Satellite Internet Service

Satellite broadband player reveals triple play service

2011-06-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Satellite broadband player reveals triple play service

In tandem with Eutelsat’s pan-European roll out of high-speed services, Irish satellite broadband firm Satellite Broadband Ireland has rebranded as Onwave and will in the coming weeks increase broadband speeds to 10Mbps and introduce new phone and TV services.

Onwave will focus on a core target market of 210,843 home and business internet users in Ireland who currently connect to the internet at speeds less than 2Mbps, including 54,718 who are still on narrowband or dial-up connections.

Users will receive a number of choices depending on their usages. A standard 6Mbps broadband, TV and home phone package costs from €22.49 and a 6Mb broadband-only service starts at €17.49, rising to €37.49 for 10Mbps as part of an introductory offer for a three-month period.

“The benefits will also spread to rural businesses, who will be able to compete on an equal footing with their urban counterparts, helping to spread employment and opportunities nationwide,” said Kevin Ryan, chief executive, Onwave.

The services coincided with European communications giant Eutelsat unveiling this week its new pan-European, high-speed broadband network, which will deliver cost-efficient broadband to the remotest regions of Europe and of Ireland.

The deployment includes delivery on a promise of a new €7m ground station at Elfordstown, Co Cork.

Laurent Paul of Eutelsat explained that the latest developments in satellite technology KA-SAT will mean capacity to support up to 1m users across Europe with competitive broadband services.

“This is the most powerful satellite coverage between Europe and the Mediterranean,” Paul said.

What this means for Irish consumers, Ryan said, would be guaranteed broadband services starting at 6Mbps download with a 1Mbps upload.

He hinted at a future professional service with 40Mbps and 20Mbps download speeds.
Triple-play TV

Ryan said the new TV offers will include free sat TV with 150 channels, including the Saorview channels, and competitively priced phone services.

“This means that Ireland will now get a truly universal guaranteed triple-play offer across 100pc of the country, unlike certain services that reach just 40pc of the country,” Ryan said.
source: www.siliconrepublic.com

Eutelsat Launches Broadband Satellite Internet In Europe

2011-06-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

June 05, 2011 - In America, there's HughesNet. It's usually a last-resort for people seeking high-speed internet, mostly for two reasons. For one, it's crazy expensive. Two, it's really slow, at least on the uplink.

But satellite-based internet is still useful in rural places where no other broadband is available, and evidently those same demands are also present in Europe. Eutelsat has just launched satellite internet across Europe, and it's being called the most powerful satellite in the entire world. It just went into service this week, giving broadband speeds to over a million homes in Europe that are currently doing without.

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The KA-SAT was launched at the end of 2010, and just now went into service. It's set to provide consumers up to 10Mb/sec download and 4Mb/sec upload rates, and it will also provide an enterprise service of up to 50Mb/sec. Based on reports, there are 13 million homes across Europe that are "too remote" to get normal high-speed internet, and there's another 17 million that cannot get services greater than 2Mb/sec.

The E.U. is currently trying to give broadband access to every citizen by 2013, and launching a satellite like this definitely moves them in the right direction.

It cost around 350 million Euros to get it online, and there's no plans now to launch a second. We're still waiting to hear how much this service will cost on a per-home basis, but for those who have had no internet at all, anything reasonable will likely be seen as acceptable. One step closer to global 'net access -- we'll take it!
source: hothardware.com

Rural group’s critique of satellite broadband is missing critical information

2011-05-22T05:27:00.000-07:00

The Rural Mobile and Broadband Alliance is an advocacy group with a range of rural broadband service members, including ISPs and municipalities. But one type of company you’re unlikely to see joining the group any time soon is satellite providers.

RuMBA last week issued a white paper questioning the viability of relying on satellite Internet to provide broadband connectivity for unserved or underserved rural areas. The paper raises several concerns that we hear quite frequently about satellite services—including relatively low bandwidth, susceptibility to weather conditions and high latency. But it also brings up some issues that have not been so well recognized—such as satellite operators’ policy of putting daily caps on broadband usage which, the author says, effectively prevent the use of satellite downloads for streaming full-length movies, among other things.

The paper argues passionately for the need to bring broadband services to rural areas that are comparable to what most Americans have. “No longer a mere inconvenience, lack of access to broadband now constitutes a potential death sentence for rural communities thus afflicted,” the author writes.

The major problem with the paper, however, is that it makes no recognition of the fact that the major satellite operators soon plan to launch higher-capacity satellites, which they claim will provide greater bandwidth. The satellite operators say they have also taken steps to minimize the impact of latency.

Perhaps some of these claims could be disputed. For example, perhaps the expanded capacity will enable satellite operators to remove or adjust the daily cap, but they might find they need to re-instate the cap as demand grows.

But not to recognize the new satellite developments at all is a serious flaw.
source: blog.connectedplanetonline.com

Eastern Libya battles to reconnect with TV channels and phone networks

2011-04-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Apr 14, 2011 - BENGHAZI // Libyans are battling to rebuild communication and media networks to ease the isolation of the rebel-held east and counter the propaganda of Col Muammar Qaddafi's regime.

Two television stations have been set up, and a team of engineers and businessmen have taken control of part of a national mobile phone network shut down by the government in Tripoli after the uprising began two months ago.

The media projects are part of a broader effort by the Provisional National Council in Benghazi to establish itself as a fully functional and independent international player.

But the rebel-held territory has struggled to restore its communications with the outside world.

A rebel fighter aims his rocket-propelled grenade at a vehicle

"My mother is in Egypt, my sister in Vienna and I have family in Switzerland. I communicate with them on Skype," said Suzanne Hemmy, 38, a Benghazi resident who usually gets online at the media centre set up by the rebels near the Benghazi courthouse, one of the few places in town with a satellite internet connection.

On Tuesday, Libyans and foreign workers crowded a cafe with a similar internet connection on the Benghazi corniche to call their families and friends abroad.

The lack of communication has also affected the military campaign. Rebel commanders are relying on unstable and insecure satellite and mobile phone networks. Their lack of a proper communications system has cost them in blood.

A Nato air strike that mistakenly hit a rebel tank convoy last week killing five fighters was likely the result of Col Qaddafi's penetration of the rebels' use of the satellite phone system, said Col Ahmed Bani, the rebel military spokesman.

He said the air strike happened because Col Qaddafi's forces called the rebel commander in charge of the tank column in the field posing as a superior officer and ordered him to advance westward.

"This led to Nato bombing the convoy," Mr Bani said. "Obtaining a proper communications system is a central pillar of our efforts."

"The origin of the mistake [is that] there were Qaddafi's supporters infiltrating the satellite phone network," he said.

Restoring communications for Libyans has been the focus of a project by a team of Libyan telecom experts and businessmen based in the UAE and the United States. They have worked for weeks along with engineers from the Benghazi branch of the largest national mobile phone company, Libyana, to create a system independent from Tripoli.

The team retook control of the phone system, said Mohammad Kamal al Darat, a 29-year old businessman based in the UAE, who is one of the men involved. Rebel officials in Benghazi the Qatar government also provided key help with the project.

Residents using the new network can call inside eastern Libya for free and without problems. They can now also receive phone calls from outside the country, but this service is still intermittent and the international network is very busy.

The same team worked on the establishment of a Libya English language television station, which aims to counter the media propaganda of the Qaddafi regime by offering a different picture of Libya to the outside world.

"We want to give an image of what exactly is happening in the country," said Anas, a 38-year-old Libyan-American, involved in the creation of the channel. Anas declined to give his last name for fear of repercussion against his relatives in Tripoli.

The channel will begin broadcasting online in about a week and on satellite in about six weeks, team members said. The team already purchased video equipment and editing software and recruited local and foreign staff. On Sunday, when an African Union delegation visited Benghazi, they had reporters on the ground covering the event.

Qatar also helped set up another TV station, Libya al Ahrar, or Free Libya, based in Doha and is now broadcasting a three-hour daily news programme on satellite with the help of a group of Libyan reporters on the ground in Benghazi.

The attempt to improve media and communications in the east come as the Provisional National Council hopes to improve its legitimacy on the international stage. Qatar, the first Arab country to recognise the Provisional National Council, recently signed a deal with the Benghazi-based government to market the oil produced in eastern Libya. The international sanctions imposed on Libya affected the export and import activities of the entire country.

Eastern Libya is now producing some food commodities - flower, pasta, rice - to sustain the basic needs of the population. It is harder though for Libyans to get dairy products, usually imported by the private sector.

Sanctions on international banking transactions have made it impossible for Libyan importers to make payments overseas. But the Provisional National Council is working "on some arrangements with the international community," said Abdallah Shamia, a rebel official on the economic and financial crisis team of the national council.
source: www.thenational.ae

Hughes HX280 Satellite Router Achieves Advanced Cryptographic Security Certification

2011-03-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

Product Certified to FIPS 140-2 Security Level 2 for Military and Government Use

GERMANTOWN, Md., March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite technologies and services, and a leading provider of managed network services, today announced its high-performance commercial satellite router, the HX280, has achieved Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Security Level 2 certification (certificate #1491), which is a cryptographic hardware and software accreditation given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Achieving Security Level 2 validates the HX280's sophisticated physical security mechanisms, including tamper-evident coating of the cryptographic keys and critical security parameters (CSPs), as well as other critical safeguards.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110112/NE29456LOGO )

The Hughes HX280 is optimized for communications-on-the-move (COTM), which includes but is not limited to military operations and deployed environments. It maintains low-jitter secure voice, video and data IP-broadband communications, and can be configured in star and mesh topologies for simultaneous operations. As part of the commercially successful HX System from Hughes, the HX280 has global coverage that is ideal for military or government customers in theater.

"We are pleased to be able to offer our HX customers validated FIPS 140-2 Security Level 2, which means an even higher level of enhanced security for military and government networks," said Daniel Losada, senior director of the Defense and Intelligence Systems Division at Hughes. "It further extends the many applications of the versatile HX280, enabling secure communications-on-the-move anywhere in the world, including current conflict zones. And it comes integrated with our HX ExpertNMS™, the most advanced network management system available, providing powerful network diagnostic tools via an intuitive, user-friendly interface."

The HX280 can be deployed on land, at sea or in the air for comprehensive and highly secure net-centric communications. Fully compliant with IPoS/DVB-S2, including Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM), the world's most successful satellite air interface standard approved by TIA, ETSI and ITU, the HX280 employs frequency division multiple access (FDMA)/time division multiple access (TDMA) channels supporting data rates of up to 121Mbps outbound and up to 9.6 Mbps inbound. Optional Enhanced Signaling Security which meets TRANSEC standards is also available on the HX280.

For more information on FIPS 140-2 Security Level 2, or to view the HX280's validation certificate, visit http://ow.ly/4b647.

About Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) is the world's leading provider of satellite broadband for home and office, delivering innovative network technologies, managed services, and solutions for enterprises and governments globally. HughesNet® is the #1 high-speed satellite Internet service in the marketplace, with offerings to suit every budget. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 2.5 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, representing over 50 percent market share. Its products employ global standards approved by TIA, ETSI, and ITU organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and GMR-1.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) operates sales and support offices worldwide, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: HUGH). For more information, please visit www.hughes.com.

©2011 Hughes Network Systems, LLC. Hughes, HughesNet, and HX ExpertNMS are trademarks of Hughes Network Systems, LLC.

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Aircell... Airing Out The Technologies

2011-03-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

March 10, 2011 - Multiple technology platforms address a variety of in-air communications needs.

Aircell has unveiled an expanded technology roadmap for the delivery of its revolutionary and widely deployed Gogo® Inflight Internet service. In addition to Aircell’s existing and highly successful Air-to-Ground (ATG) technology, the company will enable connectivity via a next generation version of ATG (“ATG-4”) as well as Ka-band satellite technology. These technology options will be selectable at the aircraft or fleet level and enable attractive solutions for every airline, aircraft and mission.

* Ka-band satellite: Aircell’s Ka-band satellite technology will provide additional capacity to supplement what is available through ATG, ATG-4 and current generation satellite technology, as well as enable Gogo service beyond the continental United States (CONUS). Based on satellite launch and antenna development schedules, Aircell expects its Ka-band technology to be available for CONUS in 2013 and globally by 2015. Aircell expects many aircraft to take advantage of its unique and proprietary ability to integrate air-to-ground solutions with satellite solutions for better performance, enhanced features and higher reliability
* Air-to-Ground (ATG): With a proven track record of performance, reliability and scalability, Aircell’s ATG-based service will continue to provide a rich user experience for connected travelers by featuring 3G wireless utilizing EV-DO Rev. A
* ATG-4: Aircell’s ATG-4 service will significantly enhance the existing ATG network and improve per aircraft capacity by approximately four times current performance through the addition of Directional Antenna, Dual Modem and EV-DO Rev. B technologies. ATG-4 is scheduled for commercial delivery beginning in the first half of 2012. This new platform is backwards compatible and allows for upgrades to existing ATG systems through low cost retrofits

By offering multiple technology platforms, Aircell is the only provider able to meet the needs of any aircraft and its mission. ATG’s combination of low cost, small equipment footprint and high performance will continue to delight travelers in the future. At the same time, many larger aircraft with higher capacity needs will benefit from the improvements enabled by ATG-4, again at a low cost and with a smaller equipment footprint as compared to satellite solutions. Aircraft with missions beyond CONUS will benefit from the geographic flexibility a satellite solution provides. In advance of the global availability of Ka-based satellite service, Aircell can provide a Ku-based satellite solution for the international needs of its airline partners. For commercial airlines, Aircell’s technology roadmap will allow airlines to select the technology that best suits particular aircraft at a particular time, and to easily upgrade from one Aircell platform to another. In addition, all Aircell network technologies will utilize its enormous advantage in proprietary “know how” (including over 30 US and international patents for its inflight connectivity solutions), and will leverage its world-class systems for technical monitoring and support, customer care and billing. In the business aviation market, Aircell currently offers three different inflight technologies, including Iridium Satellite, Inmarsat SwiftBroadband (satellite) and Gogo Biz™ (ATG). Specific details about ATG-4 and Ka-band satellite technologies for the business aviation market will be released in the coming months.
source: www.satnews.com

EU issues urgent call to 21 states on satellite network

2011-03-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Thursday ordered 21 EU states to get their act together and meet a deadline to install a pan-European mobile satellite network under its broadband-for-all drive.

Commission vice-president Neelie Kroes, a veteran of countless battles with telecoms providers over high roaming charges within the European Union single market, issued "an urgent call" to the 21 to "remove remaining legal uncertainties," a statement said.

The countries targeted are Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

Legal obstacles preventing two companies already selected by Brussels to develop the EU system centre on licence fees, the statement said.

The EU agreed in 2008 that pan-EU deployment of mobile satellite services should be in place by May 2011 at the latest for high-speed Internet, mobile television and radio or emergency communications to EU consumers and businesses.

The satellite network is also seen as key to ensuring innovative communications services reach rural and remote areas.
source: www.google.com

Astra offers satellite internet without dish

2011-03-10T15:53:00.000-08:00

Satellite operator SES Astra will offer households without broadband access from now on a possibility to gain high-speed internet via satellite without the need to install a satellite dish.

The data traffic is sent to the houses using the telephone line with computers being hooked up through a standard ADSL modem.

To be able to use the service, a central satellite dish for broadband service Astra2Connect has to be installed at the street cabinet of the local community. From there the signals are delivered to the households using the existing last-mile telephone infrastructure.

The solution, which can be implemented by telecommunications companies and internet service providers throughout Europe, enables a data rate of up to 6 Mbit/s. In German federal state Baden-Württemberg the technology is deployed for the first time in conjunction with the Ministry of Rural Affairs, Nutrition and Consumer Protection and supported by technology partners Nokia Siemens Networks and ND SatCom.

"Satellite is an ideal technology to offer rural areas without access to terrestrial broadband networks fast and reliable internet connections," said Michael Reiss, Division Vice President at the Ministry of Rural Affairs, Nutrition and Consumer Protection in Baden-Württemberg. "With SES Astra's new technology, communities in the white spots benefit from low costs in the set-up of the infrastructure which can be fully subsidised by a variety of funds available in Germany."
source: www.rapidtvnews.com

Satellite Internet plan could threaten GPS

2011-03-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Small, inexpensive GPS jammers carried by truckers have caused the occasional shutdown of the Laas test installation at Newark Airport. The devices, powered by simply plugging into the cigarette lighter, are intended to foil interrogations of the truck's remotely installed GPS and its coupled cellphone by the trucking company's dispatcher to check on the vehicleπs location and progress.

No one has a firm estimate of the number of truck drivers who carry GPS jammers in their back pockets as they roll down the interstates: estimates vary from "a few thousand" to "tens of thousands." However, their jamming periods are usually fairly short and infrequent, and regular unscheduled stops in the same area could soon attract a dispatcher's attention. On the other hand, since there are not too many likely stopping places of interest on the New Jersey Turnpike abeam of EWR, it seems probable that some drivers are forgetting to unplug their jammers after their last unscheduled stops.

Nevertheless, the truckers' combined efforts could never even come close to matching the GPS-jamming potential of the 40,000 much higher powered ground transmitters that would form the mainstays of a nationwide satellite voice and Internet data service proposed by LightSquared, a company formed last year.

Coast-to-coast Network

Using LightSquared data in preliminary laboratory tests, Garmin experts demonstrated that such stations would start to interfere with a standard production TSO'd and LPV-capable GPS airborne receiver at a range of 13.8 miles and would totally jam it at 5.6 miles. In Garminπs words, should the FCC approve LightSquared's proposal, the transmitter network would cause "widespread severe GPS jamming," and would "deny GPS service over vast areas of the United States." Unstated by Garmin would be the parallel impact on ADS-B, as well as the loss of vital GPS timing within the nationπs critical government and commercial infrastructure.

How can this be allowed? Essentially, it is because LightSquared will operate in the L-Band radio frequency group from 1525 to 1559 MHz assigned to mobile satellite services (MSS), while GPS operates in the adjacent radio navigation satellite service (RNSS) group from 1560 to 1610 MHz. And until now, operators such as Verizon, Sprint and others have followed the customary MSS practice of transmitting very-low-powered space-to-earth signals, supplemented in most cases by a small number of equally low-powered ground stations at locations with high radio noise backgrounds, and with neither having any effect on GPS. When LightSquared entered the scene last year by acquiring Terra–which already had a compliant MSS operation and the first of two new satellites under construction–it was expected to follow the same practice.

This turned out not to be. While the several current MSS operations have been only marginally profitable, with bankruptcies not uncommon in the past, LightSquared brought with it a different game plan. Possibly triggered by President Obama's 2010 initiative of unleashing the wireless broadband revolution, and with financial backing in the billions and a management team recruited from the top levels of the international satellite community, LightSquared stated that it would not offer its own services but would act solely as a wholesale provider of the satellite service to customers for their own applications. It subsequently requested an FCC waiver from an important provision of the licence it had acquired from Terra. That provision was the standing rule that an MSS operator with supplementary ground stations could only provide combined satellite/terrestrial user equipment to its customers. LightSquared defended its request by stating that while it would not itself offer terrestrial-only user equipment to its wholesale customers, "it contemplates that its customers may well offer terrestrial-only subscriptions to its consumers."

The FCC permitted the waiver, which would allow LightSquared to move away from the typically small number of low-powered MSS ground stations and establish a coast-to-coast network of 40,000 powerful stations to bring high-speed voice and Internet connectivity to 92 percent of the U.S. population by 2015, and to 100 percent a few years later. And although these stations are operating just outside the satellite navigation band, observers believe that their transmissions are certain to adversely affect GPS.

As a result, there has been widespread opposition to LightSquared's plan from all corners of the commercial satellite community and various user groups, including NBAA, as well as the federal departments of defense, transportation, commerce and homeland security. But the plan is already under way. On November 14 last year, LightSquared launched the first of its new geostationary satellites, the Boeing-built Sky Terra 1 with, at 72 feet in diameter, the biggest commercial antenna reflector in space. Its companion Sky Terra 2 satellite is forecast to be launched next year. Separately, cellphone builder Nokia is designing and will install and operate the ground station network under an eight-year, $7 billion contract from LightSquared.

Fortunately, the FCC hedged its waiver with the requirement that LightSquared cannot offer commercial services before an independent expert panel has agreed, over the next three months, that no risk of interference to GPS or other aviation or marine satellite services exists. LightSquared agreed to that condition, noting that full GPS operation would be essential to its own program, and also offering $20 million toward underwriting the investigations. But at the same time, the company implied that corrective action was not solely its responsibility, and suggested that the GPS community should also propose remedial measures. Somewhat surprisingly, the FCC appeared sympathetic to that viewpoint. The issue is therefore by no means settled, since it is difficult to see a solution that might require modifications to, or replacement of, GPS receivers already in civil use, assuming that the large majority of military systems already have adequate interference rejection capabilities.

Yet beyond such questions is an overriding basic issue that, rather surprisingly, does not appear to have been publicly raised or discussed by any of the parties involved. This is whether, in the interests of U.S. national security and the U.S.'s promise to the international community to provide unhindered access to GPS, DOD could exercise a veto on LightSquared's program, should the company state that it is either unwilling or unable to accommodate the civil user community's demands. Presumably that would be an option, and its availability as a rather powerful bargaining chip might be prudently introduced at an early stage in the three-month analysis.
source: www.ainonline.com

Opera: Charge your satellite Internet connection

2011-02-27T03:41:00.000-08:00

28 Feb, 2011 - The FINANCIAL -- Opera Mini, one of the world leaders in mobile web browsing, is now available on desktop to help you get more out of your satellite Internet broadband.

Russian satellite provider Raduga-Internet offers a unique service: unlimited web surfing with a special desktop edition of Opera Mini, for just 29 RUR a month (0.72 EUR).

"This service is available to all satellite Internet users and is especially helpful for those who live outside of big cities, where broadband infrastructure is not developed enough or is significantly expensive. Moreover, it is easy to switch to the Raduga-Internet service for users of almost any other satellite communications provider operating in Russia," Opera informed.

“Our company is working toward technology solutions that provide comfortable and inexpensive Internet access for end users throughout Russia, wherever they are,” said Alexander Kalmykov, CEO of Raduga-Internet. “We are confident the joint project with Opera is a step in a new direction for the Web for everyone, opening up vast prospects for both customers and the two companies.”

The Opera Mini is the world’s most popular mobile browser, thanks to its data-compression technology that crunches down webpages by up to 90 percent. This unique functionality has already brought the Web to millions of mobile phones around the world and now helps to save money while you are surfing the Web via satellite Internet.

“Until now Opera-Mini based packages for unlimited web surfing were offered only to mobile operators’ subscribers,” said Mikhail Ilin, Director of Sales, Opera Software, CIS. “The service by Raduga-Internet for desktop users is unique not only for Russia, but for the whole world, so we are particularly proud to announce it today.”
source: http://finchannel.com

Congress to criminalize illegal TV cable, Internet connection

2011-02-27T03:40:00.000-08:00

The House Committee on Information Communications Technology has approved for plenary deliberation a bill imposing stiffer penalties against pilferage, theft, and unauthorized use of cable television and Internet connections.

The bill penalizes individuals culpable of the crime of illegal interception of cable television systems or networks with imprisonment of not more than five years or a fine ranging from P50,000 to P100,000 or both.

Under the bill otherwise known as “The Anti-Cable Television and Cable Internet Pilferage Act," the cable television (CATV) industry and the legitimate cable subscribers shall be protected from unauthorized connection or tapping to existing facilities through wire or electromagnetic means.

Cagayan de Oro City representative Rufus Rodriguez, who authored House Bill 709 together with his brother and Abante Mindanao party-list representative Maximo Rodriguez Jr., said the intent of the measure is to protect the industry and promote its growth in order to assure high-quality service to the viewing public.

“In this electronic age, the most popular media of communication that are affordable but highly informative that reach the great many regardless of status in life are cable television and Internet," Rodriguez said.

“Unfortunately, providers of CATV and Internets are threatened by high incidence of theft through unauthorized interception of CATV programming or internet services. This has become a very serious issue that cable television and internet providers face today," Rodriguez added.

Rodriguez said cable television and Internet must survive and remain competitive to provide affordable and fast media and communication services to their subscribers.

Sorsogon representative Salvador Escudero, also an author of the bill, said the measure seeks to give protection to legitimate operators of cable television (CATV) systems or networks and cable Internet services by ensuring that access to such systems, networks, and services will be limited only to their duly authorized or registered subscribers.

“It is meant to address the growing problem of signal or service theft of cable television and cable internet providers which has greatly prejudiced the development and improvement of their business," Escudero said.

Escudero said the measure intends to safeguard the general public as well by improving quality and secured service and signal as authorized or registered users and concomitantly to discourage, if not eliminate, pilferage of such service and signal through the use of penal sanctions.

It is prohibited under the act the interception or reception of any signal or service offered over CATV and cable Internet systems through unauthorized connection to existing CATVs facilities and the introduction of unauthorized importation, sale, lease, distribution or possession of electronic equipment that allow for unauthorized access or decoding of unencrypted or encrypted satellite program signals or other electromagnetic signals.

The bill also calls to penalize the wanton, malicious, or willful destruction or removal of CATV and cable Internet facilities and accessories of authorized CATV and cable Internet service operators resulting into system disruption or network degradation.
source: www.gmanews.tv

Blue Sky Network Introduces First Widely-Available Dual-Mode Iridium/GSM Tracking and Communication Device

2011-01-26T19:08:00.000-08:00

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Blue Sky Network, a leading, global provider of GPS tracking and communication solutions for land, sea, and aviation assets, today introduces the HawkEye 5300, the first widely-available dual-mode tracking device leveraging both GSM and Iridium satellite capabilities. The HawkEye 5300 offers two-way real-time communication which automatically and seamlessly switches between Iridium and quad-band GSM networks. This provides land fleet operators with lower monthly tracking costs while delivering 100% global visibility and unmatched safety when most needed.

Land fleet operators no longer have to choose between safety, reliability and affordability. Leveraging the reliable Iridium satellite network, the HawkEye 5300 provides uninterrupted tracking even in the most remote regions, thereby ensuring safety for long distance trucking, dangerous remote routes and high security operations, such as high value or hazardous cargo. It also offers instant notification of vehicle operation after-hours or in unsafe zones, and remote Internet-based fleet monitoring. Blue Sky Network’s relationship with GSM service providers ensures cost effective ﬂeet tracking and communications anywhere GSM services are available.

The HawkEye 5300 is part of Blue Sky Network's new series of next generation real-time vehicle tracking and monitoring solutions that are designed to provide more than just GPS location. All HawkEye series devices have an optional LCD touch-screen display, which provides complete two-way text communication with the device anywhere in the world. The HawkEye 5200 offers Iridium-only connectivity and is targeted for vehicles that regularly require anywhere, anytime fleet tracking. The HawkEye 5100 allows true remote monitoring and control anywhere there is comprehensive GSM/GPRS cellular coverage. Fleet operators can mix and match HawkEye devices to provide customized solutions that best meet their needs since the features are common to all HawkEye devices.

*

“GSM is very cost effective, but it is often unavailable in remote locations where the danger is highest and the need greatest,” said Jon Gilbert, CEO and founder of Blue Sky Network. “The HawkEye 5300 provides fleet operators with the best of both worlds by economically delivering uninterrupted tracking no matter how remote the area. Users can monitor and communicate with their fleets at all times to ensure complete safety and accountability.”

Blue Sky Network is the leading provider of global satellite communication and logistics solutions for two-way linking and managing aviation, land mobile and marine assets. Blue Sky Network is a Tier One Service Partner, Value Added Manufacturer, and Value Added Reseller for Iridium Communications Inc., the only true global satellite communications network in the world capable of delivering essential voice and data services to and from remote regions including jungles, oceans, and airways where no other form of reliable communication exists.
source: www.sunherald.com

Live internet tv on on pc - satellite tv for pc is for individuals who want to cut down on cable bills

2011-01-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

With the continuous demand for internet television, Satellite Direct TV stepped up to the plate and recently released Satellite TV for PCs. With this particular software any personal computer could be made into an incredible medium for viewing over 3000 stations over the world.The engineering utilised by the Satellite Direct system enables users to take advantage of more than 3,500 global television stations with the convenience and simplicity of the web. With Satellite Direct system users will get far more channels than cable and satellite TV put together, and all for a one-time fee that's less than a single month’s bill from their cable tv service provider.

With Satellite Direct there is no need to get bulky satellite dishes, receivers or other equipment installed the only requirement being a personal computer to access the software and a broadband connection.

The system provides for television on laptops, desktops, and even some handheld devices. The system can even be utilized directly to a TV by attaching the laptop to a television set. That way, a simple computer becomes a satellite dish.

The satellite TV for PC is available for a one-time sign up fee. Consumers are given a lifetime membership with no monthly charges. There is no pricey set up fee, neither is there extraneous hardware with this system.

Immediately after purchase customers will have access to a multitude of free but excellent TV channels and live-stream television stations from all over the globe. The consumer will have the opportunity to choose the preferred language, category and genre. Set up is a snap and live 24 hour customer support is available worldwide.

The bundled 3000 plus channels available contain possibilities to view films, educational information, cartoons for the kids, sci-fi, drama, popular music just to mention a few. No longer will consumers need to run through channels in an effort to locate something worth watching. With over 3000 channels available at their disposal there'll be at all times something interesting available.

Watch Over 3,500 Tv Channels On Your Pc Here - http://satellitedirecttvreviews.net/

source: www.prurgent.com

TerreStar Genus hybrid satellite phone review, specs, price

2010-11-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

AT&T Network and TerreStar has announced their partnership with announced the TerreStar Genus hybrid satellite phone with offering a unique combination of GSM / HSPA backed up with satellite capability.

TerreStar Genus satellite cellphone comes with a 3 megapixel camera, 2.6-inch 16-millions Color TFT LCD touch screen (240 x 320 pixels) with Handwriting Recognition, 100MB memory, 16GB microSD card slot, and Battery Lithium Ion 1400 mAh for 5 hours Talk and 170 hours Standby. This satellite phone also support AAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MIDI, MP3, WAV, WMA Music Files for music player and MPEG-4 (H.263, H.264), 3GPP, WMV Video Clip Files for media player.The TerreStar Genus hybrid phone will be running on the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, quad-band GSM/EDGE and dual-band UMTS/HSDPA 3G radios on board with Candybar Design and Qwerty Keypad. For connectivity this Genus hybrid satellite phone offer Bluetooth with stereo Handset and Wi-fi 802.11b/g.

The TerreStar Genus satellite phone will be using AT&T’s GSM/HSPA network so you will have access to expanded voice and data roaming coverage in the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and in territorial waters. The device that keeps you reachable by satellite signals while you’re trapped in a forest or a remote island.

TerreStar GENUS hybrid phone is an innovative dual-mode smartphone with cellular wireless capability as the primary default mode and satellite access capability as a secondary option for voice, data and messaging. if you’re having trouble getting a GSM connection but don’t want a separate satellite phone, this might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.

TerreStar Genus satellite phone is currently available in the first quarter of this year. It will be available with starting price $799 upfront for the phone and the satellite service which will cost $25 per month, plus per-minute, per-message, and per-megabyte charges of 65 cents, 40 cents, and 5 dollars.

TerreStar Genus specifications :

* Display Screen:2.6-inch 16-millions Color TFT LCD screen (240 x 320 pixels)
* Design : Candybar and qwerty pad
* Internal Memory:100MB
* Dimension:4.69″ x 2.56″ x 0.75″
11.91 cm x 6.5 cm x 1.91 cm
* Touch screen with Handwriting Recognition
* Battery:Lithium Ion 1400 mAh
* Battery Life:Talk: 5 hours
Standby: 170 hours (7.08 days)
* Qwerty Keypad
* External Memory status:microSD. Supports Up to 16GB
* GPS System / GPS Navigation:Google Maps Street View
* Email:Supports POP3 / IMAP4 / SMTP
* Games,Java
* PIM:Alarm, Calendar, Calculator, TO-DO, Notes
* Camera:3.0MP
* Music Player:Supports AAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MIDI, MP3, WAV, WMA Music Files.
* Video Player:MPEG-4 (H.263, H.264), 3GPP, WMV Video Clip Files
* Bluetooth with stereo Handset
* Wi-fi:Supports 802.11b / 802.11g
* Network:GSM 850 MHz / 900 MHz / 1800 MHz / 1900 MHz
* 3G Network:yes
* OS:Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional

source: newbestgadget.com

Skymesh and Indigo partner for satellite phones

2010-11-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

Queensland-based internet service providers SkyMesh and Indigo Telecom have announced a wholesale partnership for SkyMesh to resell Indigo's satellite voice and data products.

The partnership paves the way for SkyMesh, a national provider of satellite broadband services, to introduce mobile voice and data products to its lineup.

Under the agreement, SkyMesh would resell mobile carrier Indigo Telecom's XT Satellite handset (pictured) and the SG 2520 – a dual mode handset which uses both traditional GSM and satellite networks.

SkyMesh director Paul Rees said its decision to expand to satellite mobile phones was a result of the government’s Australian broadband guarantee.

The Satellite Phone Subsidy Scheme encouraged people who lived or worked outside of terrestrial mobile phone coverage areas to purchase satellite mobile phones.

“If you live in an area where you can’t get mobile phone access to your house the government will pay $1000 for the purchase of the satellite phone," Rees said.

