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Satellite Executive Briefing 1 June 2013
Industry Trends, News Analysis, Market Intelligence and Opportunities
Vol. 6 No. 6 June 2013
Pay-TV Boom Fueling Demand in Asia-Pacific
by Peter Galace
P redicted to reach US$ 43.9 billion in 2018,
pay TV revenues in Asia-Pacific continue
to fuel demand for broadcast satellite ser-
vices in the region. For this year alone, Digital TV
Research estimates that pay TV revenues will
grow by US$ 2.1 billion to US$ 33.9 billion pav-
ing the way for the region’s fixed service satellite
operators to continue post-
ing significant growth.
Asia’s 3.3 billion mobile
users are also driving de-
mand for cellular backhaul
while about 2 billion Inter-
net-deprived Asians are
looking forward to using
cheaper broadband satellite
Internet. But the industry’s
most important drivers —
high-definition TV conver-
sion, Direct-to-Home
(DTH) television and inter-
continental video transmis-
sions — remain in high growth mode. Multi-year
contracts of satellite operators are enabling the
industry to maintain a dependable revenue stream
reversing the trend in other parts of the world.
Transponder fill rates have remained generally
high with good revenues from transponder leasing
and purchases of satellite equipment by Asian
countries remain buoyant. Even more encourag-
ing, as Asian countries’ continue to post higher
economic growth rates, compared to countries in
other regions, 2013 promises to be another good
year for the Asian satellite industry.
US$ 33.9 B Pay TV Revenues in 2013
Digital TV Asia Pacific report estimates that 2013
pay TV revenues (subscriptions and on-demand)
of US$ 33.9 billion is be-
ginning to be dominated by
China, which has overtaken
Japan as the most lucrative
pay TV market in 2012.
Pay TV revenues will also
more than double in five
countries — Indonesia
(tripling), Pakistan, the
Philippines, Thailand and
Vietnam — between 2012
and 2018, but will fall in
Hong Kong.
While the Asia Pacific re-
gion is undergoing a rapid
digital TV conversion, penetration will increase
from 16 percent in 2008 to 44 percent in 2012 and
on to 90 percent in 2018 — or up by 440 million
homes between 2012 and 2018. By end of this
year, digital penetration will reach 53 percent, or
420 million homes, a rise of 78 million on the
end-2012 figure.
Continued on page 4
What’s Inside From the Editor…...3
The Renaissance of Small Satellites by Dr. J. Pelton……10
Country Profile: Papua New Guinea.16 Company Spotlight: Newsat……...….......20 Mergers & Acquisitions……….24 Products and Services MarketPlace: CommunicAsia …...26 Executive Moves….34 Market Briefs……....38 Conference Report: HTS Roundtable….43 Vital Statistics……..48 Stock Index………...51 Advertisers’ Index...52
Growing demand in Pay TV services, among others is fueling growth in the Asian satellite market.
Satellite Executive Briefing 3 June 2013
EDITORIAL Virgil Labrador Editor-in-Chief [email protected] Elisabeth Tweedie Associate Editor [email protected] Contributing Editors: North America: Robert Bell, Bruce Elbert, Dan Freyer, Lou Zacharilla Latin America: B. H. Schneiderman Europe: Martin Jarrold, London Jan Grøndrup-Vivanco, Paris Roxana Dunnette, Geneva Asia-Pacific: Peter Galace, Manila Tom van der Heyden, Hong Kong Chris Frith, Singapore, Riaz Lamak, India ADVERTISING For Advertising enquiries send an
e-mail to:
Satellite Executive Briefing
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From the Editor
I wish I had coined the term, but the credit for coming up with
the buzzword “High Throughput Satellites” (HTS) goes to
research and consulting firm NSR. HTS refers to satellites that
provide bandwidth in many orders of magnitude than conven-
tional satellites. They can be Ka-, Ku- or other bands, but
mostly it refers to Ka-Band satellites.
The last few years have seen a number of Ka-band satellites launched in
Europe, the Middle East, Africa and most recently Latin America, but not yet
n Asia. This month, on June 24, O3b Networks will be launching the first four
satellites in its all-Ka-band constellation which will have substantial coverage
over Asia. Likewise, Intelsat’s planned hybrid Ku- and Ka-band EPIC system
will also have coverage over Asia, but that won’t come online until 2015.
Asian satellite operators are taking a “wait and see” approach on Ka-band,
after seeing the first commercial Ka-Band satellite in Asia, IPSTAR-1
launched in 2005, struggle in its initial years.
