New "Hot" Ku-band Satellite Capacity and Advanced VSAT Systems Combine to Lower Costs and Open Opportunities for Satellite Service Providers

Historically, African operators have utilized C-Band satellites to cover the large geographic expanses of the continent. With the recent launch of higher-powered Ku-Band satellites, new opportunities have presented themselves to assist in the development of the Pan-African telecommunication infrastructure. On the horizon in Africa, as a result of several new, very "hot" satellites that have been recently launched are a significant number of service providers providing support for the latest IP-based applications that previously were unaffordable due to high equipment costs.

These new satellites are carrying much more powerful Ku-band transponders with EIRPs measuring from the high 40s to more than 54dBW. Due to the high available satellite powers, the antennas and RF equipment can be substantially smaller than the equivalent C-Band terminals resulting in significant cost savings. With the advent of higher performance VSAT platforms, commissioning and operational costs have tumbled, opening a completely new market for low cost, higher performance telecommunications services. Ku-band equipment is typically just one-third the cost of C-band, so budgets can stretch farther and larger networks are possible.

An excellent example of the new breed of service providers is Sentech Ltd, located in South Africa. Sentech is one of the largest broadcasting distributors in Africa, transmitting programs for customers such as e-TV, the BBC and South Africa’s national public service program provider (SABC) to audiences across Africa.

Recently Sentech secured a multimedia license to provide Internet, e-commerce, broadband and other value-added services across Southern Africa. The company is adding IP-based, broadband satellite networking services to its product offering, expanding into a new role as an Internet access and two-way multimedia provider, and has adopted ViaSat's LinkStar VSAT platform to tap this new customer segment. The initial footprint of the service, on the PAS 7 Ku-band satellite, covers Southern Africa. Like the satellites described previously, PAS 7 offers high-powered Ku-band capacity - up to 54 dBW signal strength - within the borders of South Africa. Typical customer installations need only a 1.2 meter dish with 2-watt block upconverter (BUC) and LNB to ensure high availability and service quality.

"We all know that the Internet is fast-becoming the economic and commercial hub of the world, but the reality of Internet service in South Africa has long been low-speed connections at exorbitant prices," said Marcel Steyn, portfolio manager: product development with Sentech. "We’ve turned that model on its head by using the latest in bi-directional satellite communications technology and taking advantage of the new regulatory framework."

Since almost all the services are IP-based, direct connections to the US or European IP backbones provide high-speed connectivity directly to Tier 1 Internet Service Providers. Internet access and VoIP are the most prevalent services, generating significant revenues to those operators who have invested in VSAT equipment.

Sentech services are called VSTARInternet and VSTARCustom. VSTARInternet fits a variety of budgets, from home users to enterprise users, while VSTARCustom is a premium offering for wide area corporate communications with added security, flexibility, and higher data rates (up to 10 Mbps from the hub to the remote terminal and up to 1Mbps on the return). Customer benefits include 24-hour always on service, fixed monthly pricing no matter the distance covered, no caps on usage, connections that are unaffected by inadequacies in the existing infrastructure, and no threat of cable theft. And connections are quickly implemented as well; Sentech promises installation within 10 days of application approval.

Advanced hub-based VSAT systems like that being used by Sentech provide efficient broadband communications for Internet access, enterprise networking, retail operations, distance learning, and other multimedia applications. LinkStar VSATs are capable of receiving data from a shared, broadcast from the access hub at up to 60 megabit-per-second (Mbit/s), and can transmit back to the hub at speeds up to 3.3 Mbit/s. Dynamic bandwidth allocation increases or decreases data rates on-the-fly for better service and more efficient use of bandwidth. This exclusive feature measures data demands on-the-fly and automatically increases or reduces bandwidth for an optimum balance between throughput and bandwidth use. Other enterprise-level features available in LinkStar include Quality of Service to prioritize network traffic, and a feature called "VLAN Tagging" that enables one hub installation to support several customers at once, each with their own, secure virtual private network.

LinkStar hubs and remote terminals are compliant with the digital video broadcast (DVB) international standard. Since its introduction in September 2001, over 25,000 LinkStar DVB-RCS compatible terminals have been shipped, providing service for more than 80 networks worldwide.

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