“Many of our customers don’t have mobile phone coverage at their home and the cost of installing a landline can be expensive. We have customers who have to drive 50 kilometres up the road just to call for support.

“Indigo’s products allow us to now provide a complete package with satellite broadband and mobile phone at an affordable price."

Further encouragement for Rees was the drop in satellite phone prices from the $3000-$4000 mark.

"With the $1000 subsidy, a $1499 phone costs $499," he said.

Under the agreement SkyMesh would also resell a portable IP Data Terminal, for broadband internet access in the most isolated areas of Australia.

Rees said if you can see the sky the satellite phone will connect.
source: www.crn.com.au

Get set for a new satellite phone revolution

2010-11-05T06:40:00.001-07:00

Remember Iridium? A decade ago, it was a satellite phone system that created a big flutter, and is best remembered as a key showpiece during the Kargil conflict when some television journalists used it. But Iridium phones were then clunky, and ebbed, as conventional phones became faster,
better and cheaper.

Guess what? Satphones are back again — in a second coming helped by new technologies that are set to replace the big phones with miniature devices at cheaper rates — and serving broadband content such as videos to remote areas, matching 3G services in strength.

While companies such as Solaris Mobile and Lightsquared are making it happen in Europe and the US, in India, a Bangalore-based startup called Devas Multimedia is at it, with its own technologies. I recently met Ramachandran Vishwanathan, its CEO, who earlier worked with global consulting firm McKinsey and Co.

Devas is a public private partnership (PPP) supported by satellites from the Indian Space Research Organisation, and has raised $250 million in venture funding from Deutsche Telekom and others. It plans to launch services by mid-2011.

The firm would use satellites with huge antennae that would be able to easily bounce off S-band signals. They will be aided by “gap fillers” resembling cell sites put up in places where indoor environments or tall buildings block signals.

A key point is that the satphones can be carried easily without having to point to the satellites. At an expected Rs 7,000, the handsets start relatively cheap. The service charges will be competitive.

Devas is aiming for customers in remote areas where 3G and conventional networks will take time to arrive, targeting public sector companies such as Power Grid that have operations in far-flung areas and the Railways –with the promise that passengers can watch live TV on the move.

“It is democratisation of convergence,” Ramachandran says, arguing that rural areas can have early broadband access with Devas while conventional operators stretch out from lucrative urban areas to optimise on investments.

Dublin-based Solaris Mobile, meanwhile announced this year a “mobile gateway” that allows direct reception of S-band services through a receiver that relays signals over WiFi. While details are emerging, it is clear that miniature “hybrid” satphones will revolutionise telecom further.
source: www.hindustantimes.com

25 new IT companies to watch

2010-11-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

The next generation of IT vendors has arrived on the scene. Driven by a tentative economic recovery that is seeing venture capitalists release a few more dollars to tech startups, and a need to create tools for the world of cloud computing and virtualization, a flood of young technology companies is hitting the market.

One startup you've never heard of might end up being the next Intel or Microsoft. Others may force changes upon established vendors that have gone stale, which will have to innovate themselves or purchase startups that have a brilliant idea the big guys haven't thought of. Still others may simply fade into the tech industry graveyard, never to be seen or heard from again.

At Network World, we've identified 25 IT startups that we think are worth watching. These startups have recently released their first products or remain in stealth mode, and typically have financial backing from venture capitalists.

Most of these startups, in one form or another, are attempting to fuel the shift from static IT infrastructures to virtualized data centers and cloud networks. Analysts say the biggest opportunities may be in software that can manage, secure and accelerate cloud-based and virtualized systems. However, a few brave companies are building new hardware products that compete against the Intel/AMD monopoly in the chip market.

The shift to cloud computing and virtualization is not unlike the shift from mainframes to PCs several decades ago, an era that saw the rise of giants like Intel and Microsoft but also the demise of several mainframe vendors not named IBM, says Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with the Yankee Group.

But predicting which new company will distinguish itself and join the class of IT giants, like VMware did a decade ago with innovations in virtualization, is nearly impossible. The window of opportunity will be short -- particularly in the hardware market -- because billion-dollar vendors such as Oracle, IBM, HP and Microsoft will jealously guard profit margins, and try to push out new competitors by swallowing them up or replicating what startups have created.

It's often easier for small companies to innovate, says Robert Armstrong, a financial analyst and senior columnist at Dow Jones Investment Banker. But established vendors are so good at marketing and sales, and IT customers are so conservative that "just having a better product" isn't enough "to break the iron grip of the incumbent," Armstrong says.

Network World's 25 New IT Company to Watch include companies that improve the performance of cloud-based applications and storage, add extra layers of security to e-mail and Web sites, accelerate network traffic, relieve the data access logjams that mar virtualization and other IT projects, create Amazon-like private clouds behind the firewall, and provide disaster recovery optimized for virtualized data centers. Others tackle the data center energy problem with software tools that monitor energy use, and new server chips based on low-power architectures.

One startup is even building its own LTE-based 4G wireless broadband network to fuel the next generation of smartphones for consumers and enterprise customers. That would be LightSquared, which has more than $3.5 billion in debt, equity financing and assets contributed by Harbinger Capital Partners, as well as deals with Nokia Siemens Networks and Nokia itself to build the network and devices for it. LightSquared services will debut next year in Denver, Baltimore, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Satellite coverage will extend nationwide, and the wireless broadband network is expected to cover at least 92% of U.S. consumers by 2015.

The data center energy crisis

Let's take a look at the rest of the 25 startups in more detail, starting with two vendors building server chips with the aim of solving the data center energy crisis: Smooth-Stone and SeaMicro.

Backed by plenty of venture capital and a $9.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, SeaMicro says its servers consume 75% less power and space than traditional machines. The SeaMicro SM10000, which goes for $139,000 and up, uses 512 low-power Intel Atom processors connected by a fabric that provides throughput of 1.28 terabits per second, along with a design that decreases the number of motherboard components by 90%. The servers are "specifically optimized for the workloads and traffic patterns of the Internet," the vendor says.

The stealth mode Smooth-Stone, meanwhile, has $48 million in venture funding and is building low-power alternatives to Intel and AMD chips that use smartphone microprocessors. Low-power chip development is frequently targeted at the mobile phone market, since the devices rely on short-lived batteries.

"It's not a proven concept yet," Armstrong says of using smartphone chips in servers. But there is a huge unmet need in the area of low-power servers, and while Intel and AMD are jumping on the bandwagon, the power problem has increased faster than expected, he says.

"The incumbent vendors have been less fast than you would expect in providing provide people with a solution to this problem," Armstrong says. "The limitation in many data centers at this point, in terms of ability to process information quickly, is not the computers -- it's literally the power cord going out to the grid. It's literally 'we can't get enough electrons into this room.'"

The data center energy problem is also being tackled by the likes of JouleX. With ISS co-founder Tom Noonan as its CEO, JouleX launched out of stealth mode at this year's Interop Las Vegas conference, with software that simplifies IT energy management by automatically discovering all network-connected devices -- from servers to HVAC and lighting systems -- and identifying opportunities for power savings.

JouleX makes it easier to monitor energy use because it doesn't require agents to be installed on every monitored device.

"There's not a business we're familiar with that is asking 'can we have another agent to install on our PCs and servers,'" says JouleX vice president of sales and marketing Tim McCormick.

Customers such as Siemens, Equifax and BMW have hopped on board the JouleX bandwagon, and why not? Noonan and partners sold ISS to IBM for $1.3 billion in 2006, and Noonan believes energy is one of the few IT issues that can rival security in its importance and scope.

Cloud security

But controlling energy use is far from the only major problem facing IT as it moves toward networks that are heavily virtualized and reliant on cloud-based services. Security -- no surprise -- is still top of mind, with IT pros surveyed by Forrester calling it the biggest concern preventing them from adopting software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Most startups will tell you security is baked into their product, no matter what part of the tech industry they're in, but a few of Network World's New IT Company to Watch are tackling cloud security more directly.

CloudFlare has built a content delivery network that acts as a cloud-based firewall, as well as a network traffic accelerator, blocking threats and limiting bots and crawlers to improve security and decrease stress on bandwidth and server resources.

CloudFlare wants to expand the market for CDN services by "bringing the performance and security tools previously available only to the Internet giants to anyone with a Web site," and has gained great interest since the launch of its public beta a month ago.

The CloudFlare network was on pace to serve 350 million page views and 25 million unique visitors in October, CEO Matthew Prince says. Despite its current focus on small Web site operators, CloudFlare is in discussions with enterprise users and plans to launch an enterprise-focused service in Q4 2011.

Another security-minded startup is Truedomain, whose cloud-based e-mail authentication service is designed to block phishing e-mails, protecting legitimate domain names from being used for fraud. Truedomain relies on industry standards like DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail), and SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and provides reporting and analytics tools "to give e-mail senders direct insight into e-mail authentication results, phishing and spoofing activity and delivery performance."

We've all dealt with spam, even if we haven't been taken in by a phishing attack or identity theft, so anything that cuts down on junk messages is a good thing. From a business perspective, a service like TrueDomain's could help large e-mail senders restore the trust consumers once had in them. We'll still be suspicious of poorly written e-mails from "eBay" and our bank, however.

One big area of concern regarding cloud security is storage, of course. For now, cloud storage may remain off-limits for the most sensitive data, but a startup called Oxygen Cloud -- a subsidiary of LeapFILE, a provider of secure file transfer technology -- is helping businesses use cloud services to securely share and collaborate on files. The Oxygen Cloud service, now in beta, lets enterprises build a "hybrid storage solution" combining different public and private clouds, while applying AES 256-bit encryption to data in transit both in the cloud and on local devices.

While Oxygen Cloud's standard service combines a Web-based platform with a desktop client, the company will also deliver its technology on local hardware through a partnership with Data Robotics. Oxygen Cloud is so named because the service supposedly "breathes life" into files.

Building the private cloud

Businesses that worry about the security or performance and availability of public cloud services are in some cases opting to build private clouds, which are generally defined as highly virtualized networks that allow the delivery of IT as a service, potentially with developers and end users provisioning their own resources through self-service portals.

Vendors tend to slap the private cloud label on any old IT product, but a couple of newcomers among our New IT Company to Watch have built private cloud software that may be worthy of the name.

Chris Pinkham, who led development of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud, is the founder of Nimbula, whose software automatically organizes virtual servers into an Amazon-like private cloud that operates behind the enterprise firewall. Nimbula Director, available in beta and slated to be generally available later in 2010, lets customers offer virtual machine instances in any flavor they like, from Linux to Windows, while setting policies that determine how much compute and storage capacity VMs can consume.

One of Nimbula's early customers, CIO Joubert Steyn of the Metropolitan Health Group, a health insurance company in South Africa, says he opted to build a private cloud because "South Africa is still quite bandwidth-constrained." Even for customers with enough bandwidth to use public cloud services, software products such as Nimbula Director can drive up utilization rates of existing in-house resources and improve services for developers.

Our second private cloud startup is the aptly named Cloud.com, which secured the highly coveted domain name for its launch in May of this year.

Available now, Cloud.com offers open source infrastructure-as-a-service software that helps service providers and enterprises turn physical and virtual resources into cloud computing services. The software, CloudStack, runs on top of the VMware, Citrix XenServer and KVM hypervisors, creating computing pools consisting of VMs, storage and networking capabilities, accessed through self-service interfaces for both administrators and users.

CloudStack is compatible with common cloud frameworks like Amazon's API, Citrix Cloud Center and VMware vCloud, potentially allowing portability of applications between private data centers and cloud. While the open source version is free to use, Cloud.com offers additional features and commercial support to paying customers, starting at $10,000 per year for five nodes. Cloud.com has some early support from Microsoft, as the two companies are collaborating on making Hyper-V compatible with open source cloud software.

Data access and performance

Data access and application performance are huge issues in virtualized and cloud-based workloads, and a whole slew of Network World's New IT Companies to Watch are working on these problems. Most of them, for whatever reason, have names starting with the letter "A" (startups often choose either A or Z names to get at the beginning or end of lists such as this one).

AppDynamics makes software that manages the performance of distributed Java and .NET applications, making it easier for IT pros to identify and fix problems in Web apps. The software works both on local applications as well as those running on Amazon EC2 and VMware-based clouds.

AppFirst, meanwhile, makes a SaaS product that provides IT pros with visibility into applications, identifying the server, server processes and activities causing performance problems. AppFirst says its service can analyze the "behavior and performance of applications across the entire application stack, regardless of language, application type or location (cloud, physical or virtual servers)."

Then there is Aryaka. Led by CEO Ajit Gupta, who previously sold Speedera Networks to Akamai, this startup has just launched a cloud-based application acceleration and WAN optimization platform, using TCP optimization, bandwidth scaling techniques, and application proxies to improve app performance and reduce bandwidth needs. Aryaka also boasts "enterprise-grade IPSec security."

Startups such as these could help businesses get over some of the performance problems posed by moving workloads to cloud services.

Cloud computing and virtualization "put a lot of demands on the network," Kerravala says. It takes a long time to move 10GB of data across a WAN link, and there's tremendous potential for startups that speed up that process, he notes.

That's why a company like Translattice, a startup whose technology goes into general availability Nov. 1, has built an appliance that improves access to applications and data for distributed and mobile workers. The appliance is fueled by a distributed relational SQL database that moves data closer to where it is likely to be used. "The Translattice platform is a distributed global application architecture that anticipates workers' application and data needs based on organizational policy and past usage, delivering the information when and where it is needed," the company says, adding that these benefits can be extended "even to small and remote offices."

Infineta Systems, another New IT Company to Watch, will offer the Velocity Dedupe Engine, a WAN traffic accelerator that uses de-duplication and other techniques to reduce the network traffic going over WAN links by up 80% or 90%, as well as transport layer optimizations and a prioritization engine to ensure that critical traffic is accelerated. The technology supports 10Gbps connections and could speed up, for example, live migrations of VMs from one data center to another.

Infineta's technology won't be generally available until Q1 2011, but the startup says it's already had talks with a few dozen Fortune 500 companies that are looking for ways to handle rapid growth in WAN traffic across data centers.

Databases

No startup is likely to overtake Larry Ellison's high-flying Oracle, but several new companies have innovative approaches to the database market. Akiban, whose AkibanDB product will come out sometime in 2011, has created database virtualization software that improves performance of SQL applications, in an attempt to solve the problems that lead customers to "NoSQL" products. The goal is to preserve investments in SQL-based applications by restructuring the way data is organized and accessed with "predictive caching" and other techniques that relieve bottlenecks caused by random access calls and join operations.

Delphix, whose Delphix Server technology is already shipping, provides database virtualization, storage optimization and management software designed to improve efficiency of storage used by Oracle and other databases. Delphix uses "intelligent block management, intelligent block sizing, compression, de-duplication and database filtering technologies" to reduce storage needs, and reduces time needed for database provisioning and refreshes without disrupting production systems. Delphix itself installs on an x86 server or virtual machine; database servers such as Oracle "simply see Delphix Server as a storage target."

Membase goes a different route than Akiban with a NoSQL database management system that includes and builds upon Memcached, a distributed memory caching system that's widely used by many large Web properties. Membase Server, a commercial distribution of open source software that's already powering the online game "Farmville," is designed to improve scalability and performance of Web apps while reducing the complexity of data management.

Membase officials say Memcached "is a key ingredient in the scale our data architecture behind 18 of the top 20 most heavily trafficked Web sites (including Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia and Craigslist) and tens of thousands of other corporate and consumer web applications." Analyst Curt Monash of Monash Research notes that Membase is targeting a potentially huge market in the hopes that such large Web properties will use its software to improve performance of Memcached.

The Membase open source project began last year as a collaborative effect involving Zynga, the creator of online games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

The next generation of storage

Storage bottlenecks have become a problem in data centers that are heavily virtualized, and customers looking to adopt cloud storage have struggled with performance and security. That's where this next group of startups comes in.

Cirtas, whose Bluejet Cloud Storage Controller is shipping for $70,000 and up, lets enterprises offload less frequently used data to the cloud while keeping high priority data in-house for optimal performance. The 2U appliance caches high priority data locally and stores secondary data in cloud services using WAN optimization technology, letting customers access cloud storage with performance and security in mind. The appliance combines DRAM, solid state drives (SSDs) and 7200RPM hard disk drives for multiple tiers of storage and up to 3.5TB of internal capacity.

"Cirtas claims they basically make the cloud look local to the applications," says analyst Arun Taneja of the Taneja Group. "That's the magic" -- customers get local performance with the price and flexibility of cloud computing.

Gridiron Systems, meanwhile, built a SAN application accelerator designed for large databases, VMware deployments, Oracle and general file acceleration. Gridiron uses MLC (multi-level cell) flash chips to provide "the performance and read/write ability of RAM with the capacity of Flash," speeding up access to application data sets.

Gridiron Systems officials claim to be in stealth mode and won't reveal pricing except to potential customers. However, the company seems to be stealth in name only, as it has been shipping production deployments since June and offers detailed information about its technology on its Web site.

On the virtualization front, the startup Virsto is speeding up access to data for virtualized systems, particularly those relying upon Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. Virsto's storage virtualization software installs into the hypervisor and manages its interaction with storage, improving the efficiency of data access operations in an attempt to eliminate the I/O bottlenecks caused when virtual servers try to access storage systems.

VMware has done a relatively good job optimizing storage, which is why Virsto is focusing on Hyper-V. "Microsoft needs more help" because its virtualization technology is newer than VMware's, Virsto CEO Mark Davis says.

While VMware is still the king of x86 virtualization, Hyper-V is becoming a viable alternative and its market could expand greatly because of the vast Windows Server install base.

One more storage startup, Virident, is addressing the fast-growing demand for enterprise-class flash drives.

"Flash, and successor solid state technologies, will revolutionize storage and the rest of the hardware stack," Monash predicts.Virident makes a PCIe SSD storage system that delivers low-latency data access for I/O-intensive applications, such as databases. Virident isn't the first startup in this market, as it will have to contend against the likes of Fusion-io, which has Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist. But Virident is claiming to offer faster performance with at least 200,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second), and disk lifetime of 24 years, assuming 5TB worth of writes per day.

Nimble Storage is also targeting the virtualization and SSD markets with converged iSCSI storage, backup and disaster recovery products that combine fast SSD storage with inexpensive SATA drives to give customers primary and backup storage in one device, while also providing offsite replication. Nimble improves storage efficiency with thin provisioning and other features, and is optimized for VMware virtualization deployments and Microsoft applications such as Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server.

Network virtualization and disaster recovery

Earlier in this article we noted that VMware became an IT giant by virtualizing the commodity x86 server. One of our "stealthiest" startups is trying to virtualize the network in much the same way VMware virtualized servers.

Nicira Networks, with financial backing from VMware co-founder Diane Greene and a patent-pending network operating system, aims to treat physical infrastructure as a resource pool of capacity, and create logical representations of that capacity which are decoupled from physical infrastructure. If successful, Nicira believes it can "free data center networks form the tyranny of inflexibility, complexity, vendor stranglehold, and high costs."

Nicira isn't saying yet when its technology will be available. Today's virtualization technology, however, is in wide use and provides new opportunities for data center managers to improve disaster recovery. That's the market addressed by our final two New IT Companies to Watch: ZeRTO and Actifio.

Still in stealth mode, ZeRTO is revealing little more than that it is developing disaster recovery/business continuity software aimed at the needs of virtualized, mission critical applications and cloud deployments. CEO Ziv Kedem previously co-founded Kashya, a company acquired by EMC and turned into EMC's RecoverPoint data protection and remote replication product.

ZeRTO is accepting applicants for a private beta program.

Actifio, meanwhile, is attempting to simplify disaster recovery and data protection with software that combines storage virtualization with several other capabilities. The software "integrates capacity optimization with data de-duplication, compression, encryption and network usage optimization," to automate the copy, store, move and restore operations, while helping IT deliver a service catalog with defined SLAs.

Actifio's Data Management Virtualization technology is available now at prices starting at $100,000.

Actifio -- similarly to startups Nimble Storage and Infineta -- is combining several technologies together in unique ways in what Taneja likes to call the "technology blender."

Blending technologies together to solve multiple problems at once may be a good approach for today's complicated IT world. But it's not the only way to break into the enterprise data center, as these 25 startups are showing.

How many of these startups will turn their technologies into successful business models is an open question. But in most cases these startups are gaining significant funding from venture capitalists, a hint that they might be on the right track.

Although the venture market in 2010 is better than it was in 2009, the funding available to tech newcomers has greatly declined over the past decade, leaving money for only the best new companies.

As Armstrong puts it, "There are a lot of bad ideas getting weeded out."
source: www.computerworld.com.au

High speed: Networks East receives $58 million in stimulus funds to install high-speed Internet in rural areas

2010-10-27T09:37:00.001-07:00

A local company has received millions in stimulus funds to bring high-speed Internet service to households in rural North Carolina.“It’s not going to make us rich by any means, but it is going to provide a good service to the community and it is going to provide jobs,” Todd Edwards, president of Kinston-based Networks East, said of a $58 million federal grant his company recently obtained.

The money will be used to install satellite-based high-speed Internet service for individual customers who currently only use dial-up.

The installations begin today and last until the grant runs out, Edwards said.

“I’m excited about it,” he said. “I enjoy making people happy and I’ve never seen anybody happier than when they get rid of dial-up and get high-speed Internet.”

Networks East is a local affiliate of HughesNet — Hughes Network Systems LLC, headquartered in Germantown, Md., is a worldwide provider of broadband satellite networks, services and products, according to the company website.

HughesNet applied to take part in the federal government’s initiative to expand high-speed Internet to rural areas that either have no high-speed service or are underserved by high speed.

Edwards said the criteria for being considered “underserved” would mean having Internet at a speed of no more than 768 kilobits per second.

His company will install the satellite and other necessary hardware for free in households across the state.

“There’s not a part of North Carolina we won’t be able to service,” Edwards said.

Customers will only be charged $39.99 plus any applicable taxes for the first month’s service, and the government is requiring a one-year price guarantee rate that will not change.

Mark Pope, economic development director for Lenoir County, said giving rural residents the same online capabilities as those of larger communities helps make the area more attractive to employers.

“To be able to service our rural counties really helps a lot,” Pope said.

County Commissioner Chris Humphrey, who represents La Grange and the rural western part of the county, said the high-speed service would be a boon to the area.

“It’s good that there are grants available that can help stimulate rural parts of the county.” Humphrey said. “There’s farmers out there that need access and so do [other] citizens in those areas.”

Networks East staff has been combing its database of existing customers to determine who would qualify — interested residents can also call the company to see if they qualify.

Edwards said a “skeleton crew” of certified technicians is on hand across the state to do the initial installations and that he will have to hire many more as the program goes on.

He said the economy has hurt his business, just like many others. Edwards has been forced to cut his staff of technicians from 14 to two during the past two years, but he will have to put many more back on the payroll to meet the potential need.

Edwards said a survey by HughesNet revealed 73,000 customers who could qualify within 60 miles of Networks East’s office on West Vernon Avenue.

“I’m excited about it,” Edwards said. “I’m excited about the possibility of getting my people back to work.”

Although anyone near a house with satellite Internet service can tap in if the customer has installed a wireless router that is not password-protected, Edwards stressed that it is illegal to use the owner’s service without permission.

He also said that if the customer does give permission, satellite service has limited download capability and could crash if too many people use it at the same time.

“It will limit the owner’s ability to use their own service,” Edwards explained.
Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.enctoday.com

Sat-phone operator TerreStar's tits swinging skyward?

2010-10-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Satellite-phone operator TerreStar is heading for Chapter 11 the Wall Street Journal reports, putting America's personal satellite phone network at risk.

TerreStar has more than $1bn in debt, most of which got spent on its first bird, the imaginatively-named TerreStar-1, which went up in July 2009.

Since then the company has been borrowing money to get TerreStar-2 launched, burning more than $200m a year on average. Now there's less than $15m in the till, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper expects bankruptcy protection to be applied for in the next few days, which is bad news for LightSquared who owns almost half of TerreStar's common stock.

But at least TerreStar is operational today, and for $799 you can buy a phone which not only works across the USA but switches to AT&T's GSM/HSPA network when it can, though satellite connectivity will set you back an additional $25 a month and 65 cents a minute.

It's hard for Europeans, particularly in the UK, to understand how patchy coverage is in the USA. We might moan about not-spots, but that's a reflection of how we've come to expect coverage to be ubiquitous. America is a much larger country, and one with huge areas where mobile coverage isn't economical so satellite phones make a lot more sense.

But not at 65 cents a minute, as LightSquared is well aware. LightSquared's audacious plan is to built a completely new LTE network across the country, using spectrum inherited from another satellite operator: SkyTerra. SkyTerra hasn't launched any birds yet, but once it does (currently scheduled for December) they'll operate in L Band (1.6GHz) to fill in the gaps in the ground network.

LightSquared is owned by hedge fund Harbinger, who acquired a load of space-based holdings while putting LightSquared together, including 48 per cent of the common stock in TerreStar, and a significant chunk (almost 30 per cent) of Immersat too. TerreStar operates at 2GHz so won't be compatible with LightSquared's final network, but it does give the company an operational network now.

Luckily, for LightSquared, it seems that its investment in TerreStar isn't huge - about $12m according to the 'Journal. That might sound like a lot, but when you're planning to spend $7bn building a national network, and have yet to announce a single customer, then $12m is small change.

But for TerreStar investors things look bleak, with the company looking at exchanging debt for equity to keep operational while it sorts out some serious restructuring.
Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.theregister.co.uk

Quake highlights value of satellite phones

2010-10-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

Senior staff at Christchurch International Airport were given satellite phones just hours before the 7.1-magnitude quake rocked the South Island city – technology that helped isolated managers cope.

Speaking at the NZ Airports Conference, Queenstown-based businessman and Christchurch International Airport chief Jim Boult said it was dark and quiet at 4.30am on September 4.

At 4.35am, the quake shook the airport, the control tower "swayed back and forth like a pendulum" and the initial rumble lasted for 49 seconds.

Senior staff arrived at the emergency operations centre to find the building's ceilings down, windows smashed and live wires dangling.

In May, the airport hired a contractor to simulate a disaster, a major fire that struck an aircraft hangar and led to the closure of the domestic terminal for five months.

Mr Boult said some of the simulation was prophetic as staff brainstormed about how to cope if the emergency operations centre were out of action and if central communications were down.

The day before the quake, senior staff were given satellite phones.

"I personally concluded that my satellite phone was likely to be an expensive luxury I was unlikely ever to use. How wrong I could be.

"Landlines had failed early in the piece and the volume of cellphone traffic, together with power failure to the cellphone towers, quickly showed us the value of satellite phones." Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.stuff.co.nz

25 new IT companies to watch

2010-10-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

The next generation of IT vendors has arrived on the scene. Driven by a tentative economic recovery that is seeing venture capitalists release a few more dollars to tech startups, and a need to create tools for the world of cloud computing and virtualization, a flood of young technology companies is hitting the market.

One startup you've never heard of might end up being the next Intel or Microsoft. Others may force changes upon established vendors that have gone stale, which will have to innovate themselves or purchase startups that have a brilliant idea the big guys haven't thought of. Still others may simply fade into the tech industry graveyard, never to be seen or heard from again

At Network World, we've identified 25 IT startups that we think are worth watching. These startups have recently released their first products or remain in stealth mode, and typically have financial backing from venture capitalists.

Most of these startups, in one form or another, are attempting to fuel the shift from static IT infrastructures to virtualized data centers and cloud networks. Analysts say the biggest opportunities may be in software that can manage, secure and accelerate cloud-based and virtualized systems. However, a few brave companies are building new hardware products that compete against the Intel/AMD monopoly in the chip market.

The shift to cloud computing and virtualization is not unlike the shift from mainframes to PCs several decades ago, an era that saw the rise of giants like Intel and Microsoft but also the demise of several mainframe vendors not named IBM, says Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with the Yankee Group.

But predicting which new company will distinguish itself and join the class of IT giants, like VMware did a decade ago with innovations in virtualization, is nearly impossible. The window of opportunity will be short -- particularly in the hardware market -- because billion-dollar vendors such as Oracle, IBM, HP and Microsoft will jealously guard profit margins, and try to push out new competitors by swallowing them up or replicating what startups have created.

It's often easier for small companies to innovate, says Robert Armstrong, a financial analyst and senior columnist at Dow Jones Investment Banker. But established vendors are so good at marketing and sales, and IT customers are so conservative that "just having a better product" isn't enough "to break the iron grip of the incumbent," Armstrong says.

Network World's 25 New IT Company to Watch include companies that improve the performance of cloud-based applications and storage, add extra layers of security to e-mail and Web sites, accelerate network traffic, relieve the data access logjams that mar virtualization and other IT projects, create Amazon-like private clouds behind the firewall, and provide disaster recovery optimized for virtualized data centers. Others tackle the data center energy problem with software tools that monitor energy use, and new server chips based on low-power architectures.

One startup is even building its own LTE-based 4G wireless broadband network to fuel the next generation of smartphones for consumers and enterprise customers. That would be LightSquared, which has more than $3.5 billion in debt, equity financing and assets contributed by Harbinger Capital Partners, as well as deals with Nokia Siemens Networks and Nokia itself to build the network and devices for it. LightSquared services will debut next year in Denver, Baltimore, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Satellite coverage will extend nationwide, and the wireless broadband network is expected to cover at least 92% of U.S. consumers by 2015.

The data center energy crisis

Let's take a look at the rest of the 25 startups in more detail, starting with two vendors building server chips with the aim of solving the data center energy crisis: Smooth-Stone and SeaMicro.

Backed by plenty of venture capital and a $9.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, SeaMicro says its servers consume 75% less power and space than traditional machines. The SeaMicro SM10000, which goes for $139,000 and up, uses 512 low-power Intel Atom processors connected by a fabric that provides throughput of 1.28 terabits per second, along with a design that decreases the number of motherboard components by 90%. The servers are "specifically optimized for the workloads and traffic patterns of the Internet," the vendor says.

The stealth mode Smooth-Stone, meanwhile, has $48 million in venture funding and is building low-power alternatives to Intel and AMD chips that use smartphone microprocessors. Low-power chip development is frequently targeted at the mobile phone market, since the devices rely on short-lived batteries.

"It's not a proven concept yet," Armstrong says of using smartphone chips in servers. But there is a huge unmet need in the area of low-power servers, and while Intel and AMD are jumping on the bandwagon, the power problem has increased faster than expected, he says.

"The incumbent vendors have been less fast than you would expect in providing provide people with a solution to this problem," Armstrong says. "The limitation in many data centers at this point, in terms of ability to process information quickly, is not the computers -- it's literally the power cord going out to the grid. It's literally 'we can't get enough electrons into this room.'"

The data center energy problem is also being tackled by the likes of JouleX. With ISS co-founder Tom Noonan as its CEO, JouleX launched out of stealth mode at this year's Interop Las Vegas conference, with software that simplifies IT energy management by automatically discovering all network-connected devices -- from servers to HVAC and lighting systems -- and identifying opportunities for power savings.

JouleX makes it easier to monitor energy use because it doesn't require agents to be installed on every monitored device.

"There's not a business we're familiar with that is asking 'can we have another agent to install on our PCs and servers,'" says JouleX vice president of sales and marketing Tim McCormick.

Customers such as Siemens, Equifax and BMW have hopped on board the JouleX bandwagon, and why not? Noonan and partners sold ISS to IBM for $1.3 billion in 2006, and Noonan believes energy is one of the few IT issues that can rival security in its importance and scope.

Cloud security

But controlling energy use is far from the only major problem facing IT as it moves toward networks that are heavily virtualized and reliant on cloud-based services. Security -- no surprise -- is still top of mind, with IT pros surveyed by Forrester calling it the biggest concern preventing them from adopting software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Most startups will tell you security is baked into their product, no matter what part of the tech industry they're in, but a few of Network World's New IT Company to Watch are tackling cloud security more directly.

CloudFlare has built a content delivery network that acts as a cloud-based firewall, as well as a network traffic accelerator, blocking threats and limiting bots and crawlers to improve security and decrease stress on bandwidth and server resources.

CloudFlare wants to expand the market for CDN services by "bringing the performance and security tools previously available only to the Internet giants to anyone with a Web site," and has gained great interest since the launch of its public beta a month ago.

The CloudFlare network was on pace to serve 350 million page views and 25 million unique visitors in October, CEO Matthew Prince says. Despite its current focus on small Web site operators, CloudFlare is in discussions with enterprise users and plans to launch an enterprise-focused service in Q4 2011.

Another security-minded startup is Truedomain, whose cloud-based e-mail authentication service is designed to block phishing e-mails, protecting legitimate domain names from being used for fraud. Truedomain relies on industry standards like DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail), and SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and provides reporting and analytics tools "to give e-mail senders direct insight into e-mail authentication results, phishing and spoofing activity and delivery performance."

We've all dealt with spam, even if we haven't been taken in by a phishing attack or identity theft, so anything that cuts down on junk messages is a good thing. From a business perspective, a service like TrueDomain's could help large e-mail senders restore the trust consumers once had in them. We'll still be suspicious of poorly written e-mails from "eBay" and our bank, however.

One big area of concern regarding cloud security is storage, of course. For now, cloud storage may remain off-limits for the most sensitive data, but a startup called Oxygen Cloud -- a subsidiary of LeapFILE, a provider of secure file transfer technology -- is helping businesses use cloud services to securely share and collaborate on files. The Oxygen Cloud service, now in beta, lets enterprises build a "hybrid storage solution" combining different public and private clouds, while applying AES 256-bit encryption to data in transit both in the cloud and on local devices.