With such a large demand for bandwidth, you would think HTS satellites are a
perfect fit for Asia. But like many things, it’s always not that simple. That’s
why the organizers of the CommunicAsia conference have devoted a part of
the Satellite Summit on various aspects of HTS. I’ll be moderating the panel
discussion on “Reinventing the Satellite Business by Commercializing High
throughput and Ka-Band Satellites” from 2:40-3:40 pm on Tuesday, June 18.
We will have a distinguished panel with representatives from Newtec, Gilat,
iDirect, Viasat, Hughes and Space Systems Loral. We hope to see you there.
Also, if you are attending CommunicAsia, do drop by our booth at Level 3 of
the Marina Sands Expo Center, booth no. C2-07. See you in Singapore!
The HTS Decade
Pradeep Unni
EVP–Marketing and Sales, MEA Thaicom
Omar Trujillo
VP-Africa and Latin America O3b Networks
Felix Damiba,
Managing Director, Africa Asia Broadcast Satellite
Nabil Al Shanti CCO, Arabsat
WEB EXCLUSIVES: View video interviews from SATCOM AFRICA
www.satellitemarkets.com/marketcast Sponsored by
Jerome van der Putt, CCO and Fulvio Sansone, CTO, SatADSL
June 2013 4 Satellite Executive Briefing
Cover Story
Asian Satellite Market ...From page 1
The good news for satellite service pro-
viders is despite the rapid conversion,
digital TV will still have plenty of room
for growth for some time to come. Re-
port author Simon Murray said only six
of the 15 countries forecast in this re-
port will have fully converted to digital
by 2018.
“By then, Indonesia and the Philippines
will have digital penetration of only 42
percent and 34 percent respectively.
Indonesia will still have 29 million ana-
log homes and India 31 million,” he
says.
Of the 440 million digital homes to be
added between 2012 and 2018, 128
million will come from digital terres-
trial TV. However, the report says, the
number of analog terrestrial homes will
fall by 204 million. Digital cable will
contribute a further 187 million addi-
tional homes, with analog cable losing
141 million. Pay DTH will supply an
extra 35 million and pay IPTV 71 mil-
lion more. He predicts pay IPTV sub-
scribers will overtake pay DTH users in
2016.
Murray’s conclusion: Pay TV penetra-
tion will rise from 56 percent in 2012 to
67 percent in 2018, adding 154 million
subscribers to rise to 587 million. China
will provide 313 million pay TV house-
holds by 2018. According to the Tele-
com Regulatory Authority of India,
India alone already had 54.52 million
DTH subscribers as of end of 2012.
However, pay TV penetration will be
higher in South Korea (95 percent) and
Hong Kong (96 percent).
The robust growth of Asia-Pacific Pay
TV is supported by the Media Partners
Asia (MPA) predicting that the number
of subscribers in the region will hit 696
million by 2020, reflecting a penetra-
tion of 68 percent.
Digital Subscribers Soar
The number of digital subscribers is
expected to soar from 257 million in
2012 to 539 million in 2017 and 626
million by 2020—a 90-percent penetra-
tion rate—driven by the digital TV tran-
sitions in China, India, Korea and Tai-
wan. Within the digital base, MPA ex-
pects HD subsribers to rise from just 37
million last year to 160 million by
2020, led by China, India, Japan, Korea,
Australia, Taiwan and Malaysia. Digital
video recording growth is expected to
be slower, rising from 6 million last
year to 18 million, says MPA.
Vivek Couto, the director of MPA, said
of the latest findings: "A steady growth
in population and a young demo-
graphic, combined with a rising middle
class and the spread of wealth among
local groups, is driving strategic deci-
sions and execution in the Asian Pay-
TV industry. These factors, in turn, will
help boost household formation and
consumer spends. This will also help
grow pay-TV consumption and invest-
ment."
Couto notes that investments in local
content, digitization and the growth of
HD, premium and on-demand services
will drive subscriber and revenue gains
in the region.
Enterprise Markets to Post Faster Growth Rates
Richard Roithner of Euroconsult notes
that growth in the enterprise VSAT
market in Asia Pacific stood at around
18 percent per annum over the past 5
years in terms of total sites and around
10 percent p.a. in terms of estimated
service revenue. He said the market has
been strongly driven by more affordable
broadband services (in particular
through iPStar), increasing data demand
from end users, still largely-insufficient
terrestrial network coverage, govern-
ment funds to connect schools or rural
areas (notably in India, Australia and
Thailand), and the banking sector,
which has widely adopted VSATs now.
