new technology. “It seems that many people don’t really understand — or have outdated opinions of — what satellite broadband can deliver. Using this Next Generation Ka satellite technology, our demonstrations, talks and marketing material are helping people to appreciate the immediate role that satellite broadband can play,” he said.
Approximately 785,000 adults are digitally excluded in Wales and the Welsh Government recently extended its £2 million Broadband Support Scheme for Wales to enable those in areas where broadband connection speeds are less than 2 Mb per second to access up to £1,000 grant to cover the cost of hardware and installation of a new broadband system. Avonline teams are encouraging homeowners to apply for one of the BSS grants to fund the cost of the satellite hardware and installation.
“This service is now available to everyone in Wales immediately. They do not even need a telephone line to get great broadband in their homes straight away. It can provide a real lifeline to those who are currently digitally excluded,” said Mark Wynn.
Faced with the difficulty in getting adequate Internet access, some villagers come together to try to attract funding for a community wide scheme. “Community schemes are to be commended but require an enormous amount of effort by the villagers themselves, and a widespread commitment. They also usually take months and even years to get a project up and running.
“The advantage of satellite broadband is that anyone can decide individually whether or not they want fast broadband and if they do they can get it immediately,” said Mark Wynn.
Unlike traditional fixed line broadband, satellite download speeds do not drop when neighbours are using the service, so a 10 Mbps service from a satellite delivers a true 10 Mbps.
Using Tooway Broadband from Avonline can also mean free telephone calls using the internet, and subscription-free HD TV through the same dish.
Newtec Demonstrates 372 Mbps Throughput Over An Intelsat 72 Mhz Ku-Transponder
Satellite communications specialist Newtec has demonstrated 372 Mbps bidirectional throughput and 313 Mbps unidirectional throughput over a 72 Mhz Intelsat Ku-transponder.
What started out as a simple test of a number of Newtec’s recently released and upcoming technologies ended in a quite exceptional report. During the actual test an Intelsat 72 MHz Ku band transponder was saturated using Newtec’s latest modem technology and a mere 4.5 meter antenna. The result using Wideband, Clean Channel Technology™ (CCT) and Equalink® (Newtec technologies) was a staggering 313 Mbps. Amazingly that did not include the use of the upcoming modulation and coding DVB-S2 extensions that Newtec’s 200-head engineering team is working on.
When adding a return carrier within the same transponder and Newtec’s 2nd generation Bandwidth Canceller (ZN781), 372 Mbps was reached, by far exceeding current market available alternatives within the same link conditions. The Newtec Bandwidth Canceller and CCT will also feature at the 2012 Satellite Washington show.
Newtec CEO, Serge Van Herck, indicates that customers can already take full benefit of those technologies with the exception of the wideband modem technology. The latter will become commercially available later this year.
“Our customers will be able to achieve a new level of speed and efficiency,” said Van Herck. “This extra satellite transmission efficiency enables considerable operational savings. The higher speed levels will help our customers to increase the total amount of services provided within the available satellite bandwidth. Our partners are mainly looking at high speed IP links, Government Networks and Video Contribution links when expressing their need for higher efficiency.”
The technologies used in the test and the upcoming technologies will be made available to major operators and service providers for testing prior to their commercial release as Newtec is looking forward to sharing this experience and collecting feedback from the Industry.
“It’s Newtec’s intent to productize the most efficient modulation and demodulation algorithms and to help standardization bodies with defining and bringing new standards to the market.” said Dirk Breynaert, Newtec’s Co-founder, Chief Technical Officer and long term contributor to the industry’s progress.
“We are strong believers in a non-proprietary technology approach, sharing our innovations to the benefit of the whole satellite industry. Standardisation also creates the necessary economy of scale to keep costs as low as possible. I guess keeping the operators and service providers profitable and ahead of terrestrial alternatives, has turned out to be the best constant over our 27 years of existence” Breynaert concludes.
The Tough 20 Tooway™ Broadband Challenge: Connecting the toughest UK locations to high-speed broadband
Satellite broadband provider Skylogic today announced plans to install its Tooway™ new-generation broadband service in 20 of the toughest locations across the UK as part of its “Tough 20 Tooway Broadband Challenge”.
The company, a subsidiary of Eutelsat, Europe’s leading satellite operator, is inviting local authorities to suggest the toughest locations for connecting high-speed broadband services. It will install the Tooway™ 10mbps satellite broadband service in the 20 locations and provide a free service to the local community for 2012. The first locations will be announced in the coming weeks.
Steve Petrie, Skylogic’s Director for Tooway™ in the UK and Northern Europe said: “With over 40% of people in UK rural areas still not receiving broadband speeds greater than 2Mbps, it’s no surprise that many people still think that broadband is just not possible in Not Spots and Slow Spots. This may have been true in the past, but no longer. Tooway™ can deliver high speed broadband to everyone, everywhere and we intend to prove with the “Tough 20 Tooway Broadband Challenge” that there need be no exclusions to broadband access.”
Tooway™ provides users with an always-on service delivering speeds of up to 10Mbps downstream and 4Mbps upstream, with no need for a telephone line. Customer equipment comprises a small satellite dish (77 cm) and a sleek modem, which is connected to a PC or Mac via an Ethernet connection. Tooway™ can also be used for Voice over IP telephony and IPTV. Direct-to-Home reception of television channels from adjacent broadcast satellites is also possible with a dual-feed (Ku-Ka) LNB.
The new-generation service is delivered via Eutelsat’s innovative KA-SAT satellite, which has ushered in a new era of competitively priced, satellite-delivered IP services for homes and small businesses across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. The satellite forms the cornerstone of a satellite infrastructure, which includes eight main satellite gateways across Europe connected to the Internet by a fibre backbone ring.