While Oxygen Cloud's standard service combines a Web-based platform with a desktop client, the company will also deliver its technology on local hardware through a partnership with Data Robotics. Oxygen Cloud is so named because the service supposedly "breathes life" into files.

Building the private cloud

Businesses that worry about the security or performance and availability of public cloud services are in some cases opting to build private clouds, which are generally defined as highly virtualized networks that allow the delivery of IT as a service, potentially with developers and end users provisioning their own resources through self-service portals.

Vendors tend to slap the private cloud label on any old IT product, but a couple of newcomers among our New IT Company to Watch have built private cloud software that may be worthy of the name.

Chris Pinkham, who led development of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud, is the founder of Nimbula, whose software automatically organizes virtual servers into an Amazon-like private cloud that operates behind the enterprise firewall. Nimbula Director, available in beta and slated to be generally available later in 2010, lets customers offer virtual machine instances in any flavor they like, from Linux to Windows, while setting policies that determine how much compute and storage capacity VMs can consume.

One of Nimbula's early customers, CIO Joubert Steyn of the Metropolitan Health Group, a health insurance company in South Africa, says he opted to build a private cloud because "South Africa is still quite bandwidth-constrained." Even for customers with enough bandwidth to use public cloud services, software products such as Nimbula Director can drive up utilization rates of existing in-house resources and improve services for developers.

Our second private cloud startup is the aptly named Cloud.com, which secured the highly coveted domain name for its launch in May of this year.

Available now, Cloud.com offers open source infrastructure-as-a-service software that helps service providers and enterprises turn physical and virtual resources into cloud computing services. The software, CloudStack, runs on top of the VMware, Citrix XenServer and KVM hypervisors, creating computing pools consisting of VMs, storage and networking capabilities, accessed through self-service interfaces for both administrators and users.

CloudStack is compatible with common cloud frameworks like Amazon's API, Citrix Cloud Center and VMware vCloud, potentially allowing portability of applications between private data centers and cloud. While the open source version is free to use, Cloud.com offers additional features and commercial support to paying customers, starting at $10,000 per year for five nodes. Cloud.com has some early support from Microsoft, as the two companies are collaborating on making Hyper-V compatible with open source cloud software.

Data access and performance

Data access and application performance are huge issues in virtualized and cloud-based workloads, and a whole slew of Network World's New IT Companies to Watch are working on these problems. Most of them, for whatever reason, have names starting with the letter "A" (startups often choose either A or Z names to get at the beginning or end of lists such as this one).

AppDynamics makes software that manages the performance of distributed Java and .NET applications, making it easier for IT pros to identify and fix problems in Web apps. The software works both on local applications as well as those running on Amazon EC2 and VMware-based clouds.

AppFirst, meanwhile, makes a SaaS product that provides IT pros with visibility into applications, identifying the server, server processes and activities causing performance problems. AppFirst says its service can analyze the "behavior and performance of applications across the entire application stack, regardless of language, application type or location (cloud, physical or virtual servers)."

Then there is Aryaka. Led by CEO Ajit Gupta, who previously sold Speedera Networks to Akamai, this startup has just launched a cloud-based application acceleration and WAN optimization platform, using TCP optimization, bandwidth scaling techniques, and application proxies to improve app performance and reduce bandwidth needs. Aryaka also boasts "enterprise-grade IPSec security."

Startups such as these could help businesses get over some of the performance problems posed by moving workloads to cloud services.

Cloud computing and virtualization "put a lot of demands on the network," Kerravala says. It takes a long time to move 10GB of data across a WAN link, and there's tremendous potential for startups that speed up that process, he notes.

That's why a company like Translattice, a startup whose technology goes into general availability Nov. 1, has built an appliance that improves access to applications and data for distributed and mobile workers. The appliance is fueled by a distributed relational SQL database that moves data closer to where it is likely to be used. "The Translattice platform is a distributed global application architecture that anticipates workers' application and data needs based on organizational policy and past usage, delivering the information when and where it is needed," the company says, adding that these benefits can be extended "even to small and remote offices."

Infineta Systems, another New IT Company to Watch, will offer the Velocity Dedupe Engine, a WAN traffic accelerator that uses de-duplication and other techniques to reduce the network traffic going over WAN links by up 80% or 90%, as well as transport layer optimizations and a prioritization engine to ensure that critical traffic is accelerated. The technology supports 10Gbps connections and could speed up, for example, live migrations of VMs from one data center to another.

Infineta's technology won't be generally available until Q1 2011, but the startup says it's already had talks with a few dozen Fortune 500 companies that are looking for ways to handle rapid growth in WAN traffic across data centers.

Databases

No startup is likely to overtake Larry Ellison's high-flying Oracle, but several new companies have innovative approaches to the database market. Akiban, whose AkibanDB product will come out sometime in 2011, has created database virtualization software that improves performance of SQL applications, in an attempt to solve the problems that lead customers to "NoSQL" products. The goal is to preserve investments in SQL-based applications by restructuring the way data is organized and accessed with "predictive caching" and other techniques that relieve bottlenecks caused by random access calls and join operations.

Delphix, whose Delphix Server technology is already shipping, provides database virtualization, storage optimization and management software designed to improve efficiency of storage used by Oracle and other databases. Delphix uses "intelligent block management, intelligent block sizing, compression, de-duplication and database filtering technologies" to reduce storage needs, and reduces time needed for database provisioning and refreshes without disrupting production systems. Delphix itself installs on an x86 server or virtual machine; database servers such as Oracle "simply see Delphix Server as a storage target."

Membase goes a different route than Akiban with a NoSQL database management system that includes and builds upon Memcached, a distributed memory caching system that's widely used by many large Web properties. Membase Server, a commercial distribution of open source software that's already powering the online game "Farmville," is designed to improve scalability and performance of Web apps while reducing the complexity of data management.

Membase officials say Memcached "is a key ingredient in the scale our data architecture behind 18 of the top 20 most heavily trafficked Web sites (including Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia and Craigslist) and tens of thousands of other corporate and consumer web applications." Analyst Curt Monash of Monash Research notes that Membase is targeting a potentially huge market in the hopes that such large Web properties will use its software to improve performance of Memcached.

The Membase open source project began last year as a collaborative effect involving Zynga, the creator of online games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

The next generation of storage

Storage bottlenecks have become a problem in data centers that are heavily virtualized, and customers looking to adopt cloud storage have struggled with performance and security. That's where this next group of startups comes in.

Cirtas, whose Bluejet Cloud Storage Controller is shipping for $70,000 and up, lets enterprises offload less frequently used data to the cloud while keeping high priority data in-house for optimal performance. The 2U appliance caches high priority data locally and stores secondary data in cloud services using WAN optimization technology, letting customers access cloud storage with performance and security in mind. The appliance combines DRAM, solid state drives (SSDs) and 7200RPM hard disk drives for multiple tiers of storage and up to 3.5TB of internal capacity.

"Cirtas claims they basically make the cloud look local to the applications," says analyst Arun Taneja of the Taneja Group. "That's the magic" -- customers get local performance with the price and flexibility of cloud computing.

Gridiron Systems, meanwhile, built a SAN application accelerator designed for large databases, VMware deployments, Oracle and general file acceleration. Gridiron uses MLC (multi-level cell) flash chips to provide "the performance and read/write ability of RAM with the capacity of Flash," speeding up access to application data sets.

Gridiron Systems officials claim to be in stealth mode and won't reveal pricing except to potential customers. However, the company seems to be stealth in name only, as it has been shipping production deployments since June and offers detailed information about its technology on its Web site.

On the virtualization front, the startup Virsto is speeding up access to data for virtualized systems, particularly those relying upon Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. Virsto's storage virtualization software installs into the hypervisor and manages its interaction with storage, improving the efficiency of data access operations in an attempt to eliminate the I/O bottlenecks caused when virtual servers try to access storage systems.

VMware has done a relatively good job optimizing storage, which is why Virsto is focusing on Hyper-V. "Microsoft needs more help" because its virtualization technology is newer than VMware's, Virsto CEO Mark Davis says.

While VMware is still the king of x86 virtualization, Hyper-V is becoming a viable alternative and its market could expand greatly because of the vast Windows Server install base.

One more storage startup, Virident, is addressing the fast-growing demand for enterprise-class flash drives.

"Flash, and successor solid state technologies, will revolutionize storage and the rest of the hardware stack," Monash predicts.Virident makes a PCIe SSD storage system that delivers low-latency data access for I/O-intensive applications, such as databases. Virident isn't the first startup in this market, as it will have to contend against the likes of Fusion-io, which has Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist. But Virident is claiming to offer faster performance with at least 200,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second), and disk lifetime of 24 years, assuming 5TB worth of writes per day.

Nimble Storage is also targeting the virtualization and SSD markets with converged iSCSI storage, backup and disaster recovery products that combine fast SSD storage with inexpensive SATA drives to give customers primary and backup storage in one device, while also providing offsite replication. Nimble improves storage efficiency with thin provisioning and other features, and is optimized for VMware virtualization deployments and Microsoft applications such as Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server.

Network virtualization and disaster recovery

Earlier in this article we noted that VMware became an IT giant by virtualizing the commodity x86 server. One of our "stealthiest" startups is trying to virtualize the network in much the same way VMware virtualized servers.

Nicira Networks, with financial backing from VMware co-founder Diane Greene and a patent-pending network operating system, aims to treat physical infrastructure as a resource pool of capacity, and create logical representations of that capacity which are decoupled from physical infrastructure. If successful, Nicira believes it can "free data center networks form the tyranny of inflexibility, complexity, vendor stranglehold, and high costs."

Nicira isn't saying yet when its technology will be available. Today's virtualization technology, however, is in wide use and provides new opportunities for data center managers to improve disaster recovery. That's the market addressed by our final two New IT Companies to Watch: ZeRTO and Actifio.

Still in stealth mode, ZeRTO is revealing little more than that it is developing disaster recovery/business continuity software aimed at the needs of virtualized, mission critical applications and cloud deployments. CEO Ziv Kedem previously co-founded Kashya, a company acquired by EMC and turned into EMC's RecoverPoint data protection and remote replication product.

ZeRTO is accepting applicants for a private beta program.

Actifio, meanwhile, is attempting to simplify disaster recovery and data protection with software that combines storage virtualization with several other capabilities. The software "integrates capacity optimization with data de-duplication, compression, encryption and network usage optimization," to automate the copy, store, move and restore operations, while helping IT deliver a service catalog with defined SLAs.

Actifio's Data Management Virtualization technology is available now at prices starting at $100,000.

Actifio -- similarly to startups Nimble Storage and Infineta -- is combining several technologies together in unique ways in what Taneja likes to call the "technology blender."

Blending technologies together to solve multiple problems at once may be a good approach for today's complicated IT world. But it's not the only way to break into the enterprise data center, as these 25 startups are showing.

How many of these startups will turn their technologies into successful business models is an open question. But in most cases these startups are gaining significant funding from venture capitalists, a hint that they might be on the right track.

Although the venture market in 2010 is better than it was in 2009, the funding available to tech newcomers has greatly declined over the past decade, leaving money for only the best new companies.

As Armstrong puts it, "There are a lot of bad ideas getting weeded out."

Follow Jon Brodkin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jbrodkin

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.
Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.computerworld.com.au

SPG SpiderCell Spins Wireless EFT Web

2010-10-05T19:42:00.001-07:00

SPG, the Secure Payment Gateway division of EchoSat Communications Group, has launched its SpiderCell network technology. SPG's SpiderCell network uses cellular technology to deliver point-of-sale (POS) and other electronic funds transfer (EFT) transactions with no DSL, cable or satellite Internet required.

C. L. "Spencer" Rutherford, president of EchoSat, said, "SPG SpiderCell is a complete wireless EFT transaction transport solution, fully PCI compliant, that is 'plug and play' and ready to install very quickly. No longer does a remotely located convenience store have to bear the heavy capital expense of satellite equipment, with large monthly recurring fees, just to be competitive with fast transactions for their customers. For sites that have DSL or cable, SPG SpiderCell can be utilized for backup in the event of a DSL or cable outage. SpiderCell backup is completely transparent and totally automatic with no human intervention required."

Duncan Oil, Beaver Creek, Ohio, a multi-branded petroleum marketer, was one of the first convenience stores to use SPG's SpiderCell network. Don Gose, vice president, said, "No longer do we have to worry about a disruption or slowdown of our credit card transactions. Unlike satellite, as a primary route SpiderCell requires very little capital outlay and yields extremely fast transactions. In our stores where DSL or cable is used and there is an outage, the failover to a different transaction route on SpiderCell is not even recognizable. It's totally automatic."

Gulf Oil, Framingham, Mass., was also an early adopter of SPG's SpiderCell technology. Marg McDonnell, director of credit card operations, said, "SpiderCell was just what Gulf needed when we ran into situations where a site couldn't get DSL or cable and didn't want to shoulder the high cost of satellite."

A division of The Tower Group, Lexington, Ky., EchoSat Communications is a leading independent supplier of secure data communications services for c-store, petroleum, retail, utility and grocery markets. SPG (Secure Payment Gateway) services provide a fully managed PCI-compliant POS, ATM, EFT and electronic benefits transfer (EBT) transaction transport network for multipleapplications to multiple-end-points over standard broadband Internet and similar connections. It also provides SPG-Wireless cellular payments connectivity and broadband IP internet satellite services for remote areas and for business continuity by delivering out-of-band connectivity for critical backup operations and emergency purposes. EchoSat delivers modular SPG service packages, as well as economical and flexible value-added custom communication solutions, in the United States and other countries.
Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.cspnet.com

Jet Blue: ViaSat’s Satellite Wi-Fi Is A Game Changer

2010-09-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

By teaming up with satellite and telecommunications provider ViaSat, JetBlue says it can change the in-flight internet experience similar to how altered in-flight television.

JetBlue and ViaStat recently announced the deal which will put Wi-Fi on a fleet of more than 160 aircraft using ViaSat advanced Ka-band satellite. ViaSat will provide Ka-band antenna components and SurfBeam modems for installation on JetBlue aircrafts along with two-way transmission bandwidth services.

Live TV, the JetBlue subsidiary responsible for the company's satellite TV offering, will oversee the integration of the ViaSat broadband and provide Wi-Fi enabled services into the cabin. The end result will be satellite enabled Wi-Fi internet service.

While many of its competing airlines already offer in-flight Wi-Fi, JetBlue said it wanted to make sure the experience was more than adequate. Bryan Baldwin, spokesperson for JetBlue, says ViaSat's flexible satellite technology is unforeseen on the commercial market.

"This will be true broadband bandwidth with the speed and capacity that is currently not there in the aviation marketplace," Baldwin said. "The service isn't good enough with an air to ground system, which is why we chose to work with ViaSat and do the satellite option."

Many of JetBlue's competitors, such as AirTran, American Airlines and Delta, use the in-flight internet provider GoGo, which is supported by aviation telecom provider Aircell. However, Baldwin said, GoGo's ground-based (cell tower) connectivity system, "Has insufficient capacity to support the experience we are seeking to offer our passengers."

Other satellite offerings, such as Row44 and Inmarsat, didn't have enough capacity to meet the company's needs. Meanwhile, it thinks ViaSat will be able to fully replicate a user's ground based online experience in the air.

"There will be no limits, like if everyone is using it at the same time, there will be no slowdowns," Baldwin said. "It will work at great speeds at full connectivity and with lots of bandwidth for plenty of users."

Prior to this project, ViaSat only worked on military based flights. The company has created satellite networks, terminals and processors for wireless military communications. It said JetBlue was the ideal candidate to partner with in the commercial industry due to its history with entertainment on board a plane. One of the reasons JetBlue became a household name was because of its in-flight satellite TV offerings, which offers an array of Direct TV channels for each passenger. Prior to this, most airlines offered only a few TVs for the whole plane that showed predetermined movies and TV shows.

"JetBlue is famous for customer service and in-flight entertainment. The breakthrough bandwidth economics of ViaSat-1 extends the passenger internet experience beyond just e-mail and web pages and creates a world of possibilities for personalized broadband entertainment. This is exactly the type of application and user experience that we believe will help transform the satellite broadband industry," Mark Dankberg, ViaSat chief executive officer and chairman, said in a statement.

JetBlue said first installations will occur by 2012.

In an emailed response, Fran Phillips Aircell senior vice president of airline services, said, "Aircell's Air-to-Ground (ATG) network offers the only cost-effective service today, and into the forseeable future, as evidenced by the fact that our customers love Gogo, and that we were the number one choice of 9 demanding airlines. Our high performing network also happens to be easily scaleable as bandwidth needs increase. Ka satellite service certainly holds promise, and if the expectations around this technology do get met in the coming years, we are in the unique position to leverage it. With more than 20 years of satellite experience in our business aviation group and a huge base of more than 1000 aircraft, we certainly intend to maintain our market leadership position both in terms of technological performance and customer satisfaction."Satellite Internet Servicesource: africa.ibtimes.com/articles

BC-AP Satellite Delivery Notice,Advisory

2010-09-30T23:08:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: AP Customer Support experts are working extended hours all week to ensure US Newspaper members have the support needed to complete migration to web delivery on time.

On Sept. 30, the primary distribution channel for delivery of the AP text, photo and graphics report to U.S. newspaper members will shift from satellite to Internet.

For the past 18 months, AP has been working with production teams at U.S. newspaper members to prepare for this important change. If you are a U.S. newspaper member, your newsroom's production staff should have completed or be nearing completion of this project.

The new Internet-based delivery service is called AP WebFeeds. This technology, designed and managed by the AP, offers newspapers more control over the delivery of the AP report. It provides content in formats that serve both older editorial systems and new digital products.

In addition to WebFeeds, note that AP Exchange, our portal for editors and reporters, will continue to provide you with full access to the AP wires you receive. For members opting to receive election data via satellite, those services will continue to be supported on satellite through the end of this year.

Starting in October, with the exception of election data, AP will begin the process of decommissioning the legacy satellite network for U.S. newspaper members. Should you have any questions regarding this change in delivery, please consult with your newsroom's production staff or AP Customer Support at apcustomersupport(at)ap.org.

Satellite Internet Servicesource: sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Satellite phone Terrestar Genius revealed by AT&T

2010-09-22T03:26:00.000-07:00

AT&T on Tuesday announced it will launch a dual-mode cellular/satellite smartphone called TerreStar Genus, geared at enterprise and small business customers who need coverage in remote locations or when they cannot get cellular service.The smartphone runs on the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and will provide access to expanded voice and data roaming coverage throughout the country, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in territorial waters. Its feature include a touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, charging LED indicator, ambient light sensor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera, and GPS.

With access to the TerreStar satellite network, users such as government, energy, utility, transportation, and maritime workers would be able to get coverage in remote areas. In addition to being an everyday phone, the Genus also provides backup satellite communications for disaster recovery workers, first responders, and public service agencies. However, in order to work, the phone must have a direct line of site to the satellite, which means it can only be used outdoors.

The carrier said that in spite of the economy, a Business Continuity Study it conducted earlier this year revealed that businesses are increasing their investments in disaster planning technologies and formulating business continuity plans, and that mobile phones play a key role in those plans.
Discover how midmarket CIOs are making innovation real, raising the ROI of IT and expanding business impact

Satellite-based communications is the emerging standard in mobile devices due to advancements in satellite technology, said Jeffrey Epstein, president and CEO of Reston, Va.-based TerreStar.

The TerreStar Genus will be available later this year and retail for $799, plus a standard AT&T voice and data service plan, but does not require a contract. To switch over to the optional satellite feature costs an additional $25 per month plus 65 cents per minute.

Other carriers have attempted to sell dual cellular/satellite phones in the past, including Sprint Nextel, which offered Iridium phones in 1999, and Verizon Wireless’ predecessor, Airtouch, which carried Globalstar phones in 2000, but demand was not strong for either phone.Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.military-technologies.ne

Satellite TV provider hounded couple for debt they didn't owe

2010-09-22T03:17:00.000-07:00

09/21/2010 - WEEKI WACHEE, Fla. - Whether it's cell phones or satellite service, cancelling a contract can be costly. But one local family tells our Taking Action Reporter Jackie Callaway they got hit with a fee even though they believe they fullfilled their end of the bargain.t was back in 2007, Pat Tatro said, they decided to divorce their satellite service. “Every time it rained or we have thunderstorms we would lose the signal on DIRECTV.”

A 3 year old email from DIRECTV appears to confirm that the Tatros’ commitment ended in December of 2007. “This email definitely said the contract was up.”

But months later, DIRECTV's collection agency sent out the first of several demands for an early cancellation fee of $149. "They told us that we did not fulfill our commitment. We knew that we had,” explained Pat's husband, Lee.

In all, the Tatros said, five different collection agencies hounded them by phone and email for more than 2 years on DIRECTV’s behalf over that $149. “Every time you would talk to anybody, they would say we owe this money and we should pay it.”

I relayed the Tatros’ claim and paper work to DIRECTV's corporate office and asked that they review this customer's account.

In a statement, DIRECTV explained. “This was an administrative error on the part of DIRECTV and we have since apologized to Mr. Tatro for the inconvenience, reversed all fees and zeroed out his account. We have also arranged to stop the collection activity and remove any negative credit reporting."

Pat says she is just glad to have this behind them. “It is really a relief to know that someone out there can speak for you because they were obviously not listening to us.”Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.abcactionnews.com

KVH Introduces Breakthrough Airtime Packages for mini-VSAT Broadband Service

2010-09-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

MIDDLETOWN, R.I., Sep 19, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- The world's fastest growing maritime VSAT service, mini-VSAT Broadband(SM), is now even more affordable for commercial and leisure vessels seeking to remain connected at sea via broadband Internet and voice service. Today's introduction of several new airtime rate plans from KVH Industries, Inc., /quotes/comstock/15*!kvhi/quotes/nls/kvhi (KVHI 12.37, -0.16, -1.28%) includes a TracPhone(R) V7 hardware and mini-VSAT Broadband airtime bundle for only $995 per month as well as a new seasonal rate plan for subscribers who don't use their vessel on a year-round basis.
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"In less than three years, the mini-VSAT Broadband service has become the fastest growing maritime VSAT network with almost 1,000 TracPhone V7 systems shipped," says Brent C. Bruun, KVH's vice president of satellite sales and business development. "These new airtime rate plans, together with our compact, commercial-grade TracPhone V7, make it even more affordable for vessels operating regionally or globally to be equipped with true VSAT performance."

In contrast to KVH's existing fixed-rate, speed-based plans, the new metered rate options permit commercial and leisure boaters to choose a service plan based on how much data they expect to use per month while getting the benefit of the fastest available network speeds at all times. The new metered pricing options also include a limited-time lease and airtime bundle that makes the TracPhone V7 hardware, mini-VSAT Broadband service, GlobalCare premium support program, and 100 MB of monthly data available for only $995 per month.

"Choosing a metered plan can make the airtime even more affordable, especially when combined with our popular hardware lease program," Bruun explains. "For example, our $995 bundle is ideal for mariners preparing to upgrade from older, more expensive, and less capable services like Inmarsat B and Fleet, giving crew and passengers access to data rates up to four times faster than FleetBroadband as well as more than five times the monthly data capacity you would receive in comparable Inmarsat hardware and service bundles."

KVH is also adding the flexibility of seasonal fixed-rate packages that will allow boaters to enjoy mini-VSAT Broadband on a seasonal basis for as little as three months of the year.

"We recognize that not every vessel operates year-round. That's why we're rolling out our new seasonal plans. Whether you're a commercial fisherman with a limited working season or a yacht owner who will only be cruising during the summer, our new seasonal fixed-rate options will permit crew and passengers to get the full benefit of the mini-VSAT Broadband service when the boat is in use while minimizing the costs during the off-season," concludes Bruun.

The mini-VSAT Broadband network was designed from the ground up to be the first next-generation maritime satellite communications solution. Offering service and performance superior to traditional maritime VSAT services through a global spread spectrum satellite network, it also includes the commercial-grade KVH TracPhone V7, the first FCC-approved 24-inch (60 cm) VSAT antenna. The seamless worldwide network is delivered by 11 satellite transponders and 8 secure earth stations and offers voice service and Internet access as fast as 512 Kbps (upload) and 2 Mbps (download) with significant cost savings compared to competing services.

Visit http://www.minivsat.com for additional details regarding the TracPhone V7 and mini-VSAT Broadband service and coverage.

Note to Editors: High-resolution, press-ready images are available at http://press.kvh.com for download and editorial use.

About KVH Industries, Inc.

Middletown, RI-based KVH Industries, Inc., and its wholly owned subsidiary, KVH Europe A/S, are leading providers of in-motion satellite TV and communications systems, having designed, manufactured, and sold more than 150,000 mobile satellite antennas for applications on vessels, vehicles, and aircraft. KVH's mission is to connect mobile customers around the globe with the same digital television entertainment, communications, and Internet services that they enjoy in their homes and offices.

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, for example, the functionality, characteristics, quality and performance of KVH's products and technology; anticipated innovation and product development; and customer preferences, requirements and expectations. The actual results could differ materially. Factors that may cause such differences include, among others, those discussed in KVH's most recent Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. KVH does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect new information or developments.

KVH and TracPhone are registered trademarks of KVH Industries, Inc. "mini-VSAT Broadband" is a service mark of KVH Industries, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com

SOURCE: KVH Industries, Inc.
span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);font-size:85%;" >Satellite Internet Service

Bell knocking at family-room doors with Internet-based TV service

2010-09-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Bell Canada is on the verge of a major effort to get inside Canadian family rooms with the introduction of new Internet-based TV services.The "Bell Entertainment Service" will finally allow the giant telephone company to compete head-to-head with cable TV providers Rogers Communications Inc. and Vidéotron Ltée by offering television signals over the same fibre-optic lines it uses to provide its new Fibe Internet services.

Cable providers account for more then 60 per cent of all of Canada's monthly TV subscribers. The technology used by cable broadcasters has allowed them to offer new services, such as video-on-demand, in recent years that satellite has not been capable of offering.

Bell's new entertainment service will compete with its existing satellite-based link, Bell Satellite, formerly

ExpressVu. More than two million Canadians subscribe to the satellite service.

No one from Bell was available to comment Thursday on the new service.

But Kevin Crull, Bell's president of residential services, told a Toronto newspaper on Wednesday that that company's new TV services will be groundbreaking.

"It's really absolutely the next generation of television," he said.

"It's as big a leap as when we went from black and white TV to colour."

While Bell hasn't been marketing the service openly, the Internet is buzzing with details, including a 23-page manual for customers telling them how to set up the Bell Entertainment Service and the benefits it will provide.

The new TV services will bring high-definition (HD) programming and more than 100 channels, to as many as four TVs in a home. It will also offer customers a "whole-home" personal video recorder (PVR), which will allow viewers to watch programming on all TVs in a house from one DVR, as well as services that have been traditionally offered by cable TV companies, including on-demand programs, online access to schedule the recording of shows and the ability to pause and rewind live television.

Satellite service is a one-way link, and offers none of the new service's interactive features. In addition, satellite receivers require there be no obstructions like high-rise buildings to interrupt the link with satellites.

Like digital cable or satellite, consumers of the new service will need to purchase a set-top box for each TV.

Bell has announced plans to spend $3 billon on network upgrades this year in order to bring its Fibe services, and by extension the Bell Entertainment Service, to millions of Canadian homes. Already the service is available to around three million households, a majority of which are in Toronto and Montreal.

A total of 50,000 customers in those cities subscribe to the entertainment service. In order to receive it, customers must also subscribe to Bell's Fibe 6 Internet service. Prices for the two services bundled together range from around $67 per month, before taxes and other fees, to more than $140 per month depending on the package.

Bell is not yet ready to roll out the product to a large audience, said Tony Olvet, vice-president of communications, segments, mobility and client hardware research domains at IDC Canada.

However, he suggested Bell should accelerate introducing the TV services as competing technologies are being introduced at breakneck speeds.

Apple TV 2, Google TV and Netflix in Canada, which will allow Canadians to watch TV and movies at home over the Internet, will force many people to question whether they even need a monthly cable, satellite or Internet TV subscription.

"That's disruptive to the TV markets and should be something that TV carriers in Canada should be keeping an eye on," said Olvet. "There is a bigger looming issue of eyeballs moving more to web-based services. People, especially younger people, are not subscribing to traditional pay services."

Vince Vittore, a principal analyst with research firm the Yankee Group, said the new Bell service is similar to what AT&T and Verizon now offer in the U.S.

He said the service will pose a direct threat to the dominance of Canadian cable TV companies and could even offer better, and cheaper, services if Bell decides to bundle home phone and other technologies.

"It does represent a threat relatively soon, depending on how fast Bell wants to roll that service out," said Vittore.

He also said that satellite TV service will survive after the Bell Entertainment Service launch. The satellite TV service will continue to provide television to rural residents where cable and high-speed Internet services are difficult to find.
Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.vancouversun.com

Watch Tv Online | Watch Live 3,500 Channels On Your Pc

2010-09-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

No.1 Live Tv Online Software

SatelliteDirect system solution taps in to a lot more than 3,500 TV channels worldwide right via the internet. Now you can get pleasure from a lot more channels compared to your satellite and cable Television combined for the one-time fee lower than 30 days of your monthly cable tv bill.

Watch Satellite Live Online Tv Channels On Your Pc Here..

You do not need a satellite tv dish, receiver or any other gadgets to make use of the software. All you need is a pc as well as an internet provider. Just grab the software and you're able to take advantage of over 3,500 stations globally.

You can watch TV from your netbook or desktop pc anytime and also from any location. And also connect your computer directly to your own Television set.

Important things about Satellite Television on Pc:

You get a lifetime membership at a 1 time registration payment without any monthly charges or installation costs enabling anyone to save thousands of dollars.

Watch Satellite Live Online Tv Channels On Your Pc Here..

You receive numerous free high quality digital tv stations and Stream television live from all over the world available in all categories.

The software is easy to install and run, in addition you receive complete 24hr free back-up and support services from where ever you are in the world.

You receive more than three thousand live Tv channels within just a couple of minutes

What Is This Satellite Direct TV for PC Exactly about?

This is a type of computer software that can be easily down loaded over the internet. The only real prerequisites are that you'll require an operating Desktop or laptop which has a working net connection. Installing the software is a piece of cake, and typically finishes installing between 5 to 15 minutes.

This particular software program is provided by the actual parent provider web site and will come with a lot more than 3000 TV stations to view a variety of channels such as films, educational, cartoons, sci-fi, drama, music and much more. NO more problems on how you can watch tv via pc on the internet.

Downloading the program to watch Television via the internet is going to take you only 5 minutes and you can be watching the entire 3000 stations coming from 100 countries all over the world.

What Are the Requirements?

No cable box

No more satellite dish to install

No wires through walls

No complex setup.

No monthly fees

No premium or pay per view costs

Satellite Internet Servicesource:

DirecTV to launch Internet streaming for NFL package

2010-08-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

25 Aug 2010 - DirecTV, the El Segundo-based satellite TV provider, will have a low-key "soft launch" for its service that expands its popular Sunday Ticket NFL football package to the Internet.

Starting Sept. 8, sports fans nationwide who are unable to purchase DirecTV's satellite service can access any NFL Sunday football game through online streaming. The service has a $350 subscription charge.

The soft launch comes after DirecTV tested the program in the New York market during the last NFL season.

DirecTV expects this service to be limited in scope.

"Our goal is to ensure that all fans can enjoy Sunday Ticket even if they are part of the VERY small segment that cannot get DirecTV," spokesman Robert Mercer said Wednesday in an e-mail exchange.

DirecTV will use an authentication process to ensure that buyers of the online service don't already have and are unable to sign up for a standard DirecTV subscription, Mercer said.

He didn't give details on the verification method, which will be part of the ordering process.

The method to determine eligibility won't be fool-proof, Mercer noted, "but based on the fact that the viewing experience is better on a 50-inch HD flat screen, we're not concerned about cannibalization or any impact on broadcast ratings."

Some homes can't receive DirecTV broadcasts because they don't have a direct line of sight to an orbiting DirecTV satellite.

The company did not release a statement on its new online service and will not support the launch with any formal marketing material, Mercer said.

"Based on this year's results we will be able to assess the strategy (for) 2011 and beyond," he said.

DirecTV's Sunday Ticket package has helped the company grow its subscriber base to 18.76 million customers in the United States - making its the top satellite TV provider and one of the biggest pay-TV services.

Sunday Ticket also has helped DirecTV attract higher-paying subscribers than competitor Dish Network. Satellite Internet Service
source: www.dailybreeze.com

L-3 lands defense contract worth up to $170M

2010-08-25T19:35:00.001-07:00

The Defense Department said Wednesday it has awarded L-3 Global Communications a special operations contract worth up to $170 million.

The 5-year contract calls on the company to configure, test and support a portable satellite communications system. The system is to have secure and regular voice, video and data communications to special forces around the world.

The work will be done in Victor, N.Y. Orders will be completed by August 2015.Satellite Internet Servicesource:

DirecTV To Invest $46M In Argentina; Will Offer Internet Service

2010-08-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

BUENOS AIRES: 21 Aug 2010 (Dow Jones)--DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV) late Thursday said it plans to invest $46 million in Argentina to improve its satellite TV services and start offering Internet access.