“Upgrades in many enterprise networks
to more sophisticated services are also
sustaining growth in both revenue and
capacity usage. In addition, a number of
Asian countries see VSAT regulations
improving, which opens the market for
more competition among satellite op-
erators and service providers. The en-
terprise VSAT market has also benefit-
ted from fast growing local economies
in Asia including countries such as
Vietnam, Indonesia, PNG, etc,” Roith-
ner writes.
Research firm NSR shares this view
and forecasts that the Asian and Latin
American markets will see some of the
fastest rates of growth in enterprise
VSAT services and will begin to equal
or exceed in terms of installed base of
VSAT sites more mature markets like
North America. NSR observes that both
regions are experiencing similar de-
mand trends with government social
inclusion, USO, school network and
related projects being big factors in
driving growth in the installed base of
VSAT sites. Also, NSR says Asia and
Latin America are experiencing solid
gains coming from more classic enter-
prise-class segments like banking and
finances, oil and gas, retail and corpo-
rate clients.
Gains in VSAT Services
NSR also notes good gains in two-way
narrowband VSAT services in Asia,
North America and Western Europe,
thanks to ATM and lottery networks
that are well suited to two-way narrow-
band VSAT services. Thus, NSR pre-
dicts the industry should see significant
expansions in ATM and lottery ser-
vices, among other applications, in the
coming 3-4 years that will drive impor-
tant gains in the installed global base of
two-way narrowband sites.
But Roithner cautions that growth dy-
namics remain very country-specific.
“…A steady growth in population and a young demographic, combined with a rising middle class and the spread of wealth among local groups, is driving strategic decisions and execution in the Asian Pay-TV industry…”
June 2013 6 Satellite Executive Briefing
He said there are significant differences
between the countries within Asia Pa-
cific and growth dynamics with most
markets outside of India, Thailand, In-
donesia and Australia remain small, due
to a mix of low awareness, small final
markets, regulatory issues, high band-
width costs as well as occasionally
strong competition from fiber and
GPRS.
India is the largest and one of the fastest
growing markets for corporate and civil
government networks over the last sev-
eral years. With a large number of ser-
vice providers, strong connectivity
needs, and low-cost capacity due to
Insat's control of transponder leases, the
number of terminals in service has
grown to over 160,000 active VSATs in
2012, a large part of which makes use
of the domestic Insat system.
But India could be a problematic mar-
ket, given the unclear investment rules,
corruption, and bribery that remain a
fixture in the Indian business and poli-
tics. Recent telecom investments of big
companies like Vodafone Group Plc. Of
UK, Deutsche Telekom AG of Ger-
many, and Columbia Capital LLC and
Telcom Ventures LLC of U.S. are now
facing stiff legal battles for tax issues or
cancelled contracts in India.
Cellular Backhaul Service Shortfall
Telecommunication applications remain
the largest contributor to market
growth, particularly for trunking, which
currently stands at about 46% of total
capacity usage in the region. And cellu-
lar backhaul is beginning to hog the
market.
According to The Mobile Economy
2013 report released late last year by
the GSM Association and AT Kearney,
there are around 3.3 billion mobile con-
nections in Asia, generating 57 percent
of all new connections between 2008
and 2012. This means that Asia Pacific
will add nearly half of all new connec-
tions between now and 2017, while 22
percent will be from Europe and North
America combined. The region is pro-
jected to grow at 7 percent per annum
Cover Story
S cheduled for launch in the second half of 2013, Spacecom’s AMOS-4 satellite will establish a new orbital position at 65° E, provid-
ing a full range of satellite services for Asia, Russia, the Middle East and other additional service areas. AMOS-4's multiple Ku and Ka transpond-ers create a powerful platform, enabling a wide range of cross-band, cross-beam connectivity options. For their customers, this means exten-sive broadcast and broadband reach into the vast urban and rural areas of these regions. Available satellite services for customers include Direct-To-Home (DTH), video distribution, VSAT communications and broad-band Internet. With its new orbital slot, additional capacity, expanded coverage areas and cross-region connectivity, AMOS-4 positions Spacecom at the fore-front of international satellite operators delivering comprehensive satellite solutions. The AMOS-6 satellite is planned for launch in 2015, to be co-located at the 4° W orbital position with AMOS-3, replacing AMOS-2. It will provide steerable Ku-band beams with Pan-European and Middle East coverage, and a Ka-band beam for broadband services with coverage in Africa and Europe. With the launch of AMOS-4 and AMOS-6 satellites, Spacecom will ex-pand its reach to serve additional markets, including Asia and Russia, strengthening its position as an international satellite operator. Service offering Spacecom provides broadcasting and communications services to DTH operators, TV broadcasters and programmers, government and corporate organizations, and VSAT network operators. The AMOS fleet offers a 4˚ W orbital ”hot-spot” for the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe, and services over Africa from the17° E orbital location. Other value-added services include video, audio and data distribution, broadband Internet via satellite, GSM backhaul, uplink services and end-to-end tailored solutions. Spacecom’s partners include a variety of leading broadcasters and ser-vice providers such as HBO (Central and Eastern Europe), MTV (Ukraine and Adriatic countries), Antenna-Hungaria, HDT and Telespazio (Hungary), U.A. Inter Media Group, IMC and RRT (Ukraine), DRS Tech-nologies (U.S.), Orange France-Telecom (France) and many others.