News of DirecTV's plans came just hours after the Argentine government announced that it would shut down the country's top Internet provider, Fibertel, which is owned by the multimedia conglomerate Grupo Clarin SA (GCLA.BA). The government, which has been engaged in a fierce battle with Grupo Clarin over the future of Argentina's media industry, touted the announcement on its websites.

DirecTV will invest the funds through 2011. Its plans to offer broadband access through DirecTV Net will initially be limited to the province of Mendoza.

The company also said it will start producing television decoders in the southern province of Tierra del Fuego. The government recently offered tax incentives to companies that move production facilities to the province.

Earlier Thursday the government turned up the heat in its ongoing battle with Grupo Clarin, targeting its lucrative broadband Internet service.

Planning Minister Julio de Vido said Fibertel's license was invalid and he gave the company 90 days to wind up operations. The company "doesn't exist anymore," he said.

Fibertel currently has a lock on 25% of Argentina's broadband Internet market, providing service to more than 1 million customers. The loss of its Internet business could be very costly for Grupo Clarin

Internet subscriptions accounted for 480 million pesos ($120 million), or 14%, of the group's sales during the first half of this year. Satellite Internet Servicesource: online.wsj.com

ViaSat among 1st satellite firms to get stimulus money

2010-08-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

21 Aug 2010 - A division of Carlsbad satellite equipment maker ViaSat was among firms that won economic stimulus funds this week from the Obama administration for projects to improve high-speed Internet access nationwide — marking the first time U.S. satellite companies have received stimulus money.

WildBlue Communications, which ViaSat acquired in February, received $19.5 million to subsidize satellite broadband service to rural communities in the West and Midwest.

About 110,000 households and 4,900 businesses without land-line broadband stand to benefit.

In addition, DISH TV provider EchoStar of Colorado got $14 million aimed at the eastern United States. EchoStar offers Internet service to its customers through WildBlue. About 42,500 households and 2,000 businesses could be eligible. “We won one award directly and one award indirectly,” said Tom Moore, a senior vice president of ViaSat. “And we’re pretty excited about that.”

Besides WildBlue and EchoStar, Hughes Network Systems — WildBlue’s chief competitor — received $58.7 million.

The industry once had high hopes for tapping broadband stimulus dollars. Early on, ViaSat and EchoStar applied for more than $480 million in stimulus grants and loans.

But to date, the $7 billion in broadband stimulus funds included in last year’s American Recovery & Reinvestment Act have been primarily spent on infrastructure projects that create jobs on the ground. Only $100 million was set aside for satellite Internet, which has a reputation of being relatively slow and expensive.

ViaSat, however, has made a big bet on changing that perception. Early next year, the company plans to launch its first satellite, ViaSat 1, which it says can provide 10 times faster speeds at roughly the same costs as existing satellite Internet services.

Hughes also is building a next-generation Internet satellite slated to launch in 2012.

In all, the Obama administration handed out $1.8 billion in stimulus funds Wednesday for 94 broadband projects in 37 states. To qualify for satellite stimulus funds, households and businesses must have no other broadband alternative, Moore said.

The money will be used to subsidize installation and equipment costs and to reduce monthly subscription fees.

According to a recent report from the Federal Communications Commission, an estimated 14 million to 24 million U.S. households and businesses don’t have access to high-speed Internet from cable or DSL.

“These are funds targeted for the unserved,” said Moore of ViaSat. “This is a very capital-efficient way to reach a large number of people. And I think when people realize how good satellite can be when done properly with the right technology — and ViaSat 1 is a big part of that — they’ll see this is an important part of the policy of how to reach the last 20 or 25 percent” of those lacking high-speed Internet access.

Moore also hopes the satellite stimulus program becomes a template as lawmakers ponder whether to expand use of the Universal Service Fund, which is a tax on telephone service.

The funds are used to make sure rural Americans have affordable phone service. Some federal officials have proposed expanding the use of the Universal Service Fund to include broadband Internet access. “The Universal Service Fund is billions of dollars every year,” Moore said.

“What we’re most encouraged about is that this (stimulus grant) be used in some way as a pilot program for a much bigger effort — which we’re just starting to debate in Washington — and that is universal service reform.”Satellite Internet Servicesource: www.signonsandiego.com

24-year-old entrepreneur putting high-speed Internet in rural areas

2010-08-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Aug. 21, 2010 - Based in his Smithville home since he was a teen, LiveNetworks CEO is on a mission to connect his neighbors via broadband.

In some circles, J.W. Breeden is still known as "that kid."

As in, that kid who was fascinated by technology in preschool, who earned his first $50 hooking up a family friend's computer when he was 7 and who had his first business customer in the seventh grade.

As in, that kid who wrote his company's award-winning business plan while in high school and who juggled college with launching his company, LiveAir Networks, an Internet service provider that competes with corporate giants while also providing broadband in rural areas where the giants don't offer service.

Today, at 24, Breeden estimates that the initial $30,000 investment in LiveAir Networks has grown 25 times . He said he has 300 clients, including a chamber of commerce, a school district, nonprofits, businesses and residents, from Smithville to Giddings to La Grange and points in between.

Last year, LiveAir Networks was the Smithville Chamber of Commerce's Employer of the Year.

Broadband is to this generation of rural Texans as the railroads, farm-to-market roads and interstate highways were to their forebears: They get bypassed at their peril.

About 100 small, fixed wireless companies, mostly homegrown, are trying to fill the state's huge rural gaps, according to Connected Texas, the nonprofit that is mapping the state's broadband services.

To hear his customers, friends and former teachers, rural Texas just needs a few more "Jay Dubs" as he is sometimes called. It helps that many of them watched the precocious boy grow up.

"He was one of those kids you could tell had a strong head on his shoulders and knew what he was doing," Smithville City Manager Tex Middlebrook said. "He's a local boy. We have all the faith in the world in him."

Breeden runs the company from his childhood bedroom. His mother remains his no-nonsense banker. The company's servers hum in the air-conditioned attic of the family's house about four miles north of Smithville.

Sitting at the kitchen table with his mother, Breeden pets his 80-pound mutt, Laptop, saying he doesn't intend to stay small.

"We have a carrier mindset, not a mom-and-pop mindset," he says. "We think like the big boys."

LiveAir Networks offers broadband services using microwave technology, usually mounted on water towers, across 2,400 square miles in parts of five counties.

It offers Web hosting and management of information technology for companies. It is ramping up its Internet phone service and designing its first fiber ring for La Grange.

Breeden said he doesn't feel constricted by his choice to start a business in rural Texas.

"The world is rural," he said. "I can go anywhere the business demand is, and I can expand for a lower cost per mile."

Though Breeden was always precocious with technology, it was his frustration with dialup, and later satellite, Internet access that sparked his interest in becoming an Internet provider for his rural neighbors.

He wrote his first business plan as a freshman at Smithville High School.

Stewart Burns was his marketing teacher and sponsor for DECA, the former Distributive Education Clubs of America, an association for high school students who compete by writing business plans for their ideas.

As a freshman, Breeden took his idea to state-level competition but lost. He then spent the next three years revising and refining it.

"His freshman year was a dream," Burns said. "By his senior year, it was a reality."

In fact, Burns said the plan was too thorough. For example, Breeden had monthly budget projections for three years, as opposed to annual budgets.

"He was light-years ahead of people," Burns said. "He had to dumb it down."

Breeden not only won state that year; he placed second in an international competition that included 268 entries.

"He's just as shrewd as they come," Burns said. "I love him to death. There's no telling what he'll do."

One thing Burns doesn't expect Breeden to do is stray far from his close-knit family and his roots.

"He has no desire to go big city," Burns said. "He feels he can sit in his home and run the world."

Breeden is the son of Charles and Dinah Breeden. His father is a Union Pacific engineer. His mother is a teacher-librarian who has written about the challenge of raising a gifted child. His sister, who is finishing college, does the billing for LiveAir Networks. His grandmother lives next door.Satellite Internet Service
source: www.statesman.com

Is Satellite Internet Your Only option?

2010-08-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

There are different types of internet service available in the United States. Basically it falls into three categories, first a dial up connection which is through your telephone line. A downside of this service is if you only have one telephone line then when you are on your computer, you are also using you telephone line and anyone calling will receive a busy signal or perhaps your answering machine. This is a very slow form of internet connection.

The second type of internet connection service is DSL or Digital Subscriber Line which is connected by an Ethernet connection or a USB or Universal Serial Bus, port. This DSL goes through a traditional telephone line and then through a router/modem. The telephone line has a splitter that allows the DSL to function without tying up the telephone line. It is a fairly quick connection. Some companies are also upgrading this to a fiber optics line for a faster connection.

The third type is an internet connection provided by a cable company. This consists of wires from the cable company that connect you to their internet service. This type of provider may also provide your television service and your telephone service. However the internet connection is not through the telephone line. You do not need a telephone line to connect via a cable connection.

There is an additional connection that is becoming more common in the United States which is external Wi-Fi. This is a wireless connection. The computer must have a wireless capability to utilize this form of internet connection. There will be either a separate plug-in that functions as the modem so to speak that connects to an external ISPS. Or there are Hot Spots available in various parts of the country and these are increasing. It could be at the local city hall or at some parks or motels. Some places charge for access, at other places it is free. But the computer must have that wireless connection capability before any Hot Spot or Wi-Fi can be accessed.

The last major type of internet connection is through a satellite. It is said if you can go outside your home or office and see the Southern sky than you can get a satellite internet connection.

There are some circumstances that must be present to get satellite internet connection. Just as there are certain conditions that must apply to get any type of internet connection. You have to have certain computer capabilities and capacities. It is generally used in remote areas where there is no broadband or DSL available.

A satellite internet has specific account requirements. There will be some upfront costs to receive satellite internet service. This will generally include the up front installation costs and hardware costs. The service requires a small dish that will connect to your computer. There will also be a service commitment but this is not unusual for any internet service connection.

Satellite Internet Service
source: www.moviematics.com

How 2-Way Satellite Internet Access Works ?

2010-02-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
How DIRECWAY Works

Satellite communication systems differ from terrestrial systems in one obvious but important way - the transmitter is moved from the ground to the sky. Because a satellite can "see" about one-third of the Earth's surface from its position in space, it is able to serve a very large geographical area. This leads to a number of advantages:

- As little as three satellites can cover almost the whole of the Earth's surface, with the exclusion of the sparsely populated polar regions. To achieve the same coverage by terrestrial means would require a very large and expensive network of ground-based transmitters.

- Services can be quickly introduced, since coverage is available for everyone from day one. There is no need for a phased introduction of ground-based transmissions with a simple antenna, those located even in the most remote locations can still enjoy the same level of service as someone living in the center of a major city.

- Satellites naturally span national boundaries, providing numerous possibilities for truly international services.

Direcway provides one of the fastest Internet connectivity available nationwide. For downloading from the Internet, a DIRECWAY system is capable of receiving content distribution or streaming video at bit rates up to 1 MBps. For uploading to the Internet, a satellite return channel provides upload speeds up to 128 kbps.

When DIRECWAY is configured with a satellite return, it uses the ITU (Indoor Transmit Unit) to send data up to the satellite, which in turn sends the data to the Hughes Network Operations Center (NOC). The NOC forwards the request to the Internet, where the data is routed to its final destination.

Data returning from the Internet to the PC is routed to the NOC, where it is sent up to the satellite. The DIRECWAY system's IRU (Indoor Receive Unit) receives and decodes the high-speed data, then presents the data to the user.

Indoor Equipment

The IRU is a DVB-compliant satellite adapter that can be used alone, in the receive-only/dial-up return configuration or together with the ITU for satellite return. When used with a modem or existing network connection, the receive-only configuration can provide hybrid Internet access, where packets travel to the Internet via terrestrial routes and return to the PC via the satellite.

The ITU adds transmit capability to an IRU. If an ITU is installed and configured, the user can select the satellite instead of the modem as the outbound (upload) route. When the ITU is available and the user selects this option, the system essentially is "always on." This means the user never has to wait for the PC to connect.

Outdoor Equipment

The DIRECWAY antenna is equipped with:

An LNB to receive data from the satellite
A radio unit to transmit data to the satellite (for satellite return)

Two RG-6 coaxial cables connect the outdoor equipment to the indoor equipment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Equipment Details

The DIRECWAY DW4000 systems consist of a oval satellite antenna, matching integrated outdoor electronics, and the indoor units (see below for further descriptions).

Indoor Equipment

The indoor equipment consists of one or two USB satellite adapters:

* ITU (Indoor Transmit Unit, Model DW4000 only)
* IRU (Indoor Receive Unit, Models DW3000/4000).

The DW4000 indoor equipment package is shown in Figure 1. Include are the ITU, IRU, power supply, USB cable, and ITU-IRU interconnection cable.

The IRU is a DVB compliant satellite adapter that can be used alone, in the one-way configuration, or together with the ITU for two-way operation.

The DIRECWAY ITU is designed to be an add-on capability to a standard receive-only DIRECWAY IRU. When the ITU is installed and configured, the user will have the ability to select the satellite instead of the modem as the outbound route. When this option is selected and the ITU is available, the system is essentially "always on". This means you never have to wait for your PC to connect, or worry about ISP busy signals. And because the ITU is connected to the IRU through the ITU-IRU interconnection cable, only one USB port on your PC is required to operate the DIRECWAY indoor equipment.

Outdoor Equipment

The DIRECWAY antenna is equipped with the following:

* A single LNB to receive DIRECWAY data from the satellite (Models DW3000/4000)
* A radio unit to transmit DIRECWAY data to the satellite (Model DW4000 only).

In addition each DIRECWAY system can be optionally equipped with an additional dual- LNB to receive DIRECTV using the same antenna. This configuration is called DirecDUO.

Figure 2 shows the DIRECWAY antenna configured without the DirecDUO option.

The outdoor equipment is connected by two RG-6 coaxial cables to the indoor equipment.

Con't to page 2 >>

How 2-Way Satellite Internet Access Works ? - page 2

2010-02-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
DiRECWAY Security

The packets destined for Internet hosts are sent first to the DiRECWAY Network Operations Center (NOC). The NOC forwards the request to the Internet, where the data is routed to the destination Internet host. Data received back from the Internet host is routed to the NOC, up to the satellite, and back down to the user's PC.

DiRECWAY Download (Receive) Security

DiRECWAY Conditional Access utilizes encryption technology to protect the various DiRECWAY services against unauthorized access by interlopers on the satellite downlink to a user's PC. Conditional access provides privacy protecting transmissions to a site (email, etc.) from being intercepted by any other site over the space link. It protects multimedia streams and digital file transmissions from being intercepted by any site except those designated by the information provider to the DiRECWAY NOC.

The DiRECWAY NOC individually encrypts each multimedia stream or package with a unique session key. Access to a stream or package is controlled by the NOC's only making its session key available in usable form to authorized DiRECWAY receivers. The NOC passes to a DiRECWAY receiver its session keys in a scrambled format only usable by that specific receiver. Each receiver includes a tamper-resistant crypto-facility (secure ASIC) in which is stored at manufacturing time unique key material. The crypto-facility is only capable of decrypting with session key material created by the NOC especially for the crypto-facility. As such, the receiver is only capable of decrypting DiRECWAY satellite services.

The NOC utilizes the Data Encryption standard (DES) with 56 key length as the bulk encryption algorithm. Triple-DES with 112 bit key length is used within the key-distribution algorithms.

DiRECWAY Return Channel Security

There is no encryption algorithm applied to data traveling, from the user, to the NOC, and eventually to the Internet. However, inroutes are inherently secure because of their method of operation. Inroutes use a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) method of access and transmission, which means that multiple DiRECWAY transmitters will be using the same inroute or set of inroutes for transmission. transmissions occur in almost random bursts on the inroutes, and timing of the transmissions is controlled via the receive/downlink channel, so compromise of outroute security is necessary to even have a chance of compromising the inroutes. In addition, error correction algorithms applied to the data make it more difficult to monitor transmissions and make sense of the data.

The expense and effort necessary to extract useful data from the inrout is prohibitive, especially since the data is destined for a public network, the Internet.

DiRECWAY NOC Configuration

The network architecture of the DiRECWAY NOC also provides protection for DiRECWAY end users. A single IP address is assigned to each DiRECWAY end station. The IP addresses assigned are in general "non-routable", which means that if the appear on the Internet, Internet routers will not know where to route the packets. Because of this, the DiRECWAY NOC employs Network Address Translation, or NAT, on the interface to the Internet and translates the non-routable address to a routable address for the duration of a DiRECWAY users's session. The assignment of the routable address is dynamic, and means that a DiRECWAY user will in general use a different routable IP address each time they use their DiRECWAY system.

In addition, gateway systems in the NOC preclude other Internet systems or hackers from initiating a connection with DiRECWAY remote, even if a hacker could "guess" the routable IP assigned to the DiRECWAY system. Because of this, it would be difficult for hackers to launch an attack on a DiRECWAY system from the Internet.

Most satellite broadband companies advertise speeds of "up to" 400-500kbs down. Actual download speeds very widely. Your results will depend upon your provider, transponder and gateway assignment, and your registry tweaks, among other things. But the good news is nearly everyone gets better than the advertised download speeds. One-way systems usually average in the 500-1,300kbs range and two way systems in the 600-2,000kbs range. Many DirecPC based two-way systems when fully tweaked have attained speeds in excess of 3,000kbs and average 1,500kbs - 2,500kbs. You should note however, that depending upon transponder assignment, many users with identical systems can only get download speeds in the 600-1,300kbs range.

How do you find out what satellite and transponder you are on?

a. Start/Programs/DirecWay (or DirecPC)
b. right click Antenna pointing
c. select Properties
d. find the line that says Target
e. place your cursor immediately after the last letter (G)
f. push your spacebar once
g. type /manual
h. click OK

Return to Start/Programs/DirecWay (or DirecPC) and
a. launch the Antenna Pointing utility.
b. Put in your ZIP code (manual latitude/longitude is more accurate - if you know it)
c. depending on which version of software you have report the info on the next screen, or
d. report the info found on the Satellite and Transponder tabs.

There is a shorter way to do this, but because of bugs in several versions of the software, it's not always as accurate as the above technique. To see if you have the buggy software, do this:
a. find the icon down by the clock that represents your satellite connection; it's usually a DW or a NAV.
b. right click it and select About
c. select System Info
d. compare Satellite Information and Transponder information to that which you found using the Antenna Pointing utility.

Satellite locations, transponders & frequencies in use
In the Sat forum you see many posts about a certain transponder and optimum settings for them. Currently DirecPC (DirecWay) has 4 transponders in use on the Galaxy 11 satellite at 91 degrees west longitude, 7 on Satmex5 at 116.8 (117) degrees west and 7 on G4R at 99 degrees W. The "Powered by" partners currently use one of the transponder on G11, that we refer to as 1410. Recently some new Earthlink customers have been put on 1370 on G11.

Galaxy 3C at 95 degrees west and SatMex 5 at 116.8 degrees west all have 1 to 5 transponders in use for broadband internet. G3C is used by the "older" gray dish systems sold as DirecPC Classic and AOL+ One way systems. AOL+ also has customers on Satmex5 and G4R at 99 degrees W.

AMC1, formerly GE1, at 103 degrees west was also a "Classic" bird with 1 transponder, but was discontinued in Oct. 2002.

The frequencies we refer to in our posts are actually the down-converted (IF) frequencies coming down our coax after being converted in the LNB at the dish. The satellite frequencies transmitted and received are much higher and not easily routed to and from your sat modems.

You will find many DSLR members have added the down-converted frequencies to their signatures as well for ease of passing along our setup information.

Specifically, the transponders in use on each satellite are:

Galaxy 11 (91°) - 990, 1350, 1370, 1410
Galaxy4R (99°) - 970, 1110, 1210 (AOL+), 1230, 1250, 1350, 1370
Satmex5 (117°) - 990, 1050, 1070, 1090, 1130, 1170, 1250

Your system is set up to use 1 of these during the running of Websetup and you have no control over which one your system uses. The determination of which transponder you use is based upon your provider and your geographical location. Your installer can get your system moved at commissioning if there is a problem with the line of sight or signal from a certain bird.

You can see which transponder you are assigned to by right clicking the NAV or DW icon in the system tray, click "About" and click "System Information". Your transponder down-converted frequency is the second line from the bottom listed as Frequency. You can gain more valuable information by clicking http://www.lyngsat.com/america.shtml then clicking on a particular satellite and browsing through the information.

Con't to page 3 >>

How 2-Way Satellite Internet Access Works ? - page 3

2010-02-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
Spead Tweaks

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What is DrTCP and how do I use it?
DrTCP is a small utility that provides a window to the area of your registry that stores adjustable TCP settings. Using this program is a very easy way to adjust settings that can make a huge difference in your download speed.

You can download DrTCP now by clicking
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When you load up DrTCP, go to the field marked "Adapter Settings". If you are tweaking the computer that is directly connected to the satellite modem, in that field, use the small arrow to the right to select "Satellite USB Device". If you are tweaking a network client computer, choose the Network Interface Card (NIC) for that computer.

Don't forget to save your changes and re-boot to have them take effect.

In the actual tweak instructions, we assume you are using DrTCP.

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Important Info for WIN2K SP1 users using DrTCP!!
When you installed the DirecPC, DirecWay, Earthlink or Pegasus software on your computer, it installs a registry key called GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize. If you are using WIN2K you should upgrade to Service Pack 2 to fix a bug in this key that causes DrTcp changes to have no effect on RWIN. If you don't want to upgrade to SP2, then you must delete the key. Note: You do not need to delete this key if you are using Win2K SP2 or above or XP.

Using Regedit you can find the key at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Open the Parameters folder and locate the key GlobalMaxTCPWindowSize, right click on it and choose delete.

After the key is deleted you can set your RWIN with DrTCP, reboot, and the RWIN you selected will be used.

Remember, that if you upgrade or re-install your satellite software, you will need to use regedit to delete this key again.
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Optimal Settings for Satellite Return (Two-Way) Systems
Tcp Receive Window (RWIN): 224360
Window Scaling: YES
Time Stamping: NO
Selective Acks: YES
Path MTU Discovery: YES
Black Hole Detection: NO
Max Duplicate Acks: 3
TTL: 64
MTU: 1500

Try these settings first. If you find that your download speeds are at or over 1,500kbs with these settings, then increase the RWIN to 474280, so that you can get the full download speed potential available to you. If your speeds are ALWAYS below 1,500kbs, raising your RWIN any higher than 224360 won't help, and may actually hurt your connection speed.
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Is there something I can do to improve my upload speeds with SRS?
One tweak for upload speed is to turn Path MTU Discovery to YES in DrTCP. Without this switch turned on, Windows treats the Satellite Upstream path as a dial-up path, and changes the MTU for the path to 576, regardless of what you have the MTU set for on the adapter. By turning Path MTU Discovery on, Windows will see that the upstream path minimum MTU is 1460-1500 bytes, and will adjust accordingly. - PD

2. A registry tweak has been found and tested to improve upload speeds on Satellite Return Systems. The only problem is that it only pertains to certain operating systems, with certain processors, with certain amounts of memory. This tweak requires modifying the registry, so please be sure to back up your registry before doing any of these modifications. This tweak has been extensively tested, and has not shown any signs of being problematic with any system. The details for the certain systems that this works on are below, but don't be afraid to try them if you fall out of these parameters. The registry modification can easily be deleted if it doesn't work for you or if you just want rid of it.

The following details have found to have the best impact of this tweak:

Operating system:
Windows XP (Home and Pro)
Windows 2000

Processor:
Pentium 3
Pentium 4
AMD

Minimum memory:
384mb SDRAM
256mb DDRAM
256mb RDRAM

*512mb of any RAM seemed to be the platform where things work the best. Any more than 512mb didn't see any improvements.

There are 2 different values to enter in the registry for the 2 different operating systems:
Windows XP - 18000
Windows 2000 - 17a00
Don't be afraid to try either one though - throughout the testing these values coupled with these operating systems seemed to get the best results.

Here are the instructions for the tweak. Please be sure to back up your registry first!

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AFD\Parameters

Open Run and type in regedit click ok.

click on
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Services
AFD

Right Click on AFD and select New, and Key name the new Key Parameters
Click on Parameters.
On the right side you will see (Default) right click in the empty area and select New, DWORD Value.
Name this Dword value DefaultSendWindow
Double click on DefaultSendWindow and enter either 17a00 or 18000 leave it on Hexadecimal.

Click OK, close and then reboot.

If you don't like it, all you have to do is delete the Parameters entry. Remember, always backup your registry.

This tweak has been found to double our upload speeds for Satellite Return Systems.

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Is there anything I can do to improve the performance of the DW proxy server
Try changing your proxy port from 83 to 85. To do this open up control panel and go to internet options.Then click on connection tab. Then click on LAN settings. Then click on advanced. Then change port from 83 to 85. If you have Internet Explorer open you can get to the same place by clicking on tools at top. Then internet options and go from there.
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Reduce your cache for better browsing
This technique has been reported by many users to enhance the "snappiness" of browsing with these high latency connections.

It seems that Satellite Return Systems (SRS) get more of a benefit than Dial Return Systems (DRS) from this tweak, because of the greater latency with SRS.

Try reducing your browser's cache to 1mb size.

In IE, go to Tools -> Internet Options. Under "Temporary Internet Files" press the "settings" button. Under "Temporary Internet Files Folder" change the number in the box to 1. Press OK, then OK again.
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Should I try speed patches I see at other sites?
Using "one size fits all" speed tweak patches is an incredibly bad idea. Here are just a few reason why:

1. These patches were never developed with the high latency and high speed combination of satellite in mind.

2. Because the developers don't know how many TCP adapters are on your system, they play tricks to make sure all adapters get "tweaked". One of the most common tricks is to assume there will be no more than 10 adapters, and therefore to create registry entries for 10 adapters. Since almost no one has 10 TCP adapters on their computer, this creates many excess registry entries causing extra overhead and great confusion if you ever need to figure out what is what in your registry.

3. Many of the patches give you no way to undo the changes you made after they have completely destroyed your connection, or only to undo themselves incompletely. Many people have had to re-format their drives and re-install a clean copy of their o/s to fix the problems created by speed patches.

The bottom line is that by using DrTCP, you control the changes and you can always change things back to if you like.

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I Tweaked with DrTCP but the Tweak Tester doesn't report the changes.
With DirecPC/Direcway systems, including Earthlink and Pegasus express since you have no public IP, the tweak tester gets confused as to what machine to test. The result is you are seeing results from an intermediate machine at the DPC NOC.

Ignore any results you get from the DSLR tweak tester if you are on a DirecPC/Direcway based system. The results you are getting from the tweak tester are not for your computer.
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I'm sharing my connection on a LAN. Do I need to do more?
Yes. In order to get the client computers on a network to have the same performance as the host computer, there is a bit more work to be done. A three-step process. You can skip step one if you are not using Windows 98SE with ICS on the host computer.

1. First if you are using Windows 98SE and ICS, a registry key is created that is killing your speed, even on the host. This key was originally put in to support dial-up internet connections and has been removed from subsequent versions of Windows. You need to delete the key or at least give it a null value. Since you have DrTCP it's easy. Open DrTCP on the host computer. Find the section entitled "ICS Settings". In that section, there is a window marked "Internet MTU". Delete any value in that window. Make it blank. Push "Save", exit, and re-boot.

Now you need to get the client computer(s) up to speed.

2. Load DrTCP on each client. In the "adapter settings" window, choose the Network Interface Card (NIC) for that machine. Make the settings exactly the same as the settings you put on the host machine for "Satellite USB Device". Push Save, exit and re-boot.

3. Your host machine was set up by the DPC software install to use several simultaneous TCP connections. This is done to reduce the effects of latency on browsing, and the result can be quite dramatic. You will want your client(s) to have the same advantage, but for them you will have to make the registry keys manually using regedit. (Start->Run->Regedit)

Basically you need to add two registry keys. Below you will find where in the registry to put the keys and what to name the keys. Navigate to the locations specified in the left pane, then in the right pane, right click and choose to create a "New" Dword value. Name them exactly as shown. Once they are there, double click on each and insert the value 15 (HEX). Once you've done that, exit regedit, re-boot. Your work is done.

WinXP and Win2k: All DWORD Values

HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings

MaxConnectionsPerServer
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings

MaxConnectionsPerServer
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server

WINME / 98 All DWORD Values

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
MaxConnectionsPerServer

4. (Submitted by Seagreen) There are a few more settings that need to be added to the client machine's NIC Network properties.

Add the Host's IP address (192.168.0.1) as the Default Gateway and as the preferred DNS server. Add a Hughes DNS server (usually 198.77.116.8) to the DNS servers list as an alternate after the Host machine's IP address. Adding these helps speed up the client machine's Domain Name Resolution and consequently, browsing. It also helps the client machine get email from POP accounts.

Follow the instructions below for your particular OS:

Windows 98:

Start => Settings => Control Panel => click on the Network icon or right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon and choose 'Properties'. Either way gets you into the Network configuration screens.
From the list of installed clients, protocols and services, locate TCP/IP bound to the NIC It will look something like this: TCP/IP -> your network card. The arrow indicates the protocol is bound to that adapter. Highlight that and then click the Properties button. This gets you into the TCP/IP configuration screens. Click the DNS Configuration tab. Put as dot in the 'Enable DNS' radio button.
Then add the DNS servers, starting with the Host machine's IP address (192.168.0.1). Add the Hughes' DNS servers' IP addresses (198.77.116.8) in after that. For domain, enter "direcway.com."
Next click the Gateway tab and enter 192.168.0.1 as an installed gateway. 'OK' your way out, you'll be asked for the Windows 98 CD if the CAB files are not on your HD and you'll be asked to reboot.

Windows ME:

Start => Settings => Control Panel => click on Network icon, or right-click on My Network Places icon on desktop, and choose 'Properties'. Either way gets you into Network Configuration screens. From the list of installed clients, protocols and services, locate TCP/IP bound to the NIC It will look something like this: TCP/IP -> your network card. The arrow indicates the protocol is bound to that adapter. Highlight that and then click the Properties button. This gets you into the TCP/IP configuration screens. Click the DNS Configuration tab. Put a dot in the 'Enable DNS' radio button.
Then add the DNS servers, starting with the Host machine's IP address (192.168.0.1). Add the Hughes' DNS servers' IP addresses (198.77.116.8) in after that. For domain, enter "direcway.com."
Next click the Gateway tab and enter 192.168.0.1 as an installed gateway. 'OK' your way out, you'll be asked for the Windows ME CD if the CAB files are not on your HD and you'll be asked to reboot.

Windows 2000:

Start => Settings => Network and Dialup Connections. Highlight and right-click on your LAN listing (usually called Local Area Connection) and choose 'Properties.' Highlight TCP/IP and click 'Properties.'
On the following screen, enter the host's IP (192.168.0.1) address as the default gateway and as the Preferred DNS server. Add a Hughes DNS server (198.77.116.8) as an alternate.

Windows XP:

Right click on My Network Places icon on the desktop or Start => Settings => Network Connections. Select "properties". Right click on the Local Area Connection icon and chose Properties. Highlight TCP/IP and click the 'Properties' button. If you are not configuring the IP address manually, but obtaining it from the Host machine, you will not be able to enter a default gateway on the initial screen. Add the DNS servers, starting with the Host's IP address (192.168.0.1) followed by a Hughes DNS server (198.77.116.8). Click the 'Advanced' button. On the IP Settings tab, add the host machine's IP address (192.168.0.1) as the default gateway. Click the DNS tab and add direcway.com as the DNS suffix for this connection. 'OK' your way out and close the network properties interface.

Where do the tweak numbers come from?

All of the recommended "optimal settings" were formulated by a combination of theory, long hours of testing, and results reported by DSLR members. The specifics of what the settings mean and why we set them a certain way for satellite connections follow.

By far, the most important setting is the TCP Receive Window or RWIN. The Tcp Receive Window is nothing more than a data buffer. Think of it as a bucket. Your RWIN setting determines how big the bucket is. Data is coming down from the satellite, filling the bucket. Your computer is emptying the bucket as it processes the contents. We can't let the bucket overflow, or we would have to ask the sender to re-send what got spilled on the floor. That's inefficient.

If the bucket gets empty, your computer is doing nothing, just waiting for the stream to start again, also inefficient.

The other problem is there is a lag between the time your computer says "Send more, my bucket is almost empty" or "My bucket is almost full, please stop" and the time the sender gets that message. And another lag between when the sender starts sending again or stops, and the result hits your computer. That's latency.

If the bucket is the perfect size, it is never completely full nor completely empty until there is no more stuff to send. The perfect size bucket allows your computer to send the messages at the right time such that the data stops just before the bucket fills and starts just before the bucket empties. Now you can have too large a bucket, because the sender expects to hear those messages now and then. If it doesn't hear from you, it thinks your bucket isn't getting anything at all so it keeps sending the same stuff, over and over, until it gives up on you and stops sending anything. Very inefficient!

RWIN is determined mathematically. The required variables for the equation are Maximum Potential Speed (MPS) of the line, Maximum Segment Size (MSS) of the packet and Return Trip Time (RTT)(which most people measure with "ping" tests). Depending on the type of connection, a multiplier is usually applied to RTT to account for bad ping days. But generally the simple construction of the equation would be (MPS * Average Worst RTT)/8. The result is then converted to the nearest multiple of MSS.

Selective Acks enables re-transmissions of data to consist only of lost packets, rather than entire receive windows. It is very important to enable selective acks when using large receive windows.

Window Scaling allows for RWIN values above 65535. Since Windows only allocates 2 bytes to represent the RWIN value, a value greater than 65535 cannot be represented. By turning Window Scaling on, a scaling factor is applied to the value found in the two bytes to represent larger numbers.

TTL is Time To Live and determines how many hops a packet is allowed to take before being declared lost. If the value is too small, unnecessary packet loss occurs as packets that just haven't reached their destination are lost. If it's too large, then too much time is spent waiting on packets that are truly lost.

Time Stamping: Time stamping adds timing header information to each packet so that Windows can calculate RTT on the fly and use this information to estimate the best points in the empty/full cycle of the receive window to send AKS. Logic would say that would have to make a Long Fat Pipe (meaning high latency, high speed) connection such as satellite more efficient. The reality is that with DirecPC/DirecWay based systems, while it slightly but measurably increases speed, it also prevents certain web sites from loading correctly and can make some email attachments cause email to hang. So the recommendation is for it to be off for DPC, because a number of us have had problems with it turned on.

Path MTU Discovery: This setting changes your MTU on the fly to match the smallest MTU on your path to the server you are communicating with. Testing has shown that tunring it on can, in some cases significantly improve upload speed on two-way systems. Please note that you may notice little or no difference in upload speed "tests" as the file size used on test sites (about 50KBS) is just too small to measure the speed without being skewed by the high latency of a satellite system. To more accurately measure your results, use an FTP client and do an FTP upload to a server of a 750KB file or larger.

Black Hole Detection: Does absolutely nothing if Path MTU Discovery is disabled, may cause problems even when it is enabled...leave it off

Max Dup Acks: Valid values are 1, 2 or 3. Win2k defaults to 2, 98 and ME default to 3. Probably makes absolutely no difference one way or another which value is chosen. It defines the number of duplicate AKS that are allowed to be sent before Windows invokes Fast Re-Transmission. This would occur in a packet loss situation. Windows gets an out of sequence ACK. It figures some packets must have been lost. It sends an ACK back for the lost packet. When the receiver sees the first ACK for a packet, then either 1, 2 or 3 more for the same packet, depending upon how max dup acks is set, it re-sends the whole segment again figuring that it must be lost...that's fast re-transmission.

source: http://www.highspeedsat.com

How to save satellite radio

2010-02-18T03:29:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
It feels like a critical time for music-listening right now. Free streaming services like Pandora and Last.fm are poised to take off, but they're hampered by slow rollout, customer confusion, and the fact that labels like Warner are totally freaked out by free streaming and yanking their music from it.

On the other hand, terrestrial radio is virtually unlistenable, due to its crowd-pleasing format of two songs, then a 30-minute commercial block that's cleverly timed with every other station's 30-minute commercial block. Add to that the constant repetition of the same five songs and radio becomes, as a tool for music discovery, a mind-numbing exercise in tuning out (if you'll pardon the pun).

Enter satellite radio.

The Sirius/XM upstart has been on its deathbed for a few years now, but it's starting to creep out of near bankruptcy and its shares are into the one-dollar range (don't laugh, a year ago it was something like 12 cents). It's hanging on by a thread and I think that, with a few key moves and a shift in strategy, now's the perfect time for satellite to sneak in and make a splash.

But let's be clear: there's not a lot of time. Pandora, delivered wirelessly via Bluetooth, is rocketing into car stereos and will be an integral part of the upcoming Ford MyTouch system and the next generation of Ford Sync. And millions of us are streaming Pandora online at work and on our phones either in the car or at the gym or walking down the street. If satellite is going to make a move, it's got to be now.

The biggest obstacle right now? Price. I just finished a 6-month trial of satellite radio in my car. At the end of the trial, I was totally hooked on several stations and absolutely devoted to the idea of commercial-free listening. I'd purchased a ton of music that I discovered on various stations. Now, sure, I use an auxiliary jack in the car to plug in my phone or music player, but it's annoying and dangerous to, say, switch playlists on the phone interface, or plug it in while driving if I forget to before I leave. And I like looking at the radio dash to see what song is playing. My Sirius trial was, for me, a total winner. But when the time came to re-up and become a paying subscriber, I didn't do it. Why not? Like I said, price.

Subscription prices went up dramatically after the Sirius/XM merger, and they are now at deal-breaking levels. Period. The standard package Sirius pitched me is $12 a month, preferably payable annually, and that does not include Internet streaming. There's an a la carte package that starts at $6.99 that requires a new stereo and also doesn't include Internet streaming. The various packages are ridiculously complex and the whole thing just feels like a confusing, overpriced mess--because it is.

Recently on Buzz Out Loud, we talked about streaming radio versus satellite, and here's an example of the email we got about satellite's pricing.

"I'm a current Sirius subscriber and I absolutely hate the rates. Last year, I signed up for a year of service for about 90 dollars. My subscription renewed on Monday, at a rate of about 110 for the year. This includes a $12 charge for US Music Royalty Fee, a fee that satellite and internet based radio stations are forced to pay by the FCC yet terrestrial radio stations aren't required to pay yet. (They are currently fighting this fee). On top of finding this fee extremely obnoxious, I am essentially paying $12 per year for music that I have no physical copy of, ugh!

On top of this, Sirius/XM is the biggest nickle and dime company I can imagine. If i wanted to listen to streaming online, that's an extra $3 a month. O, you want to be able to listen to Sirius on your Blackberry or iPhone, well that's another $3 a month on top of the $110 fee. And then on top of that; if you want to listen to Sirius and XM you have to make sure you purchase not only the special plan but a dual receiver. And the worst thing about it is; when you purchase your subscription online, you have to use a credit card. Unless you call them, as there is no option online, you will be automatically renewed and charged for another year membership."

Guys. That's just ridiculous. Here's another, similar complaint about XM Radio.

"Out of the blue, XM Radio no longer allows subscribers to stream stations on a computer without paying for a premium account. First they cut the 64bit audio to 32 but and added a premium subscription of 128 bit audio for $3.00 a month. I called and canceled my subscription for two radios today over this. I imagine there won't be satellite radio at all for much longer."

Ok, so, start with price cuts, but don't end there. First, make the a la carte option the only option, and include Internet and mobile streaming. I'm sure it sounds terrifyingly low, but trust me, guys: for the convenience, the discovery, and the streaming, I'd happily pay seven bucks a month. Or, ok, I'll allow two plans -- a basic and a premium, and the premium includes ... nah, never mind. One plan. Seven bucks.

Next, you've got to change the way you try to get your customers. Get off the hardware crack and start selling satellite as an embedded service. Right now, when I go to the XM Radio or Sirius home page, I see devices. When I click the shop link on either site, I see an array of portable devices and car stereos. That's got to stop. No one's looking for another thing to carry right now.

First step: flip the script and start selling commercial-free radio stations and Internet and mobile streaming. Once you've got them paying for those subscriptions, people might buy receivers and new car stereos, but sell them the subscriptions first on the devices they already have. Almost every new car has satellite capability built in, and if you've got universal apps for mobile streaming, you're done, you're selling subs like hotcakes.

Next up, start using the Netflix model--don't try to sell extra devices, just be in every device. Netflix streaming is in Blu-Ray players, TVs, game consoles, TiVo, heck, even the Sony Dash. Satellite should be, too, whether it's an actual receiver or just satellite radio streaming. Be everywhere with a trial that can turn into a subscription and above all, make sure those subscriptions are cheap enough to be easily justifiable. Under $10 a month, I can swallow. Over $10? I'm out, and I'm not the only one.

Oh, and also, can't you build in some kind of broadcast buffer to stop the service from cutting out when I go under an underpass? Because that is annoying.

Look, satellite radio is a good product, Stern notwithstanding. (The terrestrials can have him.) The music discovery, the lack of commercials, the integration with existing car stereos: all of that is killer. And the opportunity for Internet and mobile streaming is satellite's totally unexploited and potentially game-changing opportunity. Innovate or die, Sirius/XM. I think you've still got a chance to innovate. And I hope you do, because I really like that Coffeehouse station.

source: news.cnet.com

Shaw to Trial Ultra-Fast Gigabit Internet Technology

2010-02-18T03:26:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service

Trial Will Bring Speeds of 1000 Mbps- 10 Times Faster than Current

February 17, 2010

Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX: SJR.B) (NYSE: SJR) is bringing unheard of speeds to the Canadian Internet market through the trial of Gigabit Internet technology.

The technology is 10 times faster than Shaw's High-Speed Nitro Internet service, which currently runs at 100 Mbps per second. Shaw High-Speed Nitro is Canada's fastest Internet service - and offered exclusively by Shaw in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

The service will be delivered over Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) and will be able to support new and emerging Internet applications that require faster download speeds.

"This is game-changing technology," said Peter Bissonnette, President, Shaw Communications Inc. "We are on the leading edge of change with this trial - bringing blazing speeds and new network capabilities that will give us a springboard for future possibilities. It's really exciting to think how our customers could benefit from this technology."

Shaw is the first provider in Canada to trial Gigabit Internet and expects to launch the trial in April 2010. For more information about Shaw High-Speed Internet and other products, please visit SHAW.CA.

About Shaw Communications Inc.

Shaw Communications Inc. is a diversified communications company whose core business is providing broadband cable television, High-Speed Internet, Digital Phone, telecommunications services (through Shaw Business Solutions) and satellite direct-to-home services (through Shaw Direct). The Company serves 3.4 million customers, including over 1.7 million Internet and 900,000 Digital Phone customers, through a reliable and extensive network, which comprises 625,000 kilometres of fibre. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Symbol: TSX - SJR.B, NYSE - SJR).

Contacts:
Shaw Communications Inc.
Investor Relations
Email: Investor.relations@sjrb.ca
Website: www.shaw.ca

Lockheed Martin Ready for Launch of Intelsat 14 Spacecraft

2009-11-14T04:59:00.000-08:00

November 11, 2009

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is in the final stages of preparation for Saturday’s launch of a commercial telecommunications satellite for Intelsat, the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, aboard an Atlas V booster provided by United Launch Alliance. The launch window opens at 12:48 a.m. EST and extends until 2:18 a.m. The launch can be viewed live at www.ulalaunch.com beginning at 12:30 a.m. EST.

Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services is under contract to Intelsat Ltd. to place the Intelsat 14 (IS-14) spacecraft into an injected orbit, ultimately positioned at 315 degrees east longitude. IS-14 was built by Space Systems/Loral and will provide high-powered video and data services through its C-band and Ku-band payload, serving Intelsat customers throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa and will replace Intelsat’s IS-1R satellite once it enters service.

The spacecraft also carries a hosted payload for the Internet Router in Space, or IRIS program, for Cisco Systems.

"We are fully cognizant of the importance of this launch to Intelsat and all stakeholders and are particularly proud to have been chosen as the launch services partner," said David Markham, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services. "This mission will further demonstrate the reliability, flexibility and capabilities of the Atlas launch vehicle, which can be applied to the commercial market as we continue to seek one to two commercial orders per year."

Intelsat is the leading provider of fixed satellite services worldwide. For 45 years, Intelsat has been delivering information and entertainment for many of the world’s leading media and network companies, multinational corporations, Internet service providers and governmental agencies. Intelsat’s satellite, teleport and fiber infrastructure is unmatched in the industry, setting the standard for transmissions of video, data and voice services.

Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, which markets the Atlas V to commercial customers worldwide, is a unit of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, which is a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Space Systems Company designs, develops, tests, manufactures and operates a full spectrum of advanced-technology systems for national security, civil and commercial customers. Chief products include human space flight systems; a full range of remote sensing, navigation, meteorological and communications satellites and instruments; space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft; laser radar; ballistic missiles; missile defense systems; and nanotechnology research and development.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.
source: money.cnn.com

Satellite Internet Service

Wireless Internet Service

2009-11-04T03:23:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
November 4, 2009

Mountain Communications in Rapid City, South Dakota announces the launch of a high-speed wireless microwave internet service.

Its new microwave-internet service is now available to a broader range of clients in the Black Hills of South Dakota. WIREFREE USA - Mountain Communications, a satellite and wireless technology company headquartered in Rapid City, currently offers services in Sturgis, Belle Fourche, Spearfish, Rapid City, Hermosa, Summerset, Black Hawk, Piedmont, Hill City, Keystone, Custer, Hot Springs and Wall. Their offices In Pierre serve the eastern part of South Dakota including Huron, Miller, Kadoka, Chamberlain, Murdo, Philip, and others.

This new microwave-based WIREFREE internet service offers additional coverage in areas that WIREFREE USA - Mountain Communications had previously covered with only WildBlue and HughesNet.

This expanded area will help customers in rural areas that have no other option for high-speed internet. These new areas of coverage will include Lead, Deadwood, Spearfish, Newell, Sturgis, Belle Fourche and eastern Wyoming communities that are within their microwave boundaries, such as Sundance, Beulah and Aladdin.

This newer wireless WIREFREE microwave internet service offers full unlimited high-speed internet capabilities. Microwave internet offers superior capabilities to penetrate trees and obstructions better than traditional point to point wireless connections. It also has a better signal in inclement weather allowing for less down time for users and businesses.

Contact WIREFREE USA - Mountain Communications for more information concerning all your wireless WIREFREE internet service, satellite TV, and home and business electronics needs. WIREFREE USA offers: Dish Network, DirecTV, WildBlue, HughesNet, security systems, TVs, and other home and business electronic products.

source: blackhillsportal.com

Contract strings trip telecom customers

2009-11-04T03:14:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
Wed Nov 04 2009

Telecommunications firms try to hang on to customers by offering them incentives to stick around. But these offers of lower prices or extra features often come with strings attached.

If you say yes, you may be agreeing to a long-term contract. And you'll have to repay all the discounts if you leave before the contract is up. While contracts are common in wireless phones, they're quickly moving into home-phone service, Internet, cable and satellite TV.

The problem? Many customers don't sign a piece of paper or get a copy of their verbal agreement. Howard Maker was appointed in August 2008 to be an independent mediator between customers and telecom service firms.

He's just released an annual report that shows contract disputes are rising.

"We see plenty of complaints in which customers tell us that their provider insists that the relationship is governed by a contract, which is contrary to the customer's understanding," he says.

As Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services, he and his staff dealt with 3,214 complaints last year. While billing issues were the major irritant, contract disputes came second – figuring into 27.4 per cent of the complaints. Agreements for telecom services are often entered into online or by phone, Maker says. There can be a lack of clarity in the nature of the agreement.

Can't he work with the companies to better protect customers bound by unwritten contracts?

Unfortunately, he doesn't feel he has the power to do so.

"I agree with you that formally documenting any contractual agreement makes good sense, but it is not required by law or otherwise," he replied.

"CCTS's role as an `ombudservice' is not to make the rules, but to see that customers are treated properly within the confines of the rules that do exist, the contractual terms or otherwise."

Daryl Charanduk, a certified financial planner, switched his business phone lines from Bell Canada to Allstream last February to get a significant monthly saving. In April, Bell charged him $700 for early termination of a contract. He called and said he was unaware of a contract.

Bell sent another request for payment in May. This time, it said he had been underbilled, since he was receiving the contract rate.

"The money owed is over $500," he says.

"Bell offered me a reduction of half the charge in September, but I felt in principle that I really should not pay anything.

``I still have a phone line with Bell, as I have a contract for my Internet. I did not move that line. I knew I had a contract. I have found this experience to be frustrating and aggravating, since I have been with Bell as a business customer going back to 1995."

The CCTS deals with complaints by residential customers and small businesses (defined as those whose most recent monthly bill for telecom services from the provider is $2,500 or less).

"I was unaware of the CCTS ombudservice or even where to look for it," says Charanduk, who submitted his complaint at the website, www.ccts-cprst.ca.

Consumers used to send complaints to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. But its powers have shrunk with the trend to deregulation in recent years.

The CRTC recommended the establishment of an industry-funded organization with the authority to handle complaints about deregulated telecom services.

The CCTS now has 38 industry members, up from 16 in its first year. It provides written recommendations on how to resolve complaints – though members don't always follow its advice.

It can recommend payments to customers as compensation for loss, damage or inconvenience, up to a maximum of $5,000.

Of the 3,214 complaints resolved by the CCTS last year, Bell accounted for 1,239, Rogers Communications 672, Telus Communications 579 and Primus 393.

When talking about verbal contracts, the CCTS shifts the responsibility to customers to ask telecom providers about terms of service.

"We do not address the legality, fairness or validity of any particular contract or service term," its annual report explains.

However, it wants telecom providers to make the terms of service more visible and accessible to customers at the decision-making stage – even though this can be challenging.

"We encourage the industry to use its creativity to develop means by which key information can be provided to customers either prior to subscribing, or in writing thereafter with a right of cancellation until that information has been provided," it says.

This is one recommendation I hope the industry will follow. And if not, it's time for the federal government to make it mandatory.

source: www.thestar.com

Sustaining air travel business through in-flight service

2009-09-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service
IN-FLIGHT service is one of the competitive means airlines are employing to sustain their operations and attract more travellers, especially for their premium passengers. CHIKA EZEOKOLI writes that it has remained a device to boost business in air travel.

HOW would you feel when travelling in an aircraft and there was no food, drink or any other form of entertainment offered you? Definitely you would experience every ugly bit of the journey and the fear that comes with flying.

However, the provision of in-flight entertainment service to passengers by airlines has gone a long way to reduce the fear of flying and as a result, makes passengers feel more relaxed while aboard.

Though neglected and under-regulated by some airlines, this service should be of paramount importance to airline operators, not only to attract more passengers, but also for the enhancement of their air travel operations.

Over the years, food service or other entertainments in the aircraft has played a lot of roles in the passengers' choice of a particular airline. Ask most frequent travellers why they prefer an airline to another, they may tell you that one of the most important reason is that, the airline provides quality in-flight service to its passengers.

The service is important in every flight, because it takes your mind off from the fact that you are in air. Apart from safety, it makes you feel more relaxed, as a lot of activities would be going on around you.

Apparently, as aviation industry continues to grow in technology world wide, Nigerian airlines are also following the trend as some of them are acquiring new fleet aircraft with state-of-the-art In Flight Entertainment (IFE) system.

Most of our local carriers like Virgin Nigeria Airways, recently took delivery of Embraer aircraft with IFE, showing individual TV screens in front of every seat. While Aero Contractors has acquired modern aircraft, others such as Bellview, Afrijet and Chanchangi airlines have been providing quality meals to passengers aboard their flights.

Arik Air, just like others too, has in possession of a next generation aircraft A340-500, which has been attracting a large number of passengers to the airline, coupled with its quality in-flight services.

In-flight services, which could be in form of food, drinks, internet service, video games and others are being provided by the airlines to stray the passengers' minds away from the fear of flying for an hour or hours.

At first, in-flight service only consisted of looking out the window during a flight at the passing scenery and offering of food and drink services only along with an occasional projector movie during lengthy flights. But today, it has been improved internet services.

Several airlines are testing in-cabin wi-fi systems, that is, in-flight internet service, which is provided either through a satellite network or an air-to-ground network. In the Airbus A380 aircraft, data communication by satellite system will allow passengers to connect to live Internet from the individual IFE units or their laptops using the in-flight Wi-Fi access.

However, the service is offered as an option on almost all wide body aircraft, while some narrow body aircraft are not equipped with any form of In-flight entertainment at all. This is mainly due to the aircraft storage and weight limits.

The Boeing 757 was the first narrow body aircraft to widely feature both audio and video in-flight entertainment and today it is rare to find a Boeing 757 without an in-flight entertainment system.

In the 1990s, the demand for better IFE was a major factor in the design of aircraft cabins. Before then, what a passenger could expect was a movie projected on a screen at the front of a cabin, which could be heard through a headphone socket at his or her seat.

Some in the airline industry have begun referring to the entire in-flight-entertainment category as "IFEC" (In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity or In-Flight Entertainment and Communication).

Meanwhile, Boeing had entered into the in-flight-connectivity industry in 2000 and 2001, with an offshoot called Connexion by Boeing. The service was designed to provide in-flight broadband service to commercial airlines, and Boeing built partnerships with United Airlines, Delta and American.

In the past two years, many United States (U.S.) commercial airlines have been testing and deploying in-flight connectivity for their passengers: Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, Southwest and United Airlines among others. Industry expectations are that by the end of 2011, thousands of planes flying in the U.S. will have been offering some form of in-flight broadband to passengers.

Many Airbus A320 series and Boeing 737NG aircraft are also equipped with drop-down screens. Some airlines, such as WestJet and Delta Air Lines, have equipped some narrow body aircraft with personal video screens at every seat. Others, like Air Canada and JetBlue, have equipped some regional jets with audio-video on demand (AVOD).

There are two major codes that regulate flight entertainment systems and their safety: code 1301 which approves the electronic equipment for installation and use, by assuring that the system in question is properly labelled, and that its design is appropriate to its intended function. While code 1309 states that the electrical equipment must not alter the safety or functionality of the aircraft upon the result of a failure.

In order for the intended IFE system to pass this code, it must be independent from that of the aircraft's main power source and processor. By separating the power supplies and data links from that of the aircraft's performance processor, in the event of a failure the system is self-sustained, and can not alter the functionality of the aircraft. Upon the completion of all applicable codes, the in-flight entertainment system is up to standards for use in the U.S., however the rules and regulations may be different when applying for use in other countries.

Reports have it that, software for in-flight entertainment systems must be aesthetically pleasing, reliable, compatible, and also must be user-friendly. These restrictions account for expensive engineering of individually specific software. In-flight entertainment equipment is often touch screen sensitive, allowing interaction between each seat in the aircraft and the flight attendants, which is wireless in some systems.

Most major airlines have now installed personal televisions for every passenger on most long-haul routes. These televisions are usually located in the seat backs or tucked away in the armrests for front row seats and first class. Some show direct broadcast satellite television, which enables passengers to view live TV broadcasts.

Private Flight Global Limited has also added two new features to its online system for in-flight catering management. The new features will allow private flight clients operators of privately managed and charter flights to further streamline their catering operation and achieve more transparency across their entire catering-related spend.

The new features, which have been developed and integrated into the system by private flight's in-house technical teams, are the first of a planned series of system enhancements due to be rolled out over the next 12 months.

Globally, some airlines like JetBlue Airways has been testing limited wireless access on one of its aircraft. The airline provides limited, free Wi-Fi on its BetaBlue aircraft using LiveTV. Services include e-mail access through Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Windows Live (Hotmail, MSN, Live).

Passengers can transmit Yahoo! Instant messages and shop on Amazon.com's mobile site, and those with BlackBerry smart phones can access their accounts. JetBlue is not ruling out the possibility of offering expanded services for a fee, said company spokeswoman Alison Croyle. The airline plans to roll out the LiveTV service on more of its fleet this year, she said.

Other airlines, such as Continental, use LiveTV's satellite-based television programming service.

While majority of U.S. airlines offer for WiFi access in their aircraft, Alaska Airlines offers in-flight Wi-Fi through Row 44. The airline said it has launched a trial in mid-February on flights along the West Coast to determine usage and demand.

American Airlines has announced in late March that it would install Aircell's Gogo on more than 300 domestic aircraft over the next two years.

Aside that, Delta Air Lines is using Gogo, and will have Wi-Fi capabilities aboard more than 330 aircraft by the end of this year, the airline announced in August 2008.

Frontier Airlines uses LiveTV for its in-flight entertainment. The airline is testing a LiveTV product that would provide Wi-Fi, which they hope to launch by the end of the year.

Southwest Airlines is testing Wi-Fi on four of its aircraft using Row 44 technology. After testing, the airline will determine pricing and how it will install the product on the rest of its fleet, spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said.

United Airlines will use Gogo technology as it begins testing Wi-Fi on flights between New York and California in the second half of this year. The airline will decide on availability elsewhere after assessing feedback from testing, said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

Virgin America started offering Wi-Fi using Gogo on all flights between Washington and Los Angeles, California, and all of its Boston routes. Now all Virgin America planes have full Wi-Fi service.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has emphasized that in-flight services should be aimed to improve safety, quality and cost-effectiveness of the services for the benefit of Member airlines, partners and passengers.

source: www.ngrguardiannews.com

Broadcast International to Showcase Industry`s Only Native Software Video Operating System at IBC 2009

2009-09-04T06:03:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service
AMSTERDAM--(Business Wire)
Broadcast International, Inc. (OTCBB: BCST) ("BI") announced today that it will
exhibit and demonstrate CodecSys, its software-driven video operating system, at
IBC 2009 on September 11-15, 2009.

"While IPTV has established itself in Europe, other parts of the world are just
beginning to understand and embrace it as an acceptable means of watching TV,"
said Rod Tiede, president and CEO of Broadcast International."Regardless of what
part of the world you come from, we all face the same issues of finding and
creating enough bandwidth to meet the ever-increasing demands of watching videos
and TV online. CodecSys is a mission-critical solution to alleviate the
increasing burden we place on the Internet by watching online videos and TV."

CodecSys 1.4is a multi-channel H.264 / MPEG-4 Part 10 / AVC and is designed for
broadcasters, specifically IPTV, satellite and telco providers.These providers
manage large quantities of media with an increasing percentage being
high-quality HD content.At the heart of CodecSys is a software-based encoder and
it can receive live input through a capture board or encode from a file
source.As a software solution, it is extremely cost-effective and essentially
future-proof for broadcasters who can simply download the latest software and
avoid costly hardware upgrades.

IBC is the leading international forum for the electronic media industry,
attracting more than 1,000 exhibitors from over 130 countries. It combines a
highly respected and peer-reviewed conference, an exhibition that demonstrates
state-of-the-art media technology and unrivalled networking opportunities.

"For us, IBC is a can`t-miss opportunity that we look forward to and target as
one of the premier events to not only display and unveil our newest products but
to also share our vision of where the industry is headed," continued
Tiede."We`re excited to take part in the conference, exhibit and to strengthen
existing relationships while building new ones that we`re confident will lead to
great things."

Broadcast International will be demonstrating CodecSys 1.4 at Stand 1.F59. To
schedule a meeting and demonstration with Broadcast International, contact
Jeremy Kartchner at jeremy@snappconner.com.

About Broadcast International

Broadcast International is a leading provider of video-powered broadcast
solutions, including IP, and digital satellite, Internet streaming and other
types of wired/wireless network distribution. BI`s patented CodecSys software is
a breakthrough, multi-codec video compression technology that cuts video
bandwidth requirements over satellite, cable, IP and wireless networks. By
slashing bandwidth needs, CodecSys enables a new generation of applications such
as streaming video to cell phones, and offers unprecedented price/performance
benefits for existing applications such as HD video.

Broadcast International is a public company (OTCBB: BCST) headquartered in Salt
Lake City, UT. For more information, visit www.brin.com and www.codecsys.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this news release that are not based on historical fact are
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the provisions of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934, as amended (which Sections were adopted as part of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). While management has based any
forward-looking statements contained herein on its current expectations, the
information on which such expectations were based may change. These
forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future
events and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors,
many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to
materially differ from such statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other
factors include, but are not necessarily limited to, those set forth under the
caption "Additional Factors That May Affect Our Business" in the Company's most
recent Form 10-K and 10-Q filings, and amendments thereto. In addition, we
operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, and new risks
may arise. Accordingly, investors should not place any reliance on
forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. We disclaim any
intention to, and undertake no obligation to, update or revise any
forward-looking statement.
source: www.reuters.com

Taiwan develops world's leading personal Internet device

2009-09-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service
Taipei, Sept. 4 (CNA) Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has successfully developed a world-leading personal Internet device (PID) that integrates the latest wireless and mobile communications technologies.

The device, unveiled Thursday by the institute, contains a chip embedded with a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) receiver and is equipped with an Android mobile operating system.

Thanks to the high bandwidth provided by WiMAX, the newly developed PID allows data transmission at a rate that is five times faster than 3G technology, and its definition is two to three times higher than that of DVD, according to Wu Cheng-wen, director of the ITRI's SoC Technology Center.

The applications of the device can include real-time reception of disaster information, mobile satellite news gathering, multimedia online entertainment, and Internet video phone communication, Wu said.

He predicted that in the future, smart phones that employ the WiMAX and Android technologies will give a strong boost to the mobile phone market.

The shipment of WiMAX mobile phones is likely to register less than 1 million units this year, but the number could soar to 27.01 million units by 2013, he said.

source: www.etaiwannews.com

Final Modernized Lockheed Martin-Built GPS Satellite Begins Operations for Users

2009-09-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service
NEWTOWN, Pa., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The last in a series of eight modernized
Global Positioning System IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellites built by Lockheed Martin
(NYSE: LMT) has been declared operational by the U.S. Air Force for military
and civilian navigation users around the globe.

The satellite, known as GPS IIR-21(M), was launched successfully from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 17. Lockheed Martin's operations team
assisted the Air Force with the launch and early on-orbit maneuvers.

"The team once again executed a smooth and disciplined on-orbit deployment and
checkout of all spacecraft systems and we're extremely pleased to have another
high-performance GPS IIR-M satellite in our robust constellation," said Col.
Dave Madden, the U.S. Air Force GPS Wing Commander. "I salute the entire
government-industry GPS IIR-M team for their talent and determination to
provide advanced navigation accuracy and reliability for GPS users worldwide."

Lockheed Martin and its navigation payload provider ITT of Clifton, N.J.
designed and built 21 IIR spacecraft and subsequently modernized eight of
those spacecraft designated Block IIR-M. Each IIR-M satellite includes a
modernized antenna panel that provides increased signal power to receivers on
the ground, two new military signals for improved accuracy, enhanced
encryption and anti-jamming capabilities for the military, and a second civil
signal that will provide users with an open access signal on a different
frequency.

"Reaching this milestone is a critical step in the mission to provide advanced
position, timing and navigation capabilities for the warfighter and civil
users," said Don DeGryse, Lockheed Martin's vice president of Navigation
Systems. "The successful launch and operational turnover is a testament to the
capabilities of our entire GPS team. Working together with our Air Force
partner is a source of tremendous pride for Lockheed Martin."

GPS provides essential services including situational awareness and precision
weapon guidance for the military. It is also an information resource
supporting a wide range of civil, scientific and commercial functions -- from
air traffic control to the Internet -- with precision location and timing
information.

Building upon a legacy of providing progressively advanced spacecraft for the
current GPS constellation, Lockheed Martin, along with ITT Corporation and
General Dynamics will produce the next generation of global positioning
satellites, designated GPS III. This program will improve position, navigation
and timing services for the warfighter and civil users.

The team is progressing on-schedule in the Critical Design Review (CDR) phase
of the program and is on track to launch the first GPS IIIA satellite in 2014.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company
that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the
research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of
advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported
2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

Media Contact: Steve Tatum, 408-742-7531; e-mail, Stephen.o.tatum@lmco.com
Samantha Un, 408-742-3516; e-mail, Samantha.Un@lmco.com
source: www.reuters.com

Va. Firm to Offer Pocket-Size Satellite Phone

2009-07-17T03:31:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service

By Mike Musgrove

To look at it, you wouldn't know it's a satellite phone -- and that's the idea.

Reston-based satellite firm TerreStar Networks is gearing up to launch a smartphone and phone service this year that will combine terrestrial wireless service with its upcoming satellite service.

Under a deal the company has with AT&T, TerreStar users will have their calls directed either through that carrier's network or through TerreStar's service. Make a call that's in range of one of AT&T's towers, and AT&T's network will handle it. But if a customer travels outside the AT&T network's range, that call will be routed to TerreStar's new satellite. You'll never get stuck without phone service in a "dead zone" again, goes the pitch.

"It's a terrestrial or cell tower in the sky," TerreStar president Jeffrey Epstein said. "That's the game-changing paradigm we're bringing."

If all goes according to plan, TerreStar will launch the satellite that will host its upcoming service today from French Guiana. The $300 million satellite will sit 22,000 miles above the earth's surface and provide coverage across the United States and Canada, including Puerto Rico and Hawaii. After a few months of testing, TerreStar intends to commence service later this year.

Until now, satellite phones have been bulky devices known for their large antennas. That's because for a satellite phone service to connect properly there needs to be a large antenna on the ground or a large satellite parked in the sky. In an attempt to attract customers with a pocket-sized phone that they could carry anywhere, TerreStar opted for the latter with its upcoming service. With a 65-foot span, TerreStar's new bird will be the largest-ever commercially launched satellite, about twice the size of typical TV service satellites.

TerreStar is hoping to first address a market of federal agencies and emergency first-responders who need to know that they'll always have service, even in the event of a Katrina-like disaster that knocks out cell towers on the ground. If there's an emergency or a major event in one part of the country, TerreStar will be able to adjust its coverage so that, say, an area in Arizona has enough capacity to support increased phone traffic. The company's larger ambition is to build a market for its satellite phone among mainstream consumers, but TerreStar has not yet announced how much it will charge for the service.

Analysts say that TerreStar's success isn't a given. After all, other companies in the past have tried and failed to bring satellite phone service to mainstream consumers.

"I'm a little bit of a skeptic on this," said Edward Jurkevics, principal analyst at Chesapeake Analytics in Arlington, who pointed to early satellite phone industry failures such as Iridium and Globalstar.