Satellite Executive Briefing 7 June 2013
between 2012 and 2017, adding 1.4
billion new connections.
Monitoring mobile phone sales, Gartner
says sales of mobile phones in all re-
gions except Asia-Pacific declined in
the first quarter of 2013. Worldwide
mobile phone sales to end users totalled
nearly 426 million units in the first
quarter of 2013, a slight increase of 0.7
percent from the same period last year.
Worldwide smartphone sales totalled
210 million units in the first quarter of
2013, up 42.9 percent from the first
quarter of 2012. But Gartner notes the
Asia-Pacific region was the only region
to show growth in mobile phone sales
this quarter, with a
6.4 percent increase
year-on-year.
What do all these
mobile statistics
mean to satellite
service providers?
The additional strain
of providing ser-
vices to subscribers
across the region in
the backhaul busi-
ness means more
contracts for In-
dosat, iPStar, Asi-
aSat, Measat, Thai-
com and other Asia
regional satellites
being used to support large amounts of
satellite bandwidth capacity in the re-
gion for wireless backhaul.
Mobile Video, Another Huge Market
And there’s more. Asian mobile phone
users, particularly in Southeast Asia and
India, are expecting a big uptick in mo-
bile video consumption, which should
prod regional satellite operators to de-
sign their services correctly to capitalize
on the huge consumer interest on the
service. According to the Cisco Visual
Networking Index, video traffic ac-
counts for 50 percent of total mobile
data and is expected to increase 25-fold
by 2015, to account for two-thirds of
mobile data. This makes live TV and
video on demand the fastest-growing
consumer IP service worldwide, a huge
market waiting to be tapped by Asian
satellite service providers.
In fact, Strategic Analytics (SA) has
already foreseen the shortfall, conclud-
ing that Asia’s mobile industry faces
$5.3 billion backhaul shortfall as opera-
tors across the world will face a mobile
capacity crunch by 2017 due to insuffi-
cient backhaul investments.
The study of SA, commissioned by
Tellabs, observes that operators are
investing in radio network upgrades and
migrating to LTE to meet surging user
demand for mobile data. However,
these operators will still face a new mo-
bile capacity crunch by 2017 because
the operators may not be planning suffi-
cient investment in backhaul to meet
anticipated demand over the next five
years, the study said.
The study predicts that the total
“funding gap” will reach $9.2 billion or
a shortage of about 16 petabytes in
backhaul capacity. SA said global mo-
bile data traffic has increased 13 times
in the last five years. The research firm
predicted that this figure is set to grow
by five to six times by 2017.
According to the study, the Asia Pacific
region will have a shortfall of US$ 5.3
billion and 9.4 petabytes of capacity,
followed by the Middle East Africa at
US$1 billion and 1.8 petabytes of ca-
pacity. Western Europe is also pre-
dicted to have a shortage of $1 billion
and 1.8 petabytes of capacity while
North America is expecting a shortage
of US$ 650 million and 1.2 petabytes of
capacity. The Caribbean and Latin
America region will have a shortage of
$600 million and 1.1 petabytes of ca-
pacity, while Central and Eastern
Europe will have a shortage of US$ 580
million and 1 petabyte in capacity.
Broadband to Drive Demand for Satellite Services
In the meantime, 3.8 million net new
satellite broadband Internet access sub-
scribers are expected globally by 2021.