Jurkevics questioned the size of the market that might be interested in this product. "It think it's a niche play," he said. "Their revenue prospects are modest. If you're a geologist out in the wilds of nowhere, you still need a connection, but that's not a big a piece of pie."

TerreStar will soon face competition in this space; Reston-based satellite firm SkyTerra plans to launch two satellites next year and a similar service.

SkyTerra's executive vice president of distribution and strategy, Marc Montagner, said that having two players in the market will serve to lower device prices and raise consumer awareness. "It can only be a good thing," he said.

While TerreStar is working on a second smartphone that will also be compatible with the satellite service, the company hopes to build enough customer interest to prompt phone makers to start developing phones for use with the service, said David Marshack, senior vice president of product and device technologies.

The company tried to develop its satellite technology so that it would be easy for phone makers to jump in with their own devices in the future. For example, the chip used in the phone is the same as the one used in Apple's popular iPhone, which means that Apple wouldn't have to start from scratch if, say, the company wanted to make an iPhone compatible with the service.

There's no telling if that will happen, Marshack said, but "that idea was not lost on the people who designed this."
source: www.washingtonpost.com

Dish Satellite Settlement

2009-07-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger today announced a multi-state settlement with the DISH Network, L.L.C., a satellite TV provider that is the subject of hundreds of complaints by Oregon consumers in the past few years.

"Telecommunications companies ranked No. 1 on the Department of Justice's Top 10 Consumer Complaints 2008," said Attorney General Kroger. "For that reason, we have made telecommunications abuses one of our top consumer protection priorities."

Attorney General Kroger has made telecommunications one of his top consumer protection priorities. He will work closely with Oregon's Public Utility Commission to ensure that satellite TV, internet and telephone service customers are treated fairly in Oregon.

"The evolving nature of telecommunications and merging of internet and entertainment services has left many Oregonians confused about who to turn to for help when they have billing or service quality issues" Oregon Public Utility Commission Chairman Lee Beyer said. "The PUC has a long history of helping consumers resolve these types of complaints and we look forward to continuing our work with the Attorney General to find solutions to these complex issues."

Dish was the subject of about 80 complaints to the Oregon Department of Justice in 2008 - 7 percent of the 1,189 complaints about telecommunications companies by Oregon consumers.

The settlement resolves the states' allegations including that DISH Network:

* Refused to accept responsibility for the misconduct of its third-party retailers and installers;

* Made telemarketing calls to consumers in violation of do-not-call rules;

* Failed to disclose all terms and conditions of their customer agreements, including the availability of rebates, credits and free offers;

* Did not disclose that purchased or leased equipment was previously used and/or refurbished;

* Made reference to competitors' price offers when the goods or services being compared were materially different; and

* Charged customer credit cards and debited bank accounts without providing adequate notice and obtaining appropriate authorization.

Dish will pay a total of $5.99 million in the 46-state settlement.

Attorney General John Kroger leads the Oregon Department of Justice. The Department's mission is to fight crime and fraud, protect the environment, improve child welfare, and defend the rights of all Oregonians.
source: kohd.com

Reportlinker Adds Broadband Satellite Services

2009-07-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Broadband Satellite Services in Millions of US$. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of World. Annual forecasts are provided for each region for the period of 2006 through 2015. The report profiles 180 companies including many key and niche players worldwide such as Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited, Crawford Communications, Inc., Eutelsat Communications, Globecomm Systems, Inc., Hughes Network Systems, LLC, Intelsat, Ltd., KT Corporation, Loral Space & Communications, Inc., Telesat Canada, Optus, Satlynx, SES S.A., SES AMERICOM, Inc., SES ASTRA S.A., SES NEW SKIES, Skyway.Net GmbH, SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings, Inc., Spacenet, Inc., Tachyon Networks, Inc., Thaicom Public Company Limited, IPSTAR Co., Ltd., ViaSat, Inc., and WildBlue Communications, Inc. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are mostly extracted from URL research and reported select online sources.

I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & PRODUCT DEFINITIONS

Study Reliability and Reporting Limitations I-1 Disclaimers I-2 Data Interpretation & Reporting Level I-3 Quantitative Techniques & Analytics I-3 Product Definitions and Scope of StudyI-3

II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW II-1 IntroductionII-1 Current and Future Analysis II-1 Analysis by Subscribers and Sites II-1 Analysis by Annual Revenues II-2 Market Awaits for ViaSat-1 with Great Optimism II-2 Satellite Broadband - Bridging the Digital Divide II-2

2. TRENDS AND ISSUES II-4 Terrestrial Alternatives to Give Stiff Competition II-4 Rural Broadband - Gaining Momentum II-4 Collaborations to Expand Adoption of Satellite Broadband Services II-4 Factors Driving Demand for Broadband Satellite Systems II-5 Increased Bandwidth Levels Propel Demand for Video on Demand Services II-5 Small Businesses - Potential Market Segment for Satellite Services II-5 Satellite Broadband CPE Pricing TrendsII-6 Governments Drive Demand for Broadband to Reach Rural Areas II-6 Australia II-6 Brazil II-6 Colombia II-7 Canada II-7 The US II-7

3. COMPETITION II-8 HughesNet and WildBlue - Competing for the Top Spot II-8 WildBlue Satellite - An Attractive Alternative for Potential Consumers II-8 Package Offerings of Leading OperatorsII-8

Table 1: Comparison of Services for Leading Satellite Broadband Companies II-8 Prominent Satellite Broadband CPE II-9

4. INTERNET BROADBAND OVERVIEW II-11 Global Internet Broadband Market II-11

Table 2: Global Internet Broadband Market (2007): Percentage Share Breakdown of Subscriptions by Region for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Rest of World (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-11

Table 3: Global Internet Broadband Market (2007): Percentage Share Breakdown of Subscriptions by Technology for DSL, Cable Modem, FTT and Others (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-11 Broadband Subscribers by Country II-11

Table 4: Top Ten Countries in the World with Highest Number of Internet Broadband Subscriptions in Thousands (2007) (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-12

Table 5: Top Ten Countries in the World with Highest Internet Broadband Penetration Rate (2007) (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-12

5. PRODUCT OVERVIEW II-13 Broadband Internet AccessII-13 Satellite Technology II-13 Satellite Communications II-13 Advantages II-13 Disadvantages II-14 Types of Satellites II-14 Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) Satellite II-14 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) Satellite II-14 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite II-14 Broadband Satellite Services II-15 Advantages of Satellite-Based Broadband Services II-15 Economies of Scale II-15 Far-Reaching Coverage II-15 Uninterrupted Communication II-15 Rapid Pace in Deployment II-16 Bandwidth on Demand II-16 Availability of Asymmetric BandwidthII-16 Easy Execution II-16 Utilization of Resources II-16 Disadvantages II-16 Applications of Broadband Satellites II-17 End-Users II-17 Types of Satellite Broadband Access II-17 One-Way Satellite Connection II-17 Two-way Satellite Connection II-17 VSAT II-18 Satellite IP Trunking and BackhaulingII-18 Satellite Broadband Frequencies II-18 Ku-Band II-18 Ka-Band II-18 Ka-Band Vs. Ku-Band II-19 Characteristics of Ku Band and Ka BandII-19 Satellite Transmission Standards II-19 Digital Video Broadcasting-return Channel via Satellite (DVB -RCS) II-19 Internet Protocol over Satellite (IPoS)II-20 Satellite-Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications (S-DOCSIS)II-20

6. BROADBAND TECHNOLOGIES II-21 Digital Technology - The Differentiating Factor II-21 Categorization of Broadband TechnologiesII-21 Fixed Line Technologies II-21 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) II-21 Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) II-21 G.lite (ADSL) II-22 Single Pair High-Speed DSL (SHDSL) II-22 Symmetrical DSL (SDSL)II-22 ADSL2 II-22 Very-High-Data-Rate DSL (VDSL) II-22 ISDN II-22 ISDN-BRI II-23 ISDN-PRI II-23 Cable Internet II-23 Multilinking Modems II-23 T-1/DS-1 II-24 Fibre Network II-24 Fibre To The Home (FTTH) II-24 Power-Line Internet II-24 Wired Ethernet II-25 Wireless Technologies II-25 Cellular Broadband II-25 Wireless ISP II-25

7. SERVICE LAUNCHES II-26 BeyondDLS to Introduce Satellite-Based Broadband Service II-26 France Telecom Launches Satellite Internet Services in France II-26 KVH and ViaSat Introduce mini-VSAT Broadband Satellite Services II-26 Gilat Launches New VSAT Satellite Platform II-26 Hughes Network Rolls Out HughesNet Broadband Backup Service II-27 Hughes Network Unveils Advanced Wideband CDS II-27 Hughes Network Introduces ElitePremium Internet Access Plan II-27 Hughes Network Unveils Superior Mobility Features for HX System II-27 Al Yah Plans to Release ‘YahClick’ Broadband Service II-28 IDMI to Roll out DVB S2 SCPC Broadband Platform II-28 Intelsat Launches Galaxy 18 Satellite II-28 Numix Engineering and Telekom Malaysia Unveil 2-Way Broadband Service II-28 SingTel Launches Satellite-Based Maritime Broadband Service II-29 Spacenet Releases Connexstar™ in Hawaii and Alaska II-29 Spacenet Unveils ION™ VSAT Solution II-29 Stratos Launches ‘OceanVSAT’ II-30 Arianespace Launches Spaceway 3 Communications Satellite II-30 China Transportation and Telecommunication Center Unveils ‘ Fleet Broadband’ II-30 Comsat Starts Satellite Broadband in Venezuela II-30 Hughes Launches Satellite Broadband Internet ServicesII-31 Intelsat Rolls Out Network Broadband GLOBAL Maritime Service II-31 Phoenicia Group Libya to Offer BGAN Satellite Internet Solutions II-31 Shin Satellite to Commence IPSTAR Services II-31

8. RECENT INDUSTRY ACTIVITY II-32 SpeedCast and Eutelsat Collaborate with FURUNO II-32 Hughes Network Signs Broadband Reseller Agreement with Broad Sky Networks II-32 Eurosat and SES Astra Collaborate to Offer Satellite Broadband Services II-32 Hughes Communications Takes Over Helius II-33 iiNet Acquires Westnet II-33 Hughes Network and Barrett Xplore Sign Contract Agreement II-33 Hughes Network Opts MicroCorp as Certified Reseller for HughesNet Services II-33 FASTWEB Inks Deal with Eutelsat II-33 Hughes Network Signs Distribution Agreement with Dow Electronics and CVS Systems II-34 Orion Satellite Buys Broadband Satellite Technology from Hughes Network II-34 Eutelsat Signs Agreement with Numeo to Expand its Tooway™ Services II-34 Avanti Enters into Strategic Partnership with BT Group II-35 Arianespace Signs Launch Service & Solutions Deal with ViaSat II-35 SES Astra Signs Contract to Introduce Astra2Connect in Italy and France II-35 ViaSat Enters into Agreement with Space Systems/LoralII-35 Embarq Inks Reseller Agreement with Hughes Network Systems II-36 Intelsat and Panasonic Sign Multi-Year Contract II-36 EchoStar Signs Deal with SkyWay USA II-36 Hughes Adds Capacity on Intelsat’s Galaxy-28 Satellite II-36 Thaicom and WIT Team Up to Offer Broadband Services in the PhilippinesII-37 Lunasat Partners with SATLYNX to Offer Broadband Services II-37 SkyVision Inks Agreement with IntelsatII-37 WildBlue Enters into Agreement with DataPath II-37 Nextphase Wireless Enters Into Reseller Alliance with Hughes Network II-38 Avanti Signs Pact with Remote Data Services II-38 Avanti Offers Satellite Broadband Services to Prime Satellite Broadband II-38 Hughes India Inks Contract with Comat II-38 Tatanet Opts Gilat to Provide Broadband Satellite Network II-38 Primus and Hughes Network Execute Reseller Agreement II-38 Hughes Network Inks Distribution Agreement with All Systems II-39 ViaSat Secures US$50 Million Contract from Skylogic II-39 Space Systems/Loral Receives Satellite Manufacturing Contract from SES II-39 Juch-Tech Partners with Skyway.Net II-39 Avanti Receives Satellite Broadband Deal in Scotland II-39 General Electric Acquires Satlynx II-40 Nayna Networks Takes Over Professional Satellite & Communications II-40 AsiaSat Acquires SpeedCast II-40 Eagle Broadband Takes Over Commercial Satellite Business of Alliance II-40 Loral Skynet Merges with Telesat Canada II-41 Eutelsat Collaborates with ViaSat for Residential Satellite Broadband Service II-41 Dodo and NewSat Collaborate II-41 Hughes Network Signs Contract with Max Telecom II-41 Verizon Expands Satellite Broadband Services Access II-41 Galaxy Receives Hughes Network’s Broadband Satellite System II-42 Telesat Canada Selects International Datacasting Corporation II-42 ABS Signs Agreement with Batelco II-42 iPass Inks Deal with Inmarsat II-43 Shin Satellite Extends Broadband Services to Japan and South Korea II-43 RamTelecom Enters into Strategic Partnership with SkyPort II-43 SES Astra Collaborates with Filiago II-43 ViaSat Inks Contract with WildBlue II-44 AFSAT Contracts Extra Capacity on NSS-7 Satellite II-44 Telenor Extends Contract with IntelsatII-44 SES Astra Takes Over Satlynx II-45 Intelsat Acquires PanAmSat Holding Corporation II-45 Satlynx Takes Over Spaceline II-45 Digiweb Purchases Tiscali’s Satellite Broadband Business II-45

9. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS II-46 Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (Hong Kong) II-46 Crawford Communications, Inc. (US) II-46 Eutelsat Communications (France) II-46 Globecomm Systems, Inc. (US) II-47 Hughes Network Systems, LLC (US) II-47 Intelsat, Ltd. (Bermuda) II-47 KT Corporation (South Korea) II-48 Loral Space & Communications, Inc. (US) II-48 Telesat Canada (Canada) II-48 Optus (Australia) II-49 Satlynx (Luxembourg) II-49 SES S.A. (Luxembourg) II-50 SES AMERICOM, Inc. (US) II-50 SES ASTRA S.A. (Luxembourg) II-51 SES NEW SKIES (The Netherlands) II-51 Skyway.Net GmbH (Germany)II-51 SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings, Inc. (Japan) II-51 Spacenet, Inc. (US) II-52 Tachyon Networks, Inc. (US) II-52 Thaicom Public Company Limited (Thailand) II-52 IPSTAR Co., Ltd. (Thailand) II-53 ViaSat, Inc. (US) II-53 WildBlue Communications, Inc. (US) II-54

10. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVEII-55

Table 6: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services by Geographic Region - North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (including Japan), Latin America and Rest of World Markets Independently Analyzed with Number of Subscribers and Sites in Thousands for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-55

Table 7: World 10-Year Perspective for Broadband Satellite Services by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Number of Subscribers and Sites for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (including Japan), Latin America and Rest of World Markets for Years 2006, 2009 & 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-56

Table 8: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services by Geographic Region - North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (including Japan), Latin America and Rest of World Markets Independently Analyzed with Annual Revenues in US$ Million for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-57

Table 9: World 10-Year Perspective for Broadband Satellite Services by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Annual Revenues for North America, Europe, Asia- Pacific (including Japan), Latin America and Rest of World Markets for Years 2006, 2009 & 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) II-58

III. MARKET

1. NORTH AMERICAIII-1 A.Market Analysis III-1 Current & Future Analysis III-1 North America - Leads the Global Satellite Broadband Services Market III-1 Competitive Scenario III-1

Table 10: Comparison of Services for Leading Satellite Broadband Companies in North America III-2 Satellite Broadband Internet Services - Still a Long Way to Go III-2

Table 11: US Broadband Internet Services Market (2008): Percentage Breakdown of Number of Subscriptions for Cable Modem, DSL, Satellite and Other Terrestrial Wireless (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-3 Service Launches III-3 Strategic Corporate Developments III-6 Select Players III-11 Crawford Communications, Inc. (US) III-11 Globecomm Systems, Inc. (US) III-11 Hughes Network Systems, LLC (US) III-12 Loral Space & Communications, Inc. (US) III-12 Telesat Canada (Canada) III-12 SES AMERICOM, Inc. (US) III-13 Spacenet, Inc. (US) III-13 Tachyon Networks, Inc. (US) III-14 ViaSat, Inc. (US) III-14 WildBlue Communications, Inc. (US) III-14 B.Market Analytics III-15

Table 12: North American Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Number of Subscribers and Sites in Thousands for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-15

Table 13: North American Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Annual Revenues in US$ Million for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-15

2. EUROPE III-16 A.Market Analysis III-16 Current & Future Analysis III-16 Ka-Band Subscribers to Drive Future Growth III-16 New Initiatives to Propel Momentum in European Broadband Satellite Market III-16 SES ASTRA Vs. Tooway III-17

Table 14: Comparison of Services for Leading Satellite Broadband Companies in Europe III-17 Internet Broadband Scenario in Europe III-17

Table 15: Top Ten European Countries with Highest Number of Internet Broadband Subscriptions (2007) (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-18

Table 16: Top Ten European Countries with Highest Internet Broadband Penetration Rate (2007) (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-18 DSL Broadband Services Scenario in Europe III-19 Broadband Internet - The UK Perspective III-19 Broadband Penetration in the UK III-19

Table 17: UK Internet Services Market (2006-2008): Percentage Breakdown of Internet Connections for Broadband and Dialup Services (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-20 Service Launches III-20 Strategic Corporate Developments III-21 Select Players III-26 Eutelsat Communications (France) III-26 Satlynx (Luxembourg) III-26 SES S.A. (Luxembourg) III-27 SES ASTRA S.A. (Luxembourg) III-27 SES NEW SKIES (The Netherlands) III-28 Skyway.Net GmbH (Germany) III-28 B.Market Analytics III-29

Table 18: European Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Number of Subscribers and Sites in Thousands for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-29

Table 19: European Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Annual Revenues in US$ Million for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart)III-29

3. ASIA-PACIFIC III-30 A.Market Analysis III-30 Current & Future Analysis III-30 Asia-Pacific - Lags Behind North America and EuropeIII-30 Competitive Landscape III-30

Table 20: Comparison of Services for Leading Satellite Broadband Companies in Asia-PacificIII-31 Broadband Subscribers Overview III-31 Internet Scenario in Asia-Pacific III-31 China Surpasses US to Become Largest Internet Subscriber Base III-32 Indian Broadband Scenario III-32 Service Launches III-33 Strategic Corporate Developments III-34 Select Players III-36 Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (Hong Kong) III-36 KT Corporation (South Korea) III-36 Optus (Australia) III-36 SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings, Inc. (Japan) III-37 Thaicom Public Company Limited (Thailand) III-37 IPSTAR Co., Ltd. (Thailand) III-38 B.Market Analytics III-38

Table 21: Asia-Pacific Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Number of Subscribers and Sites in Thousands for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-38

Table 22: Asia-Pacific Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Annual Revenues in US$ Million for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-39

4. LATIN AMERICAIII-40 A.Market Analysis III-40 Current & Future Analysis III-40 Service Launches III-40 Strategic Corporate Developments III-41 Intelsat, Ltd. - A Major Bermudan Player III-41 B.Market Analytics III-42

Table 23: Latin American Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Number of Subscribers and Sites in Thousands for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-42

Table 24: Latin American Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Annual Revenues in US$ Million for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-43

5. REST OF WORLDIII-44 A.Market Analysis III-44 Current & Future Analysis III-44 Africa III-44 Africa Emerges as Hotspot for Satellite Broadband III-44 Expansion of Cellular Services in Rural Areas Drive Growth III-44 ‘Open Skies’ Model to Generate Interest Among Market Participants III-45 Service Launches III-45 Strategic Corporate Developments III-46 B.Market Analytics III-47

Table 25: Rest of World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Number of Subscribers and Sites in Thousands for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-47

Table 26: Rest of World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Broadband Satellite Services Market Analyzed with Annual Revenues in US$ Million for Years 2006 through 2015 (includes corresponding Graph/Chart) III-48
source: www.businesswire.com

Sirius XM Premium, portable Insignia HD Radio hit flat notes

2009-07-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service

By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY
You love your HDTV and MP3 player. But your heart belongs to radio.

For a commercial medium that dates to the early 20th century, radio is still going through a metamorphosis. This week, Best Buy started selling what it says is the first portable HD Radio receiver, the $50 Insignia HD Radio Portable Player I've been testing.

TV: Tune in to Baig on ABC's 'America This Morning,' Fridays at 4:30 a.m., or check local listings

HD radio, which made its debut in 2005, is kind of the high-definition radio equivalent of HDTV. Think AM and FM without the snap, crackle and pop sounds that tarnish standard broadcasts.

I've also been testing the recently released Sirius XM Premium Online application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The app is free, but you'll have to pay for a Sirius XM satellite subscription.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Microsoft | National Football League | Best Buy | York | Howard Stern | XM Satellite Radio | CBS Radio | 20th century | AOL | Sirius Satellite Radio

Both offerings fall short, albeit in very different ways. The Sirius XM app is missing top draw Howard Stern, and play-by-play broadcasts of Major League Baseball, the National Football League and NASCAR races.

Meanwhile, HD coverage on the Insignia in the outskirts of New York City, where I tested, was poor. Tune in for details:

•Insignia. If you want to sample HD radio, the Insignia radio is small, light and cheap. Just maintain modest expectations.

Until now, to listen to HD radio, you needed a special unit for your home, car or boat. None of the 100-odd receivers on the market was the type you'd carry in your pocket. That changes with the Insignia, the house brand of Best Buy. And Microsoft has said it's adding HD radio to the next Zune player, due in the fall.

There are more than 2,000 AM and FM stations around the USA broadcasting in HD. Broadcasters can "multicast" or compress a digital signal so that FM stations can offer one or more subchannels at the same frequency. For example, you can tune into 95.5, 95.5-2 or 95.5-3, and hear different content on each. AM stations can't be split into subchannels.

Alas, the Insignia radio doesn't include its own AM band, because producing a portable with good AM quality is difficult. Zune won't have it, either. For AM junkies, some stations broadcast a digital version of their AM channels on an FM subchannel.

For example, WXRK-HD (92.3) in New York is a Top 40 radio station owned by CBS Radio. A subchannel, WXRK-HD2 (92.3-2), plays newer rock, while WXRK-HD3 (92.3-3) plays WFAN-AM, an all-sports station.

My experience with HD was spotty. When you tune into a station, you'll first hear it broadcast for a few seconds in standard FM. You'll hear the sound improve when the HD kicks in, though the effect isn't that dramatic. Worse, in some of my test areas, I either couldn't get an HD signal or got one that faded intermittently. Song names are displayed on the Insignia screen, but you can't tag them to buy later on iTunes, as is possible with other HD radios.

The Insignia has 10 memory presets for storing favorite stations. It comes with an armband and so-so earbuds. There's no built-in speaker. You charge it on a computer via USB since there's no wall plug. The battery lasts 10 hours. You can connect the radio to your car stereo with an optional cable.

•Sirius XM. I've been a satellite radio convert ever since XM Satellite Radio arrived in 2001. XM and Sirius Satellite Radio merged about a year ago. I've been eagerly waiting for an iPhone version.

But many subscribers are bound to be disappointed. While there's tons of good stuff among the 120 channels on the app — Sirius Sinatra, Classic Vinyl, Oprah Radio and Mad Dog Radio (sports talk), to name a few — you can't help notice what's missing, notably Stern and the ballgames.

It's not as if this comes cheap: $12.95 a month (which also lets you stream channels on a computer). And if you already pay $12.95 to listen on a dedicated Sirius XM radio, you have to pay an extra $2.99 a month to also listen on the iPhone or Touch.

Moreover, Sirius XM comes when there's already good Internet radio on the iPhone; free and fee-based apps I use include AOL Radio, Pandora, Slacker, iHeart Radio, Tuner, vTuner and WunderRadio.

On the Sirius XM app, it's easy to find stations by category and see what's playing on the channels you're not listening to. You can add channels to a favorites list and tap on a song you're listening to, to buy it (if available) in iTunes.

It takes a bit longer to switch channels than I'd like. And I occasionally lost a signal as I drove around, likely network hiccups. For the most part, the audio quality was good, though it can degrade under a cellular network as opposed to when you're using the app with Wi-Fi.

Having Sirius XM on the iPhone is really convenient. It's a shame that for what you pay, you can't get the complete Sirius XM lineup.
source: www.usatoday.com

Cheap Satellite Internet with Fast Speeds is the Key to Your Slow Internet Connection...

2009-07-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

Satellite Internet Service

The sooner you free yourself from the burden of slow internet speeds and break free from your dial up, the sooner you can get online quicker and faster than any other satellite internet provider. And it doesn't matter what your situation is, or where you live...

...you DO have options and you can connect to the internet with lighting fast, satellite internet speeds, giving you and your family a brighter future. Read the article below for some insights into the most affordable satellite internet access...

Check the Situation That Best Applies to You...

And Then Click the Button Below to Discover How to Get Connected with the Best Satellite Internet Deals - ANYWHERE!

I have a slow internet connection

I can't access internet service 24/7

I can't obtain cable internet or dsl internet

I can't connect with customer support to get online

One or more of the above...

(Click the button above to see how you can get fast high speed satellite internet for cheap - as well as qualify for an instant rebate!)

The possibilities for individuals and companies is limitless with high speed internet service with a low cost price. Yes, satellite internet can work just about anywhere. If you live on the top of a plateau, 30 miles away from the nearest town, you can still get satellite internet service. Imagine the possibilities for you if you are self employed. You will no longer have to use snail mail or dial up internet service to make sure that documents get to your clients or photos reach your aunt Jenny. You will now have to capability to email them and know that all of your documents have reached who you are sending them to. It's easy to get signed up for service. Contact your local satellite internet dealer or visit us for upcoming specials throughout the rest of 2009.

Don't Let Your Family Suffer From Your Slow Internet Connection...

Here's How to Rapidly Take Advantage of Affordable High Speed Satellite Internet, Starting TODAY:

The first thing you need to do is come to terms with exactly how and why a faster internet connection will help you and your family. I understand that it can be stressful to examine (or even think about) your satellite internet options, but we need to compare technologies and service providers...

We need to develop a clear picture of where you're at right now, so we can develop a battle plan for getting connected to the internet faster. Do this for you - and do it for your family. Follow these steps to make you're life easier:

1. Face Reality

Add it all up. Right now, while you're on this page. No matter how much it may "hurt", I assure you, the frustration you might be feeling at the moment will be nothing compared to buying a satellite internet service that doesn't meet your expectations and then having to cancel service and return all the electronics only to find out you have to pay cancellation fees and restocking fees...

2. Negotiate for FREE Installation

Many people don't realize that one of the most effective negotiation strategies for free satellite internet installation is to actually ask for it. While many satellite internet providers may tempt you with discounts and renting versus buying, there are advantages that we have negotiated for you. Most satellite internet providers would rather make a deal with you than see you stick with dial up service and lose out entirely).

3. Pay Less for High Speed Satellite Internet

The key is to obtain the fastest high speed satellite internet at the lowest possible price. Talking directly with the service providers is the best possible way to get fast, cheap satellite internet and is a very smart move. This means that each month, your satellite internet service will be one low, monthly payment and include monthly or annual increases.

4. Coverage Matters

In today's virtual world, you can now get fast satellite internet virtually anywhere that you are located within the United States. This means, very simply, that if you are located 10 miles outside of the "grid", you can still sign up for satellite internet and, as long as you have a building to put your satellite on, you can have satellite internet anywhere.

If you don't believe it, you should consider this, for the longest time, oil rigs in the gulf of Mexico had no communication with the outside world, other than to be flown to the rig itself, but now, with the advances of satellite internet and it's ability to go anywhere, both companies and consumers are not only able to have satellite internet, but phone and television service as well - all in a discount bundled package.

We aren't just talking about your run of the mill slow dial up service, either. Satellite internet boasts a fast connection, with the ability to download and email quickly. No more waiting to find out if there is a problem on your with your dial up connection, you can now log on with the click of a mouse and instantly communicate with the rest of the world in lightening speed. This is both great news for many businesses and consumers who, in the past, couldn't do online business as quickly as the rest of the world because of their remote locations.
source: www.satelliteinternet.net

Mothballed satellite sits in warehouse, waits for new life

2009-03-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service

BY STEPHEN CLARK

The long-grounded Deep Space Climate Observatory may be revived for an assignment very different from the controversial mission that was cancelled for its infamous mix of politics and science.

NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force completed a comprehensive study last month to determine the feasibility of finally launching the refrigerator-sized satellite, which has been confined to a lonely corner of a Maryland warehouse for seven years.

The agencies are discussing adapting the DSCOVR spacecraft for a new mission to monitor solar wind and space weather from the L1 libration point, a site 1 million miles away where the pull of gravity from the sun and Earth is equal.

Although engineers say the spacecraft is healthy after its lengthy storage, DSCOVR's new plans will probably depend on NOAA's budget over the next few years.

NOAA and the Air Force have already paid NASA to remove DSCOVR from its white storage crate and begin testing at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The DSCOVR spacecraft as seen last month. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

"We have paid NASA to do a study to tell us if DSCOVR as a spacecraft is still flyable," said Gary Davis, director of the Office of Systems Development at NOAA's Satellite and Information Service.

The testing began in November with the power-up of DSCOVR and a set of space environment sensors known as PlasMag. DSCOVR's Earth science instruments were not turned on.

The checks are helping officials estimate the cost of revamping the satellite for a new mission and launching it on an expendable rocket. NASA delivered a report to NOAA last month outlining the results of the study, including the spacecraft's health. NOAA officials are still analyzing the assessment, an agency spokesperson said.

A team of about 30 employees checked the satellite's systems and conducted magnetic cleanliness tests. DSCOVR's solar arrays were also successfully deployed, and engineers are currently testing the power-producing panels in a vacuum chamber at Goddard.

"The first time we opened up the spacecraft, it worked perfectly," said Joe Burt, a NASA official overseeing the testing. "It was like it had just been asleep."

The focus of the new would-be mission, which is still unnamed, would be to measure solar wind particles and their effects on the environment around Earth. PlasMag and a solar coronal mass ejection sensor would be likely payloads, but specifics have not yet been finalized.

Data from the redefined DSCOVR mission would be similar to science produced by the Advanced Composition Explorer and the Wind space observatory, which are 11 years old and 14 years old, respectively.

PlasMag would provide a 30-fold improvement in temporal resolution over ACE and Wind, according to scientists.

The solar wind data would be used for operational space weather forecasting by NOAA and the Air Force Weather Agency, according to an Air Force spokesperson.

Officials have not determined the fate of DSCOVR's Earth science instruments, but the mission's principal investigator said a decision to remove the climate instruments would be "appalling."

Francisco Valero, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, still leads a team of scientists in charge of DSCOVR's original science objectives.

Valero said the cost of launching DSCOVR's full set of instruments, which includes payloads designed to monitor the solar wind, would not be much different than the cost of flying a new instrument package geared only toward space environment studies.

"The total cost of the instruments, the science, and the support that will be necessary is about 10 or 15 percent of the total cost (of the mission)," Valero said. "The lost opportunity for science and the waste of taxpayers' money are unconscionable."

The current DSCOVR study was commissioned under the Bush administration, and Valero is appealing to senior government officials in an attempt to salvage the mission's Earth science goals.

"All that needs to be done is to launch the satellite as it is now," Valero said. "Everything is on there. The solar instruments are on. The Earth science instruments are already bolted on the satellite. If they don't start working and spending money to remove things, that would be wonderful."

Valero said he hopes the Obama administration will proceed with DSCOVR as is, but key leadership positions at NASA and NOAA remain unfilled. President Obama has not named a new NASA administrator, and NOAA Administrator nominee Jane Lubchenco is still awaiting Senate confirmation.

Lubchenco declined an interview request until the confirmation process is completed, but she pledged renewed cooperation with NASA during a Senate hearing last month.

"I believe that both NOAA and NASA intend to have the best possible relationship," Lubchenco said.

NASA already handles acquisition and some management duties for NOAA weather satellites. A new DSCOVR mission would also require a strong partnership between the agencies.

President Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget outline proposed $1.3 billion for NOAA satellite programs, an increase over fiscal year 2009 levels, but more details won't be revealed until April.

If DSCOVR is chosen for implementation, the ultimate science payload would have to be balanced with funding concerns, especially the cost of a launch vehicle, according to Davis.

Managers originally wanted to use an Air Force Minotaur 5 rocket to launch the satellite, but engineers found the spacecraft would not fit on that booster.

Depending on its final mass, the spacecraft would likely fly on a Delta 2 or Falcon 9 rocket. Davis stressed those are very preliminary discussions and any final decision is months or years away.

A NASA study from 2007 concluded that DSCOVR could be refurbished, tested and launched aboard a Delta 2 rocket for about $205 million. But that estimate was based on an Earth observation mission using instruments already built.

Launch would probably occur in about 2013, officials said.

But NOAA officials must first finish examining NASA's report and decide whether to pursue the mission.

"If the numbers seem to make sense to us, and the powers-that-be think it's worthwhile, we could potentially ask for funding to do this," Davis said.

If the mission is approved, NASA would prepare the satellite for launch, the Air Force would help fund the launch, and NOAA would operate the spacecraft.

Engineers want to put the craft through a new round of environmental tests to check the satellite's response to the intense sounds, vibrations and temperature swings it would experience during flight.

Some components may have to recertified or replaced, including DSCOVR's reaction wheels, star tracker and flight battery.

"These are preliminary assessments and NOAA and NASA will develop a more definite plan if the decision is made to proceed," a NOAA spokesperson said.

NOAA began considering using DSCOVR for solar wind studies in 2007.

Space Services Inc., a Houston-based company that specializes in launching cremated remains into space, approached the government with a proposal to redevelop the spacecraft for solar observations. Space Services would have sold the data to the government.

Government and commercial organizations were unable to reach an agreement.

NASA finally acted on NOAA's suggestion last year after Congress passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2008.

The bill required NASA to submit its plans for DSCOVR to Congress 180 days after the legislation became law. That deadline is in April.

Steve Cole, a NASA spokesperson, said the congressional report is separate from the NOAA solar wind study, but the work could fulfill the obligation if NOAA chooses to go ahead with the mission.

The Obama administration's transition team also asked NASA officials about the status of the DSCOVR mission.

"NASA came back to us and asked us if we still had interest," Davis said. "We got to the point where NOAA and the Air Force could pay NASA to do this study."

Mission long stalled

DSCOVR was originally approved in October 1998 as a mission to continuously observe the sunlit side of Earth from the L1 point.

The idea was first proposed by former Vice President Al Gore during a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March 1998. Gore's vision was for the mission to produce live imagery of the full sunlit disk of Earth 24 hours a day. The pictures were to be posted on the Internet.

Gore named the project Triana, after the sailor that first spotted land on Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Americas.

"This new satellite...will allow people around the globe to gaze at our planet as it travels in its orbit around the sun for the first time in history," Gore said in the announcement.

NASA added several instruments to Triana in an attempt to build scientific support for the mission, but the additions drove up the satellite's cost.

The higher price tag caught the attention of the agency's own inspector general. The internal watchdog issued a report in 1999, criticizing Triana's rising cost and expressing concern over the mission's scientific merit.

Triana was originally due to launch on a space shuttle mission in 2000, but Congress ordered NASA to put the project on hold in late 1999 pending a review by the National Research Council.

Congressional Republicans called the satellite an overpriced "screen saver" and criticized the mission as one of Gore's pet projects.

The council, part of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded in March 2000 that Triana was a worthwhile mission that would collect unique data with important applications in climate change research.

The group "found that the Triana mission will complement and enhance data from other missions because of the measurements obtainable at the L1 point in space," according to the report.

Triana's sensors would have measured ozone and cloud distributions, vegetation changes, atmospheric pollution, and the planet's radiation budget. The PlasMag instrument package was also included to study the solar wind.

The independent review team also noted NASA's contention that the project's primary focus was on technology demonstration instead of science.

"However, as an exploratory mission, Triana's focus is the development of new observing techniques, rather than a specific scientific investigation," the report said.

NASA explicitly described Triana's objectives as exploratory. Officials said the spacecraft would have demonstrated the potential for using L1, home to several solar observatories, as a location for Earth science.

Valero acknowledges the satellite's "innovative" observation method, but he contends DSCOVR's mission was rooted in science geared toward climate change research.

DSCOVR's Earth-pointing telescope and radiometers, still bolted to the spacecraft today, are designed to check the planet's thermostat by gauging solar radiation reaching the planet.

The radiation balance would tell scientists whether Earth is warming or cooling based on the difference in energy that is absorbed and released each year, Valero said.

Scientists already know the planet has a radiation imbalance a few times greater than the greenhouse effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Valero said a deep space Earth observatory would give scientists a new way of studying the planet by facilitating continuous imagery. Other Earth observation satellites fly in low-altitude orbits and collect global data on a timescale of days.

"I am not watching, say, San Francisco, then 10 hours later, New York, and then Denver," Valero said. "I'm looking at the whole thing now."

The new paradigm demonstrated by DSCOVR would be more reliable because using low Earth orbit satellites is like "looking at the forest tree by tree," Valero said.

NASA decided to suspend work on Triana in 2001, months after former President Bush took office following his defeat of Gore in the 2000 election.

"Parts, ground support equipment and documentation were impounded and saved," Cole said.

The spacecraft was transferred to a clean room at Goddard in November 2001, where it was stored under nitrogen purge conditions until it was removed for testing last November.

Cole said earlier reports pegging the cost of DSCOVR's storage in a space age warehouse at $1 million per year were inaccurate. The real cost was closer to several thousand dollars per year, according to Cole.

Triana was renamed DSCOVR before NASA quietly cancelled the mission in 2005, citing the dwindling number of remaining shuttle flights and a lack of funding to refurbish and launch the satellite.

The cancellation came after NASA had spent $97 million on the project, Cole said.

France and Ukraine later proposed launching DSCOVR on Ariane and Tsyklon rockets, but NASA did not accept the offer, according to Valero.

The Ukrainian plan even included a free launch, Valero said.

But federal law restricts NASA payloads launching on foreign rockets.

NASA now relies on the science community for advice for new projects.

After criticism regarding the way NASA selects space and Earth science missions, officials began soliciting regular input from independent scientists.

"It's important to know that NASA is now using input from the broad Earth science community in deciding which missions to pursue in the future," Cole said.

The recommendations come from a decadal survey prepared by a committee of the National Research Council, the same group that reviewed the Triana mission in 2000.

The committee's first decadal survey was submitted in January 2007 to advise NASA on the science community's highest priorities in Earth science.

Cole said the team reviewed a number of proposed missions, but DSCOVR was not among the 17 projects recommended for execution by NASA and NOAA.

NASA also commissioned an ad-hoc science workshop in May 2007 to evaluate DSCOVR's contributions to climate science.

That group concluded that the mission would provide useful data, but "DSCOVR measurements would not fulfill the climate science requirements established in the NRC decadal survey," Cole said.

That scientific verdict led NASA to begin considering other options for DSCOVR. The NASA Authorization Act of 2008 passed last year forced the issue.

The next chapter of DSCOVR's story remains unwritten, and the spacecraft still faces more obstacles before being shot into space, but the long-forgotten satellite has not been this close to launch in more than seven years.

NASA reassembled much of DSCOVR's old team for the tests. Many engineers were not sure if they would ever work on the project again.

The workers are now waiting to hear if they will be called on to bring DSCOVR back to life again, this time for good.

"We sit and wait," Burt said. "There's no next step until we get a mandate."

source: www.spaceflightnow.com

Alaska Air commences trial of inflight WiFi

2009-03-02T05:20:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
By Lynnette Luna

Alaska Airlines launched a customer trial of its new satellite-based Internet service from Row 44. Named Alaska Airlines Inflight WiFi, the service will be free at the trial's start, which began last week on an afternoon flight between Seattle and San Jose, Calif.

The trial will last about two months, after which Alaska Airlines will determine how it will roll out the service for its entire fleet.

Passengers will be able to use the WiFi service on any WiFi-enabled device, such as laptops, smartphones and portable media players. The service has not yet received final Federal Communications Commission approval since it is being offered on a trial basis.

Alaska Airlines opted to use satellite services from Row 44 over Aircell's air-to-ground Gogo service because the Gogo service isn't available on flights traveling to and from Mexico, Alaska or Hawaii.

Alaska Airlines Trials Satellite-Based Inflight Wireless Internet Service Satellite-technology from Row 44 to offer passengers b

2/26/2009 5:06 a.m.

SEATTLE — Alaska Airlines today will launch a customer trial of its new satellite-based wireless Internet service. Named Alaska Airlines Inflight Wi-Fi, the service can be used inflight on any Wi-Fi enabled device such as a laptop, smartphone or portable media player.

Onboard Alaska Airlines' specially-equipped Boeing 737-700 passengers will now be able to engage in a range of activities including browsing the Web; accessing online music, games, podcasts and webcasts; sending and receiving e-mail; and connecting to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The service will be free at the start of the trial, which is scheduled to begin on an afternoon flight between Seattle and San Jose, Calif., and will run for about 60 days. After a successful trial period, the airline will determine the schedule for rolling out the commercial availability of its wireless Internet service to its entire fleet of aircraft.

"We're thrilled to be able to offer our passengers a way to stay connected to what matters most to them while en route to their destinations," said Steve Jarvis, Alaska's vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience. "This is a service that everyone can use, whether it's for business or entertainment. Our service gives passengers a choice in how they spend their time while traveling and enhances the inflight experience."

Alaska Airlines and Row 44 have cooperated for more than two years to bring this service to market. "Alaska Airlines continues its long track record of deploying innovative technologies," said John Guidon, CEO for Row 44. "We are proud to be associated with their team and thrilled that such a forward-thinking airline selected Row 44's inflight satellite broadband service."

The airline conducted extensive ground and inflight tests of the technology prior to the launch of the service trial to ensure the system does not interfere with aircraft navigation equipment. In addition, the aircraft equipment has received complete airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. The service is being offered on a trial basis and has not yet received final Federal Communications Commission approval.

As Henry Harteveldt, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research said in a recent article entitled "Online on High" on CNN.com, "I expect there to be two groups of airlines: those that have announced plans to have Internet access and those that will wonder why they have lost passengers."

Internet for everyone

Alaska Airlines Inflight Wi-Fi works with a broad range of Wi-Fi-enabled devices and will allow business and leisure travelers the convenience of a high-speed network comparable to their office or home connection. The Inflight Wi-Fi splash page contains live news, music, shopping and links to practical services on Alaska's award-winning Web site, alaskaair.com. Additionally, passengers can:

·Browse the Web

·Access online music, games, podcasts, webcasts, etc.

·Instant message friends, family and colleagues

·Send and receive e-mail

·Access corporate networks via VPN

Alaska has long pioneered technology to improve the customer experience. The airline was the first in North America to sell tickets online in 1995 and, four years later, was the first carrier worldwide to offer Internet check-in and boarding passes.

Pricing and availability

Final pricing for the service has not been determined. The airline plans to use customer feedback to design a flexible pricing structure that will be affordable and competitive with other services in the industry.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), together serve more than 90 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Traditional Network Carriers (tie)" in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 North America Airline Satisfaction StudySM. For reservations, visit alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Newsroom at alaskaair.com/newsroom.
source: www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com

Google's 'Internet bus' goes to Indian villages

2009-02-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service

In a bid to make India's rural masses Internet savvy, Google launched on Tuesday an "Internet bus" that will roll into 15 towns in the state of Tamil Nadu over a period of one and half months.

The bus has Internet connectivity using satellite, a spokeswoman for Google India said.
At stops, the bus will provide local people with content in English and the local language Tamil, which will give them an understanding of how the Internet can be used to meet their needs, Google said. People will be shown videos of how a variety of people including grandparents, small entrepreneurs, and students are already using the Internet to their benefit, it added.

In many cases, people have access to the Internet through cyber cafes in the locality, but they do not use it because they are not aware of the benefits, the Google spokeswoman said.

Depending on the pilot in Tamil Nadu, Google will figure out how to go forward with the bus program, she added.

The move by Google comes even as Internet companies are seeing an increase in demand from rural India for Internet services and content in local languages. A large number of these users are using mobile phones to access the Internet.

About 30 percent of traffic to Yahoo's news portals for example is to the local language portals, a spokeswoman for Yahoo said on Tuesday. Most of the users still use the English language site besides the site in their local language, she added.

Yahoo has in India portals and tools like email and chat that support over eight Indian languages.

More people are now accessing portals and tools using mobile phones, and about 40 percent of these come from smaller towns, the Yahoo spokeswoman said. People in small towns are more at ease using mobile phones than PCs to access the Internet, she added.

Facing a saturation of demand in the cities, Indian mobile services companies are targeting rural markets.

The rural mobile subscriber base in India grew by over 28 percent to 91 million in the third quarter last year from 71 million in the previous quarter, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Google and some other Internet companies are offering technology to allow access to the Internet using local languages.

Google offers, for example, transliteration in five Indian languages, news in four Indian languages, bidirectional machine translation for English to Hindi, and soft keyboards for a large number of Indian languages. It also offers versions for mobile users of its search, maps, and Orkut social networking applications.

source: www.networkworld.com

High-speed in rural places

2009-02-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service

Tuesday February 3rd, 2009

With 10 per cent of New Brunswick households and businesses still without access to high-speed Internet, the province is working with a Jacksonville company to ensure everyone has access by 2010.

On Tuesday morning, Premier Shawn Graham and Business New Brunswick Minister Greg Byrne made the announcement in Woodstock.

"We understand that infrastructure is more than just roads and water," said Byrne. "We also need to build up communications infrastructure. Providing high-speed Internet access to everyone in New Brunswick is critical to moving this province toward our goal of self-sufficiency."

The government will provide an investment toward the cost of building the infrastructure necessary to deliver high-speed Internet access to every remaining New Brunswicker within 18 months. This investment will help create an estimated 200 new jobs in New Brunswick.

"We believe that high-speed Internet access can help rural communities be more viable in the future," added Byrne. "It can help small businesses be more profitable, allow people to work from home and upgrade their career credentials through online learning. Providing this access is essential to helping rural New Brunswick compete in the global economy."

Approximately 90 per cent of the province already has access to high-speed Internet, thanks in part to a $44.6 million federal-provincial infrastructure program created in 2003. This newest investment will ensure the remaining 10 per cent of New Brunswickers, mostly living in rural and low-density population areas, have similar access to high-speed Internet service, including 39,000 dwellings – according to 2006 Statistics Canada Census Data – and will be the most challenging areas to reach.

The New Brunswick-based Internet service provider Barrett Xplore Inc. won the contract following a public tendering process, during which the company demonstrated its competency and capability to deliver the government's objective in a cost-effective manner.

Since it is not economically viable for the private sector to cover the entire cost of access in sparsely populated areas, the province is helping to offset the cost of the necessary infrastructure.

Barrett Xplore Inc. will provide all New Brunswickers with access to high-speed Internet via its dual technology solution-fixed wireless and satellite. Fixed wireless will be the primary technology offered, with quality satellite Internet service offered in the most challenging areas to reach.

Both of these technologies will provide all residents with fast and affordable service.

The government's investment ensures new broadband customers will pay $99 for professional installation, regardless of where they live or the type of technology being offered.

Monthly service fees will be set according to the type of technology being offered, and will include the rental cost of equipment with no contract term requirements.

"We are confident that providing access to high-speed Internet to 100 per cent of New Brunswick will solidify our reputation as a technology leader in Canada," Byrne said. "Bringing broadband access to every New Brunswicker will encourage widespread use of this technology as a tool for economic development, ensuring that rural communities can remain the place to be for business success."
source: bugleobserver.canadaeast.com

Satellite Internet in Cars

2009-02-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service

TS2 Satellite Technologies is pleased to announce the introduction of the HNS 9250 - allowing you to access a broadband satellite connection through a vehicular mounted terminal. The Hughes 9250 is designed to deliver the highest available transmit and receive rates of up to 492 Kbps while "on the move" within Inmarsat's global BGAN satellite coverage area.

Warsaw, Poland, February 02, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The Broadband Global Area Network or BGAN for short, is a global Satellite Internet Network with telephony using portable terminals. The terminals are normally used to connect a laptop computer to broadband Internet in remote locations, although as long as line-of-sight to the satellite exists, the terminal can be used anywhere. The value of BGAN terminals is that unlike other satellite Internet services which require bulky & heavy satellite dishes to connect, a BGAN terminal is portable and can be used globally.

The Hughes 9250 controls the fully autonomous tracking antenna via an antenna control unit (ACU). This tracking antenna acquires and tracks the BGAN satellite signal while on the move. It mainly incorporates interface box, cable set, and magnetic feet for roof mount. The compact interface box modulates control signals from the terminal onto the RF link between the terminal and the antenna. All components in the terminal are powered by a single power supply that plugs into a vehicular 12V power source.

The unit offers you the following features and benefits:

Fully autonomous tracking antenna acquires and tracks the BGAN satellite signal while on the move
Easy antenna installation (magnetic mount) on vehicle roof
Includes antenna control unit and all cables and power supplies for vehicular installation
Up to 464 Kbps data (transmit and receive) and 128 Kbps streaming IP data rate1
Speech (4Kbps)
ISDN voice (3.1KHz audio)
ISDN data (64Kbps)
WLAN access point
Multi-user capability for sharing a single unit
Selectable Quality-of-Service (QoS)
Full IP compatibility for Email, file transfer (FTP), browsing, VPN, etc.
Cost-effective “always-on” access – charges only for data sent and received
UMTS IP-based services
WLAN, FCC, CE, and GMPCS certified
Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card security
GPS and WLAN status LEDs

Hughes 9250 in Inmarsat BGAN network

TS2 Satellite Technologies http://www.ts2.pl/
source: www.pr.com

Are you ready for digital?

2009-01-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service
(by Corey Klein - January 28, 2009)

Your guide to making the conversion carefree

If all of your televisions are connected to cable or satellite you will not be affected by the upcoming digital conversion, according to cable officials. Each television in a home wired to a cable or satellite service will continue receiving the same channels as it had prior to Feb. 17, or, if a bill to move the switch passes through congress, June 12.

"If you are already subscribed to cable television or satellite, you don’t have to do anything," said Charles Smith, the director of Government Affairs for Comcast in New Jersey.

Area residents arrived at the Queen of Peace Knights of Columbus Hall on River Road in North Arlington to ask Smith what the digital transition is all about. For televisions that receive their signal from an antenna or "rabbit ears," service will cease after the switch takes place without the purchase of an $80 digital converter box.

Switch does not affect cable/satellite subscribers

The switch only affects those who do not pay for television service and receive their signal for free from the airwaves. If you are one of the 14 million who use a rooftop antenna or "rabbit ears" or you don’t have digital television you must purchase a digital converter box and connect it to the analog television set. Otherwise, those televisions will not receive a signal after the switch. Converter boxes will be available for purchase at stores such Radio Shack and Walmart.

Televisions that receive television signals from the airwaves, as opposed to cable wires from the ground or a satellite dish, must have a digital converter box to continue receiving broadcast television. Aside from purchasing a digital converter box, which could cost up to $80, those who wish to keep free television coming into their homes from the airwaves could purchase a digital television, which automatically receives digital signals, according to Smith.

Televisions purchased more than a few years ago, however, are more than likely not digital. To find out if a television is digital-ready, one can look for a label or marking indicating they contain digital tuners. These labels may contain words such as "Integrated Digital Tuner," "Digital Tuner Built-In," "Digital Receiver," or "Digital Tuner," "DTV," "ATSC," or "HDTV" (High Definition television). "If your television equipment contains any of these labels or markings, you should be able to view digital over-the-air programming without the need for a digital-to-analog converter box," according to information provided by the federal government.

Televisions sold after March 1 must contain a label indicating whether or not they have a digital tuner.

Why are we switching to digital?

The federal government wants the broadcast and cable television industries to make the switch because there is a finite amount of bandwidth available and a digital signal takes up less "space", allowing more data to be transferred through cable wires and through the air. Data includes not only more television channels, but telephone and Internet lines as well.

In 2005, Congress authorized this transition, which will move broadcast television from an analog signal to a digital signal. "The federal government has decreed they will reclaim all of the analog bandwidth and mandating that television broadcasters as of Feb. 17 [or June 12], broadcast in a digital format only," said Smith.

America’s switch to digital follows other countries, such as Japan and many European countries, who have already made the switch. "We are moving to a digital world," said Smith.

Converter box coupons gone

In order to deflect the heavy cost of a converter box, the federal government instituted a coupon program, allowing Americans to apply for $40 coupons toward purchasing converters. Congress provided a fixed amount of money for the coupon program and it ran out, according to Smith. "They’re going to have to fund the money to get it to you as a consumer," he said.

One saving grace for those seeking to apply for coupons is that the coupons are only valid for 90 days and many who obtained coupons never used them, meaning the money goes back in the federal government’s pocket.

Could it be put off?

President Barack Obama and Congress are seeking to delay the Feb. 17 transition to June 12. A bill passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 26 and will soon go to a vote with the U.S. House of Representatives. But there is still a chance the Feb. 17 transition could continue as planned, according to Smith. "We in the cable industry and in the broadcast industry are going ahead as if this is going to happen on Feb. 17," he said.

Comcast is offering a promotion to new customers concurrent with the digital switch, allowing customers to receive free basic service for up to 12 months if one were to sign up for their telephone or Internet service. If a customer chooses, he or she can also receive basic service at $10 per month without the phone or Internet service.

Smith did not have figures on how many households in the south Bergen area use antennas or rabbit ears to receive television. "In this area, generally speaking, the Comcast service area, we have a pretty high penetration in the area that we live," he said. "But those numbers are not insignificant."

In the room of 13 people, there were no households without at least one television with digital service, but there were a number of households with several television sets, some hooked up to cable and some running off of antennas. "Not every television in someone’s home is connected to cable or satellite," said Smith.

One man in attendance said the digital switch would affect some of his television sets and not others. "I have seven TVs, half-digital and half-analog," he said.

"All-digital" cable

The government’s decision to switch broadcast television from an analog signal to a digital signal is separate from what is called "all-digital cable." Comcast’s competitor in the area, Verizon, has already switched to an entirely digital system. Smith said a date has not been set for Comcast’s switch, but it is unrelated to the 2009 Digital Conversion being ordered by the federal government. It is simply a Comcast issue.

Television in homes subscribed to a digital cable network like Verizon require a cable box. Currently, Comcast subscribers with basic cable television can still receive their cable without a box. According to Smith, this is set to change in the future when they go digital.

"We’ve already done it in New Jersey in our northwest systems, so that transition is imminent. It’s going to happen. You will need a [cable] box," said Smith.

source: www.southbergenite.com

Internet on Via Rail Via Satellite

2009-01-27T21:33:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service

Daily News Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Internet Wi-Fi services on VIA Rail Canada trains running between Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City are provided by 21Net, a European Internet operator specializing in broadband Internet access to trains via satellite communications.

This follows an agreement between Parsons and 21Net, and validated by VIA Rail Canada, whereby the services operated by Parsons since November 2006 will be transferred to 21Net.

Since 2004, 21Net has been working with leading European train companies (Renfe in Spain, SNCF in France, Thalys International) and the European Space Agency to demonstrate the technical and commercial pertinence of offering broadband Internet on trains via a bi-directional satellite link and to pioneer key advances in this technology and the Internet service provisioning to train passengers.

“21Net’s combination of railway certified high gain bi-directional satellite antenna and advanced dynamic bandwidth assignment technologies provides a robust, proven, and economic solution,” said Henry Hyde-Thomson, Chairman of 21Net. “We are extremely proud to have been selected by VIA Rail and Parsons to take over the Internet operations and propose expansions of the services to both VIA Rail and its passengers, thus contributing to VIA’s commitment to quality services towards its customers.”

21Net has already demonstrated its unmatched capabilities with the delivery of broadband Internet on the Thalys fleet running between Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne, and Paris in collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks and Telenet, the company describes.

Since its commercial launch in May 2008, the service, known as ThalysNet, is now fully deployed on the Thalys fleet. Already, more than 60.000 Thalys passengers have used the broadband Internet connection while traveling at 300 km/hr across four European countries – Belgium, The Netherlands, France, and Germany. Nine out of ten interviewed ThalysNet users have evaluated the service as “good” or “very good”.

Starting in December 2008 in France, the 21Net solution is now deployed onboard mooviTER, the communicating and innovative intercity train of SNCF (French National Railway Operator), providing Broadband Internet access to TER passengers.

21Net is a European operator who established the world’s first bi-directional satellite communications system capable of delivering high speed Internet to high speed trains. Initially sponsored by the European Space Agency, 21Net was the first provider to technically demonstrate the provisioning of broadband Internet on a high speed train, in 2004.

Since 2004, 21Net has been working closely with leading railway operators RENFE, THALYS, and SNCF to develop a robust and technically mature system.

21Net is committed to providing a great user experience with high data rates and seamless connectivity based on bi-directional satellite communications integrated with terrestrial wireless solutions for stations and tunnels. Its “Broadband To Trains” system is the only productized system capable of providing true broadband connectivity to high speed trains.
source: www.mediacastermagazine.com

KVH and ViaSat Launch Broadband Internet Services in the Pacific Ocean Region

2009-01-27T21:23:00.000-08:00

Satellite Internet Service

By Shamila Janakiraman
TMCnet Contributing Editor

KVH Industries has launched a mini-VSAT Broadband satellite communications service in the Pacific Ocean. The satellite will enable broadband Internet and telephone services between vessels and jets crossing the Pacific Ocean, according to the company.

The new coverage area also includes Alaska, the west coasts of Canada and the United States, Hawaii and extends into Asia. The launch follows efforts by KVH and ViaSat together to provide Ku-band broadband connections worldwide. Planes and ships can access uninterrupted Ku-band Internet and voice services from the Asian coast towards the east covering North America and the Caribbean. The coverage area further extends across the North Atlantic and up to the Mediterranean region.

“We have now successfully rolled out a single, unified broadband service across roughly two-thirds of the world’s major shipping and aeronautical lanes, enabling us to offer commercial, leisure, and government customers a unique mobile communications hardware and service solution,” said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH’s chief executive officer.

“Our goal, as we enter 2009, is to complete our global mini-VSAT Broadband network and support the growing demand for faster, more affordable data and voice connections for people on the move,” said Kits.

The mini-VSAT Broadband service and the KVH TracPhone V7 antenna together constitute the first end-to-end 24-inch VSAT hardware, service, and support package available for maritime communications. It enables Voice over IP (VoIP) phone service and Internet access as fast as 512 Kbps (upload) and 2 Mbps (download) provided at nominal monthly rates.

The compact TracPhone V7 is very light and smaller in volume compared to traditional 1-meter VSAT antennas. It facilitates high speed VSAT communications and the equipment is easy to install. The TracPhone V7 is most suitable for smaller vessels especially commercial fishing boats, leisure yachts, government vessels, and for commercial operations.

ViaSat (News - Alert) supplies innovative satellite and digital communication products for providing fast and secure communications any where. It’s networking products and managed network services are suitable for enterprise IP applications, military communications and encryption technologies used by the government. ViaSat is a technology partner for gateway and customer premises equipment required by consumer and mobile satellite broadband services.

Don Buchman, ViaSat’s director for mobile broadband emphasized that the success and growth of the Ku-band satellite broadband service, depended wholly on the company’s success in ArcLight technology. This has created new demand for services over the Pacific and into Asia. He also said that the mobile network service will be provided to existing customers as well as to new customers soon.

KVH provides in-motion satellite TV and communications systems and has designed, manufactured and sold several thousand mobile satellite antennas to be used in ships, vehicles and aircraft.

Shamila Janakiraman is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Shamila’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Tim Gray
source: satellite.tmcnet.com

KVH and ViaSat Bring Broadband Internet to Vessels and Planes in the Pacific

2009-01-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

Live mini-VSAT Broadband service in the Pacific is a major milestone in joint effort by KVH and ViaSat to support broadband Internet & VoIP telephone service for maritime & aeronautical applications globally

MIDDLETOWN, R.I., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadband Internet and crystal-clear telephone service is now available to vessels and jets crossing the Pacific Ocean thanks to the successful rollout of the new Pacific Ocean Region for the mini-VSAT Broadband(sm) satellite communications service from KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI). The new coverage area, which includes Alaska, the west coasts of Canada and the United States, Hawaii, and extends into Asia, is the latest milestone in the KVH and ViaSat (Nasdaq: VSAT) joint effort to provide affordable mobile Ku-band broadband connections around the globe. As a result, vessels and planes now have access to uninterrupted Ku-band Internet and voice services from the Asian coast eastward throughout North America and the Caribbean, across the North Atlantic, and all the way through Mediterranean waters.

“We have now successfully rolled out a single, unified broadband service across roughly two-thirds of the world’s major shipping and aeronautical lanes, enabling us to offer commercial, leisure, and government customers a unique mobile communications hardware and service solution,” said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH’s chief executive officer. “Our goal, as we enter 2009, is to complete our global mini-VSAT Broadband network and support the growing demand for faster, more affordable data and voice connections for people on the move.”

The mini-VSAT Broadband service, along with the KVH TracPhone® V7 antenna, comprise the first end-to-end 24-inch VSAT hardware, service, and support package available for maritime communications and offers Voice over IP phone service and Internet access as fast as 512 Kbps (upload) and 2 Mbps (download) at fixed monthly rates. The compact TracPhone V7 −- 75% lighter and 85% smaller by volume than traditional 1-meter VSAT antennas -− brings a blend of the economy and speed of VSAT communications with lower costs and easier installation to smaller vessels, making the system exceptionally well suited for commercial fishing boats, leisure yachts, government vessels, and commercial operations.

Commenting on the business opportunities that mini-VSAT Broadband offers, Brent Bruun, KVH’s vice president of business development, remarked, “We are positioning the mini-VSAT Broadband service to offer the high-speed connections at sea critical for shipboard business, efficient operations, and the increased security and regulatory expectations required of shipping operators transporting cargo. It will also become increasingly valuable in the competitive commercial market as a means of improving the quality of life and the morale of the crew.”

“The success and growth of this Ku-band satellite broadband service, built on the foundation of our ArcLight® technology, has created pent up demand for services over the Pacific and into Asia,” added Don Buchman, ViaSat’s director for mobile broadband. “In addition to opening up service to current customers, we expect the expansion of the mobile network to attract new customers as well.”

Maps illustrating the current and planned coverage for mini-VSAT Broadband service are available at http://kvh.com/footprints. Visit http://www.minivsat.com for additional details regarding the TracPhone V7 and mini-VSAT Broadband service.

Note to Editors: Press-ready images of KVH’s TracPhone V7 are available at http://press.kvh.com for download and editorial use.

About KVH Industries, Inc.

Middletown, RI-based KVH Industries, Inc., and its wholly owned subsidiary, KVH Europe A/S, are leading providers of in-motion satellite TV and communications systems, having designed, manufactured, and sold more than 150,000 mobile satellite antennas for applications on vessels, vehicles, and aircraft. KVH’s mission is to connect mobile customers around the globe with the same digital television entertainment, communications, and Internet services that they enjoy in their homes and offices.

About ViaSat

ViaSat (www.viasat.com) produces innovative satellite and other digital communication products that enable fast, secure, and efficient communications to any location. The company provides networking products and managed network services for enterprise IP applications; is a key supplier of network-centric military communications and encryption technologies to the U.S. government; and is the primary technology partner for gateway and customer premises equipment for consumer and mobile satellite broadband services.

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, for example, the anticipated service rollout plans, the functionality, characteristics, quality and performance of KVH’s products and technology; anticipated innovation and product development; and customer demand, preferences, requirements and expectations. The actual results could differ materially. Factors that may cause such differences include, among others, uncertainty about the scope of customer demand; the potential inability to secure adequate Ku-band satellite capacity or the licenses necessary for the network; risks associated with the delivery or performance of critical hardware; future decisions about the expected profitability of additional satellite regions; changes in the costs and capabilities of competing offerings; and those other risk factors discussed in KVH’s most recent Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. KVH does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect new information or developments.

KVH and TracPhone are registered trademarks of KVH Industries. “mini-VSAT Broadband” is a service mark of KVH Industries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.
source: www.satellitetoday.com

Satellite Broadband Internet in Iraq and Afghanistan for U.S. Troops

2009-01-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

Last update: 8:05 a.m. EST Jan. 22, 2009

WARSAW, Poland, Jan 22, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- TS2 Satellite Technologies' network in Iraq and Afghanistan has over 15,000 military users of local broadband satellite connections.
"We were among the first telecommunications operators in the satellite technology in the territory of Iraq and Afghanistan, and as such we have enjoyed a successful cooperation with the U.S. Army for several years now," says Marcin Frackiewicz, CEO of the TS2 Satellite Technologies.

TS2 Satellite Technologies offers two-way high-speed Internet access with no phone lines, no cable and no dial-up modem. It's always on, available virtually anywhere, and affordable. The laptop or Wi-Fi network can receive Internet signal through a special Satellite VSAT modem, which was usually set up in a building or tent when deployed.

The one VSAT access point provides the following services for soldiers:
-- Broadband access to the Internet (WWW, E-mail, FTP etc.)
-- Data transfer to many other users simultaneously
-- Telephone connections including VoIP, IP phone
-- Video-conference connections
Advantages of the system:
-- Short set-up time
-- Fast and easy upgrades
-- Possibility of guaranteed CIR
-- Transmission in almost all weather conditions
The communication among the bases is possible thanks to the simultaneous lease of bands on the Intelsat 10-02, Intelsat 901 and Eutelsat W6 Satellites whose coverage enables configuration of connections between any place in Europe, Middle East and Southwest Asia.

TS2's Satellite military networks are located in Al Taqaddum Air Base, Bahgram AF, Balad Base, Baquba Airfield, Brassfield-Mora, Cob Adder, Cob Speicher, Camp Al Asad Airbase, Camp Bucca Basra City, Camp Buehring, Camp Charlie Basra, Camp Eggers, Camp Fallujah, Camp Grizzly, Camp Korean Village, Camp Liberty, Camp Mejid, Camp Ramadi, Camp Slayer, Camp Stryker, Camp Taji, Camp Victory, Fob Bagram, Fob Brassfield Mora, Fob Delta Al Kut, Fob Diamondback, Fob Falcon, Fob Garryowen, Fob Gardez, Fob Ghazni, Fob Kalagush, Fob Kandahar, Fob Lagman, Fob Mchenry, Fob Marez, Fob Normandy, Fob Rustamiyah, Fob Summerall, Fob Sykes, Fob Salerno, Fob Torkham, Fob Warhorse, Fob Warrior, Herat RTC, Jallahabad Air Base, Kabul Airport, Kabul Camp Eggers, Kandahar Air Base, Lsa Anaconda Balad, Q-West Base Complex and Tallil Ab Lsa Adder.

Especially for U.S. Military Personnel, Contracting Officers and DoD Contractors, TS2 delivers Satellite equipment to most of all military addresses in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, within maximum of 7 days.

source: www.marketwatch.com

Internet access is looking up

2009-01-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

By Ryan Harrison

A wave of déjà vu must have washed over Middle East telecoms operators when they tackled a second bout of internet outages caused by damaged undersea cables in 12 months.

A year ago, fibre-optic lines connecting the region to Europe were damaged, plunging internet services for companies and individuals into chaos.

Then, last month, the same cables were severed again, a problem that was resolved over two weeks with the restoration of full service by the first week of January.

Telecoms firms have been left with the pressing question of how to backup susceptible cables that carry business-critical bandwidth to scores of commercial users, as well as countless private browsers.

Satellite companies, it seems, have one answer.

Robert Bednarek, President and CEO of SES New Skies, a firm that leases satellite capacity around the world, said the latest cable problems should remind Middle East internet providers of the limitations of fibre-optics.

There needs to be a concerted effort to invest to allow satellite technology to kick in when internet lines go down, he said.

However, even satellite internet access is not flawless – it can be affected by many factors, not least bad weather.

Also the high cost, which varies widely between providers, can make satellite access prohibitive as a primary option.

But Bednarek said the key was for corporates to build a network unreliant on single fibres and single routes. "Satellites can be used to provide diverse routing in the case of a cable cut or to restore something. The problem with satellite capabilities in the Middle East is that it's very hard to come by while there has been rapid growth in satellite-based networking, especially in the banking, oil and gas, and construction sectors," said Bednarek.

"So when there's a cable cut you can't assume there's the capability. Telecoms providers therefore have to make an upfront commitment," he said.

Just before Christmas, three fibre-optic cables running along the Mediterranean seabed were damaged. Although no official cause was given, rumours surfaced of a possible undersea earthquake.

Later, etisalat issued a statement explaining that internet and telephone communications were affected between the Middle East, and Asia and Europe.

Almost immediately, satellite television company Orbit began broadcasting advertisements – with an illustration of a boat severing a cable – for its Satnet satellite internet service.

Bednarek said: "Many companies already build diverse satellite networks as a backup, so they're not 100 per cent dependent on fibre. Companies that are point-of-sale transaction providers can't afford to be offline for even a few minutes. For example, a bank that's feeding ATMs or petroleum companies servicing fuel outlets.

"Many customers are saying that 'my entire economic lifeline is dependent on a service that has failures', and are making alternative arrangements."

SES New Skies provides backup and restoration services both to the fibre operators and to private networks that do not want all of their traffic on one particular source.

In the hours after the cable slice in December, users reported that their internet slowed to a crawl, but most reported slow but reliable connections within 24 hours.

It was reported that in the UAE, access to popular video-sharing websites such as YouTube and some online gaming platforms such as Microsoft's Xbox Live was heavily restricted to free up bandwidth.

For businesses, internet outages disrupt vital communication with their customers. Internet access through satellite for individuals in the UAE continues to be costly, with services geared towards high net worth clients.

Etisalat's VSAT product offers subscribers exactly this, but at a charge of thousands of dirhams in installation and monthly fees.

Ali Amiri, Executive Vice-President for Carrier and Wholesale Services at etisalat, said the company had primary backup across its network in the form of submarine and terrestrial cables, and also an option of using satellite connectivity

"However, while satellite can provide resiliency for voice traffic in select instances, it is unrealistic for satellite capacity to replace large volumes of internet traffic," he said.

"We have already deployed the most robust network in the Middle East with access to the internet via Europe and Asia. These redundant links served us very well during the outage. Therefore, etisalat's expertise at its network operations centre made sure no additional capacity from our satellite network was required."

Large-scale internet disruptions are rare, but East Asia suffered two months of outages and slow service after an earthquake damaged undersea cables near Taiwan in December 2006.

source: www.business24-7.ae

Yes They Can - but So What? Media Technology and the Inauguration

2009-01-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

By Renay San Miguel
TechNewsWorld
01/21/09 8:48 AM PT

Tuesday's inauguration ceremony represented yet another opportunity for the major broadcast networks to trot out the technological toys, but did they improve coverage? In some ways, yes. It seems the simpler, less flashy and more social content resonated best with viewers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barack Obama has made it as clear as a 1080p high-definition image that he intends to be the Digital President. He used online fundraising, Facebook More about Facebook, text messages and YouTube More about YouTube to get elected, and he has an ambitious agenda that calls on technology to create jobs, clean up the environment and bring transparency to government.

So why shouldn't the media -- traditional and new -- break out all the digital bells and whistles at their disposal to help bring you the first draft of history regarding Obama's Tuesday inauguration? From satellites to social networks to streaming video -- from Twitter More about Twitter to 3-D -- the major broadcast and online news organizations booted up technology to enhance their storytelling.

In some instances, that first draft of history was a very rough draft indeed; the intense interest in the event clogged the Internets right around the time Obama placed his hand on Abraham Lincoln's Bible, raising new questions about whether streaming media More about streaming media was ready for prime time. In other instances, the gadgets seemed more gratuitous than gripping. But there were also some cases where interesting applications and mashups may have given us all a peek into the future of newsgathering.

One network in particular covered both ends of the good and not-so-good high-tech spectrum during the 2008 campaign; should we have expected anything different on Tuesday from CNN?
2-D Facebook and 3-D Photography

The cable network that introduced satellite technology to rewrite the book on international broadcast journalism went back to its roots Tuesday, thanks to GeoEye. The Dulles, Va.-based satellite imagery company has some of the most sophisticated high-resolution cameras in orbit, and by the middle of this year will be providing images for Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) More about Google Earth and Google Maps. You can also look for its imagery in the new Tom Clancy video game.

CEO Matt O'Connell has done a very good job repositioning the company as more of an information services provider than a hardware firm, and the photos it shot for CNN of the crowds jamming the Washington D.C. Mall area were good examples. Anchor John King trumpeted the photos as the "quickest turnaround for non-military purposes of satellite photos" and they did indeed help bring the scale of Tuesday's event into focus, especially when contrasted with shots taken on Dec. 19 of a Mall largely devoid of people.

CNN also helped Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) More about Microsoft highlight its Photosynth technology, which allows for 3-D manipulation of two-dimensional photographic images. For several days before the inauguration, networks anchors told those who would be attending the event to take pictures of the very moment Obama took the oath of office and to send them to CNN.com, where they would be compiled into "The Moment" photo montage via Photosynth.

Here's the problem with both the GeoEye satellite photos and Photosynth: They certainly were had-to-be-there experiences, as long as "there" was your computer. On a compatible PC or Mac, the CNN.com Photosynth app kills; on TV, "The Moment" was more of a "meh" moment, despite King once again showing his mastery of a touchscreen on steroids (this one provided by Perceptive Pixel.) Yeah, it's kind of cool to finger-flick from a photo of Obama on the dais to John Cusack in the crowd to Oprah Winfrey elsewhere in the crowd, but audiences raised on "CSI" software fantasies weren't likely to be overwhelmed by 2-D turned into 3-D turned back into 2-D on your TV, even if your TV is HD. (Don't OD on this, OK?) Same thing with the GeoEye photos; impressive as they are, the crowds still looked like smudges on those in-studio touchscreens.

For all the digital dollars spent by CNN, the network seemed to score more points with its CNN.com video/Facebook mashup. At least, most of my Facebook friends thought so, and not just the ones who still work at CNN. Clicking on a link gave you a double-window, with live video on one side and a scrolling stream of Facebook status updates on the other. No expensive special imagery and certainly no value-added journalistic insight, just real-time reactions from all over the world to the history being made in Washington. That stream Included this piece of layman's criticism: a person "wondering why the anchors on CNN on the TV are so much more interesting and articulate than what I'm seeing on the Facebook streaming."

I believe it was the original owner of the Bible used for Obama's swearing-in who said something about the challenges in trying to please all the people all of the time. If anything, the Facebook feed provided audience participation for those who couldn't make it in person to what may be one of the key news events of their lifetime.

Inauguration Watchers All a-Twitter

Hashtags were flying throughout cyberspace and on television, as Twitter again showed its potential for becoming a omnipresent digital vox populi. CNN had several Twitter feeds running, as did Fox News and others. As you might expect, Current TV, the user-generated media company cofounded by Al Gore, had the most entertaining use of onscreen Tweets during Obama's inaugural speech. If you ignored the obligatory and occasionally profane Bush-bashing from the network's young demographic, you found a few nuggets: "Obama could read the menu at McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) More about McDonald's and it would inspire people;" "As much as I don't like Obama I've got to give him credit for his foreign policy stance. He gets it."

AOL Twittered the inauguration while warning users that "due to high Twitter usage, the modules below may appear as a black box. If so, just refresh the page or try our low-bandwidth Twitter page." (The Twitter Blog said the service experienced four times as many Tweets per second than usual around the swearing-in peak). When the AOL service worked, it mostly gave a running tally of boos and cheers for those appearing on the dais. But an AOL Tweet highlighted a potential inaugural side story, as well as showing off the new journalism enabled by social networks that doesn't wait for double-sourced confirmations: "Rumor in the line is that people got in with forged tickets and people with legit ones are getting screwed. Unconfirmed."
Live Blogs and Streams -- of Video and People

The broadcast networks all simulcast their network feeds on their Web sites, hoping to satisfy the needs of office workers who wanted their own glimpse of history in the making. But even in the hour preceding peak viewing -- the swearing-in and Obama's speech -- getting a clean stream at ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com and MSNBC.com proved problematic. (The Audi commercials pre-rolling on all three network Web sites before the Web coverage all seemed to run just fine, thank you.) CNN.com had to put people logging on to their streaming coverage in a "waiting room."

Although the inaugural was not the most watched Internet event ever, according to Web content delivery company Akamai, it ranked up there. "With inauguration occurring during work day hours in the U.S., we witnessed record numbers of live streams in support Linux MPS Pro - Focus on Your Business - Not Your IT Infrastructure. $599.95/month. Click to learn more. of many leading news businesses," an Akamai executive said. "It is now clear that this event has driven unprecedented demand from a global online audience."

If media companies are going to get serious about their Web strategies, and rake in those online ad dollars, a review of what went right and wrong, and a second look at infrastructure and content, is necessary. Give me something different than what's on your TV network, folks. Some of the Web-exclusive content went beyond the usual celebrity-spotting; Fox News' "Strategy Room" had a spirited discussion in the hour leading up to the swearing-in, featuring Sirius/XM satellite radio host David Webb and others debating Obama's "blackness."

For all the diversity of content found online, the growth of streaming video consumption and the rise of social networks as news sources, I still thought that this major event was best delivered and consumed via television -- and high-definition TV in particular. The sight of all those people on the Mall was certainly awe-inspiring, but switching back and forth from 480p to 1080i on a large-screen TV was like making the jump from impulse power to warp speed. The scale of the story comes into better focus; history in crystalline clarity on a chilly but bright January day in 2009.
source: www.technewsworld.com

High-Speed Satellite Internet Access

2009-01-22T05:11:00.000-08:00

Thanks to HughesNet's always-on satellite internet connection, your frustrations with low-speed dial-up delays or dropped connections are over. With HughesNet you can gain instant internet access just by opening your web browser. Satellite Internet will also allow you to share your high-speed broadband connection with multiple computers and laptops, simultaneously! This is done simply by adding a router or switch to our satellite internet modem.

Why put up with slow dial-up just because you live or work in an area where cable or DSL can't reach? HughesNet uses advanced satellite technology to give you a blazing-fast, always-on internet connection almost anywhere - all you need is a clear view of the southern sky. Enjoy faster surfing, faster downloads, faster everything! And since it doesn't use your phone line, missed calls and dialing in are a thing of the past. Order HughesNet today and start enjoying the
Internet as it was meant to be.

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source: www.elitesat.com

SES Americom Shuts Down Satellite TV Service

2009-01-07T03:35:00.000-08:00

By Peter B. De Selding
Space News Staff Writer

PARIS - Satellite-fleet operator SES is shutting down its IP-Prime service, which since 2007 has been selling satellite-delivered television programming to telecommunications companies to bundle with their Internet and telephone offering. SES's SES Americom division made the announcement Dec. 15 saying IP-Prime's customers - predominately rural telephone companies - were unable to win sufficient subscriber interest in the television service to justify continued operation.

IP-Prime will cease operations July 31, just two years after it arrived on the market. Since its commercial introduction, SES had signed up 70 small telecom operators to IP-Prime. But these operators in total had secured fewer than 10,000 subscribers for the service.

SES's investment in IP-Prime includes a large program-distribution facility in Vernon Valley, N.J. More importantly, the company had dedicated its AMC-9 satellite's 22 C-band transponders to IP-Prime, providing more than 300 channels of television to the telecom operators, including 20 channels in high-definition format.

For SES, keeping a satellite dedicated to a service whose revenue potential is now viewed as weak was unacceptable, and the Luxembourg-based company's board of directors agreed with the company's executive committee to cut the losses.

"With a subscriber base of less than 10,000 at the end of November, and after more than two years of service, the consumer uptake is insufficient to justify continuing operations," SES Americom Chief Executive Rob Bednarek said in a Dec. 15 statement.

SES is under contractual obligation to its IP-Prime telecom operators to give six months' notice before shutdown, SES spokesman Yves Feltes said Dec. 15. But even without that obligation, SES would want to give its customers time to consider alternatives to IP-Prime.

"The decision we are making should not be viewed as our saying that satellite platforms will not have a role in delivering IP television," Feltes said. "But we don't see how this platform could be made financially viable. We consider ourselves to have been successful in signing up the telcos. But there would need to be an additional effort in educating the telcos in signing up their customers."

The decision to shut down IP-Prime was not a complete surprise. SES Americom had reduced staff at the service earlier this year, and Bednarek said in a September interview with Space News that IP-Prime needed to be rethought.

"What we're now looking at is: Who is the right party to scale this thing up?" Bednarek said. "Are we at SES prepared to go to the thousands of telcos in the United States and install head-end equipment [necessary for the link from the satellite to the customer]? It's like the cable-head-end business. We don't install the head-ends. It makes some sense to get some other people to do this."

Feltes declined to disclose the size of the investment SES has made in IP-Prime, but said the overall business model was built on SES being paid based on the number of subscribers the local telecom operators booked for the service.

With so few subscribers, SES could not justify reserving an entire satellite for IP-Prime, he said.

"I am convinced you will see IP-TV on SES satellites in different regions of the world," but with business models different from what was tried with IP-Prime, Feltes said.
source: www.space.com

Cisco's home-networking push

2009-01-07T03:18:00.000-08:00

Cisco Systems, which builds the gear that powers the Internet, is making a big push this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with new products that will help consumers move digital media around their homes.

The company plans to hold a press conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday to reveal the new products and its refined strategy for providing consumers with "communication and entertainment experiences that are more visual, more social and more personal," the company said in a press release.

To get a sneak peek at Cisco's strategy, I talked by phone with Ned Hooper, senior vice president of corporate development for Cisco's Consumer Business Group. While details of the soon-to-be-announced products are still under wraps, Hooper shed some light on why Cisco thinks there is a big opportunity in helping consumers get their homes connected and where the company plans to go with its strategy from next.

Q: Cisco isn't the first company to build products for the digital home. Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett-Packard have all tried to develop products to help consumers play their music and video throughout the home. So far, none of these companies have been very successful. Even Apple's Apple TV is a considered a niche product. Why do you think Cisco will have more success?

Hooper: I think it's important to look at how media and entertainment is being delivered to the home. The presence of the Internet and digital media is transforming all these industries and how people access entertainment and how they communicate with each other.

Over 100 million households have set top boxes with their cable or digital satellite service. So the digital set top box market is doing well. Services such as video on demand and DVRs are in high demand. But building expensive devices for a single function hasn't proven to be a viable market.

Cisco has been positioned very well in terms of being able to offer infrastructure for these network services. And we're already in the consumer electronics business with Linksys and Scientific Atlanta. It might surprise you to know that Cisco has shipped over 160 million consumer devices. This includes set-top boxes and home routers.

But what can Cisco do that's different from these other companies that have tried to address this market?

Hooper: What you can do today in terms of sharing media and moving it around the house if you have a high-degree of technical aptitude or a lot of money is really impressive. But we see opportunity in making it more feasible to do in the mass market. It's all about usability.

We're still in the very early days of this market. There are only about 39 million households in the U.S. that are networked or "connected" out of a total of about 120 million households nationwide. So, total penetration is still low. But the market is in transition. The first phase of the connected home was all about connecting two PCs to the same broadband connection. Or maybe you connected them to a printer over a wireless network. Now it's about the media-enabled home and connecting all the devices in the home so you can move and share your media around the house. In this phase, the ability to connect devices in the home to each other is just as important as connecting them to the Internet.

But the big question is how do we make it easier. That is the first thing that needs to be addressed. And at Cisco we see the network as becoming a platform that can help make connecting these devices easier. We don't see the solution as simply being a box. You shouldn't have to boot up your PC to share a picture or a song in the home network.

One of the biggest complaints I've heard from people setting up home entertainment systems is that there are too many wires connecting everything together. Do you think it's possible to shuttle all this bandwidth intensive media around the home wirelessly?

Hooper: We launched a high-end home router in July that we refer to as the Linksys WRT610N router. It's the first dual-band home router that operates in both the 2.4 Gigahertz and 5 GHz spectrum bands. It enables consumers to separate media content from basic Internet traffic in the home. I actually have been testing out the new products we are announcing at CES at home, and I used this router to put all the multimedia traffic in my home on the 5GHz band while I put my basic Internet traffic on the 2.4 GHz band. And it works great. It ensures that there isn't any congestion on the network. We also have some quality of service mechanisms that help ensure high quality audio and video.

You've talked about Cisco's role in connecting devices in the home. But with the economy worsening, I've found more people turning to the Internet for video. Do you think video that is freely available on the Internet through sites like Joost.com or Hulu.com or even some of the TV networks will eventually replace cable or other paid TV services?

Hooper: I don't think that people want to shut off their cable or satellite service. I think what they want is more services. Even in a troubled economy, we typically see people increase their spending on home entertainment ,because it's cheaper than leaving home. Also, subscription based services have historically shown to be successful. So I think whether it's Netflix or Time Warner Cable or Verizon Fios, there is going to be growth.

But there are clearly different ways to make money. And maybe we will see more ad supported models. The interesting thing for Cisco is because of our relationships with service providers, media companies and consumers, we can help deliver content across all routes to the market.

Once Cisco unveils its products to make accessing media throughout the home easier, what's next?

Hooper: We also see an opportunity to bring immersive telepresence video technology into the home. We expect we can have something available in about 18 months or so.

But this service costs large companies tens of thousands of dollars to offer. How can Cisco make high-quality video conferencing affordable enough for people to use at home?

Hooper: There are natural cost reduction cycles. For example, the cost of processing gets cheaper along with other components, which help us move toward affordable price points. Also we are seeing massive capital investment across cable and phone companies to increase broadband speeds. So the broadband capacity will be there to deliver the high-quality video. Consumers themselves are also investing in digital and high-definition TVs as the transition from analog to digital TV takes place. So all these things are coming together, which will help alleviate the cost of offering telepresence.

But how cheap will the price have to be to get people to want to use the service?

Hooper: It's too early to talk about price points. But what we have seen in the enterprise is that once people experience true high-quality video in this way, they communicate in a different way. There will be huge demand for it. Look at the success of Skype with its Web-based video, which is not the same quality we're talking about with telepresence. You see how excited consumers are about this service. Once you add an immersive video experience to the communication, you increase the quality of the interaction.

Would you sell telepresence as a separate service through a carrier, or would consumers simply be able to buy the equipment and start making these calls at home?

Hooper: The service will ride on an existing broadband connection. But the service provider still benefits because it gives these companies still investing in broadband infrastructure a more compelling service that will require consumers upgrade to faster speed services.

Some people have argued that digital rights technologies that restrict how content is shared have hurt innovation. Would you agree?
I don't think it has hurt innovation. If you look across the industry there have been many advancements. But I think there is a big opportunity for media companies to enhance the experience. We are working closely with media companies to do this, especially when it comes to video.

So far people have been able to deal with managing their music collections. But as these collections get larger, it's a burden when you have to transition from one computer to a new one. When you start talking about moving video collections, it becomes even more difficult.

We have been talking to content providers about this. And production companies are interested in a model where consumers own rights to the content instead of the physical media. So they are starting to experiment with different business models. And we are focused on being a partner to help them pull it all together.

source: ces.cnet.com

Forrester study: Got game? Not in a recession

2009-01-07T03:08:00.000-08:00

Internet and mobile services are expected to score against handheld video game players and satellite radio amid an economic recession, according to results from a Forrester Research survey released Monday.

According to the results, 51 percent of North America consumers surveyed said they planned to curtail technology spending in the coming year, due to the economy. And areas expected to take the greatest hit include handheld video game players, followed by satellite radio, smart phones, video game consoles, and portable GPS devices.

The report noted:

While no device is immune from consumer spending cuts, new devices such as satellite radios and handheld video game players are the most likely to be left off the priority list - two thirds of consumers, regardless of their previous intentions, said that they are less likely to purchase these two devices in a recession, while a scant 3 percent said that they are more likely.

The survey, which took the pulse of more than 5,000 consumers in North America during November, found that high-definition TVs were more resilient, with only half of those surveyed saying they were less likely to purchase an HDTV in the coming year. And 7 percent of survey respondents even noted they were more likely to buy an HDTV, Forrester noted.

But Internet, as well as mobile, services fared far better.

According to the report:

An evaluation of purchase intentions can determine which products consumers see as essential and which they consider a luxury, mobile phone and Internet service, for instance, remain steady, while momentum for newer products such as personal navigation devices and satellite radio will slow.

Among Internet users, 83 percent of survey respondents noted they have no plans to change their service and 2 percent indicated plans to increase their service. As for mobile phone users, 70 percent said planned to keep the status quo, with 2 percent noting plans to increase their service, according to Forrester.

But all services are not created equal. Premium cable services and landline phone services, for example, were deemed less essential to survey respondents, with 14 percent of those users cumulatively noting they may cancel or reduce their service.

Originally posted at Gaming and Culture
source: news.cnet.com

Consumer Reports: Fiber-optic services best

2009-01-07T02:54:00.000-08:00

By Doug Mohney

Released on the eve of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, Consumer Reports latest report anoints Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse bundles as the most "consistently satisfying providers" for Internet, TV, and phone services.

Of course, in areas where you can't get a telco-delivered bundle, Consumer Reports (CR) recommends a "highly-rated" cable company as the next best choice. CR notes that consumers may not have a choice choosing a cable provider, but cites Cox, CableVision, Bright House and Wow as "fine alternatives" to fiber-optic services. Otherwise, consumers are kind of stuck with a bundle with satellite DirecTV service as the next palatable alternative.

CR is hot for bundling, noting that competition between cable, satellite and fiber has driven down rates on Internet, phone and TV services, and that bundling makes sense for households served by fiber or a better cable company.

However, all is not roses for the phone companies. There's a "high incidence" of billing complaints and feeds with triple play packages. Verizon FiOS also is below average for customer service, while cable companies had (no shock in this reporter's mind) fewer customer service problems overall.

source: www.fiercetelecom.com

New Internet-ready TVs put heat on cable firms

2009-01-07T02:46:00.000-08:00

MATT HARTLEY

TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

January 6, 2009

The Internet has proven it can handle television, but is TV prepared to handle the Internet?

For years, technology companies have tried in vain to bring the Internet onto the screen at the centre of North American living rooms. Although TV shows have made the migration to the Web, to date, it has been a one-way road.

Now, a new breed of Internet-connected televisions is threatening to shake up both the technology and broadcasting industries while making millions of recently purchased high-definition TVs yesterday's news.

Although the migration of the Internet to television could prove a boon for online video services, chip makers and television manufacturers, the new reality, if successful, could also bring about tough new challenges for cable companies and purveyors of set-top boxes.

Yesterday, LG Electronics Inc. unveiled a new line of high-definition TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that will include software from Netflix Inc. - the largest U.S. mail-order movie service - to allow users to download movies and television programs directly to their TVs over an Internet connection.

Sony Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. have been selling Internet-enabled televisions for a few years now, but users have been reluctant to adopt the technology simply because there wasn't much worth watching.

"They weren't offering much to go with that connection," said James McQuivey, principal analyst at technology research firm Forrester Research Group. "Whereas now LG can walk in and say they will give you Internet connectivity so that they can give you Netflix, and it finally starts to make sense to people."

Also yesterday, Yahoo Inc. announced a deal with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. that will see a new line of the South Korean electronics company's televisions come prepackaged with the Internet trailblazer's Widget Engine software, which will allow users to access various services such as the Flickr photo-management application and Yahoo Finance through a launch bar running across the bottom of the screen, similar to a news ticker.

Mr. McQuivey said Internet-connected TVs will have truly arrived when we see a major Web video services like Hulu.com start taking viewers away from cable companies.

Hulu - a joint project of NBC Universal Inc. and News Corp., which is not yet available in Canada - is ad-supported and offers free on-demand videos, allowing users to watch popular U.S. programs at their convenience.

If broadcaster-backed services such as Hulu become the standard content delivery method for Internet-connected televisions, cable and satellite providers, as well as set-top box companies such as TiVo Inc., could lose subscribers.

"[Cable companies] have the most to lose and it's their business model which is at greatest risk of redundancy in this transition," said Carmi Levy, an analyst with AR Communications Inc. "Their consistent revenue stream will come under attack as new offerings come to the market. ... It's similar to what the telephone companies have faced from voice over Internet telephony (VoIP), cellphones and free instant messaging tools."

Analysts say Yahoo's efforts to be a leader in the Internet on television could open up new advertising opportunities for the company in addition to giving it a head start on a growing business before rivals Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. make the industry a priority.

Yahoo struck a partnership with chip maker Intel Corp. in August to provide the underlying software architecture for Internet-enabled TVs in a move designed to establish a platform for developers to create new applications that run on these televisions.

Intel's ability to handle the spread of the Internet to new platforms such as television has come to dominate the conversations the company is having with electronics companies, said Bill Leszinske, general manager of the company's digital home group.

Buyers want to know the Intel chips destined for set-top boxes and digital TVs will be able to handle high-definition video streams and downloadable content in addition to Internet capabilities, he said.

"The Internet has driven the growth of the PC platform for the last 10 or 12 years, it's driving huge growth in the cellphone space ... and now we see the usages and the connectivity that users are going to demand are going to create this huge churn and opportunity in the living room."

source: www.theglobeandmail.com

Best practice: Choosing a satellite Internet service provider

2009-01-05T01:12:00.000-08:00

December 18, 2008, 12:52 PM — Hughes Network Systems —

This Best Practice is part of a collection of advice provided by information technology professionals on how they have solved various challenges, and addressed IT priorities within their organizations.

The company: Producers Gin Company, LLC – A cotton gin located in Theodore, Ala., that processes cotton from the field, removes the seeds, and packages it for delivery to foreign and domestic mills.

The problem: Producers Gin Co. relies on the Internet to conduct day-to-day business operations. Their success depends on timely transmission of electronic warehouse receipts (EWRs) and reliable communication channels with the USDA. However, Producers Gin Co. is located beyond the reach of cable Internet and, after Hurricane Katrina, their dial-up speeds dropped so low they were written up by the USDA for late transmittal of some receipts. In an effort to maintain their business operations, Producers Gin Company sought out a satellite Internet solution.

The solution: HughesNet BusinessInternet from Hughes Network Systems. With advanced satellite technology, HughesNet BusinessInternet service delivers a secure, reliable broadband connection to businesses no matter where they’re located. Built for growing businesses and starting at $59.99/month, HughesNet offers seven business Internet plans to choose from, with download speeds up to 5 Mpbs. They also offer flexible billing plans and the option to instantly upgrade as the business grows.

Who provided this information: Georgi Starr, Office Manager, Producers Gin Co., LLC

How it worked: The specialty software we use is continually updating, so our download speeds need to be constant and high. Having a reliable satellite broadband service has allowed us to receive shipping orders, create and transfer receipts and download software updates very easily. Without satellite broadband we simply wouldn’t be in business.

Rules for success:

* Be picky – When you are looking to purchasing something that will literally be keeping your small business up and running, it’s important to find a provider that has both enterprise experience and the high-quality equipment to go with it. Think of it as an important business investment.
* Do your research– Very few providers have the complete package so look for one that will honestly help your business run more smoothly for a price you can afford.
* Make it fast – Once you’ve made a decision, make sure they can process your order and install it quickly. Small businesses like ours truly can’t afford any downtime.

Five classic mistakes:
We found that the top five things to watch out for when you decide to get satellite Internet for your business are:

* Support - Make sure that you can get the help you need when you need it and that the provider gives you easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement solutions.
* Dependability - For our business, a reliable Internet connection is an absolute necessity. Similar businesses need to make sure their service provider can promise that they will have a consistent connection that will allow them to transmit sensitive information easily and quickly.
* Speed – The service should make business operations easier, not more time-consuming and frustrating.
* Maintenance – Always be sure that the service won’t end up being a burden. Small business owners have enough things to maintain.
* Ease of use – Don’t get stuck with something that sounds good on paper but is impossible to use. Always ask practical questions about equipment and remember that your small office may have limited space for extra equipment and wiring.

Three must-ask questions:

* Will the broadband service be consistently fast enough to upload large files quickly and to download program updates painlessly?
* How much equipment, routers, cables, etc. will it take to get the Internet I need? Do I have room for everything?
* Can I get the support I need, right when I need it? Do they have a next-day or same-day maintenance option?

Hindsight is 20/20:

One thing we learned is that we wish we had our own IP address. At the time we signed up for HughesNet service we didn't think things through and thought that our own IP address would be a luxury but now we think otherwise.

Final takeaway:

We want to remind small business owners located in rural areas that slow dial-up Internet isn’t your only option. Satellite broadband is a true solution that will make everything run more smoothly and give you one less thing to worry about.

Who's a candidate?
HughesNet Business Internet is designed for small to mid-sized businesses (under 100 employees) that are located in areas where DSL and cable don’t reach and T1 lines are too expensive. It is especially geared toward the agriculture, retail, manufacturing and utility industries and businesses that find they need to speed up transactions, secure company and customer data, manage inventory loss and guard against disaster.

For more information, contact Hughes Network Systems at 1-877-337-3880 or visit business.hughesnet.com.

This Best Practice was provided by Hughes Network Systems.

The ideas expressed in this article are solely those of the vendor and its client, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ITworld.

source: www.itworld.com

First look: Rogue Amoeba's Pulsar for XM and Sirius streams

2009-01-05T00:50:00.000-08:00

by Jonathan Seff, Macworld.com

Rogue Amoeba Software on Friday released a Public Preview version of Pulsar, its new software for listening to streaming XM and Sirius Internet radio stations. Users can download and run the Public Preview (which requires OS X 10.5 or later) for free, although audio quality is degraded after 20 minutes of listening. Buying a license for $15 (which will work for the final version) removes the limitation. Rogue Amoeba is also offering a free license to anyone who owns or purchases its Airfoil for Mac 3, Audio Hijack Pro 2, Fission, Nicecast, or Radioshift products.

To use the software, you need to subscribe to XM Radio Online, Sirius Internet Radio, or both (although the two companies merged in July 2008 to form Sirius XM Radio, they still operate separate streaming services) . Each service offer more than 80 commercial-free online channels, which you can also listen to via each company's Web site. XM Radio Online costs $8 per month (free with an XM monthly subscription that costs $13 or more) and Sirius Internet Radio costs $13 per month ($3 if you subscribe to a Sirius Satellite Radio package that costs $12 or more). Each service offers free three-day trials (you only need to provide a name and e-mail address, not a credit card).

When you launch Pulsar, you're greeted with the Accounts Assistant window, where you can click on the XM or Sirius buttons to enter your e-mail address and password for those services (if you have accounts with both, you'll need to open the Accounts Assistant again to enter the information for the second account, since the window closes after the first one). Once set up, you'll see all the available stations in Logo or Compact view. Both show station names, descriptions, and the currently playing songs, artists, and genres. Logo view also shows the station logos, which take up more room and allow for fewer stations listed in the same window space.

Next to each station is a play button and a heart button. Clicking on a play button begins buffering and then playing a stream (and changes the button to a stop button). Clicking on a heart button turns the heart red and adds the station your favorites (accessible from the Favorites view). You can switch among views from the Window menu, using keyboard shortcuts, or by clicking on iTunes-like icons in the upper right corner of the Pulsar window. Next to the icons are the playback area with the name of the station, the artist and track title playing, and a seven-band output meter. To the left of the those are a volume slider and play/stop button.

In a spot check of several stations, I found the audio quality to be comparable to other Internet radio stations. Buffering times varied greatly, even for the same station. And Pulsar was sometimes slow to catch up with displaying the currently-playing song on several occasions (the artist and song listed on the station and in the playback area didn't always match up with each other, for example). Overall, Pulsar's clean, iTunes-like interface was much nicer to work with than the respective services' Web players.
source: macworld.com