NSR projects that satellite broadband
access subscribers will
outnumber all other seg-
ments of the broadband
satellite market by 2015.
NSR predicts that the
large majority of sub-
scriber growth will come
from the North America
and Western Europe fol-
lowed by Latin America.
But most of Asia’s 51
countries will also be sali-
vating for a cheaper and
reliable satellite Internet
service, especially in their
unserved and underserved
rural areas.
Today, only 27.5 percent
of Asia’s 4.2 billion people or only
1.155 billion regularly access the Inter-
net, the latest Global Internet Statistics
says. This reflects a wide room for po-
tential customers, especially in rural
Asia, who are looking forward to the
promise of O3b Networks for a cheaper
broadband Internet.
Barring unforeseen events, O3b’s first
four satellites are set to launch on June
24 on a Soyuz launch vehicle operating
from the Arianespace’s Guiana Space
Center. O3b has already signed an esti-
mated US$ 700 million worth of con-
tract before its launch. In addition to
the first batch of four O3b spacecraft to
be launched in June, another Ari-
anespace flight is scheduled to orbit
four more later this year, followed by
an additional four in 2014.
Cover Story
June 2013 8 Satellite Executive Briefing
Asian Operators Fleet Expansion
Asia-based satellite operators are em-
barking on extensive fleet expansion.
Hong Kong-based Asia Broadcast Sat-
ellite will be launching in the second
half of 2013, ABS-2 satellite at 75° E.
ABS will also launch in 2015 two elec-
tric-powered satellites. The two satel-
lites were jointly procured from Boeing
Satellite Systems as part of a four-
satellite deal with Mexican satellite
operator, SATMEX in early 2012. The
joint-procurement was a first of its kind
deal which enable smaller satellite op-
erators like ABS and SATMEX to pool
their resources and get the economies of
scale that previously only larger satel-
lite operators enjoy.
Malaysian satellite operator Measat
launched Africasat-1a in February,
leasing some transponders to Azerbai-
jani operator Azercosmos who will be
marketing the satellite as Azercosmos-
1. It will be launching Measat-3b at
91.5°E in early 2014. Australian opera-
tor Newsat, will be marketing some
transponders on that satellite as Jabiri-2.
Asiasat will be launching Asiasat 6 and
Asiasat 8 in the first half of 2014. Asi-
asat and Thaicom signed a deal in early
2012 to share capacity on Asiasat 6,
which will also be known as Thaicom
7.
Australia’s Newsat plans to launch in
2014 the Jabiru-1 satellite which will
deliver over 7.6 GHz of capacity, pro-
viding high-powered Ka-band coverage
to meet the growing demands from gov-
ernment and enterprise sectors across
the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Fi-
nancing for the satellite from the Export
-Import Bank was completed last March
and announced at the Satellite show in
Washington, D.C.
The large number of satellites coming
on board in the Asia-pacific region in
the next two years has not dissuaded
potential new entrants to the market. In
March 2012, the Bangladesh govern-
ment commissioned the international
consulting firm Space Partnership Inter-
national to do a feasibility study for its
first satellite. The tiny emirate of Qatar
is planning to launch in the next few
years a fleet of six satellites starting
with EshailSat-1 in August this year.
The growing demand and the massive
investments from satellite operators in
the Asia-Pacific region makes it a very
interesting region to watch in the next
few years.
Peter I. Galace is contributing editor for Asia Pacific of Satellite Markets and Research. He writes extensively on telecommunications and satellite developments in Asia for numerous publications and research firms. He can be reached at [email protected]
Cover Story
June 2013 10 Satellite Executive Briefing
T he primary spacecraft for communications, remote
sensing and earth observation, meteorology, naviga-
tion, defense applications, scientific exploration and
human habitation are typically large structures weighing
thousands of kilograms. This is because there are economies
of scale in most high technology devices. And satellites are
no exception.
One can create more efficient batteries and solar arrays than
smaller ones when measured in watts/kilograms. The ratio of
the mass of a payload of spacecraft compared to that of the
“bus” that carries the payload generally increases and be-
comes more efficient as a spacecraft becomes larger. Part of
this economy of scale is achieved because labor costs associ-
ated with designing and testing a spacecraft becomes propor-
tionately less as size increase. A satellite that is four times
larger might only cost a third more money to design, engi-
neer, and test.
There are, however, some important caveats that are of par-
ticular importance to note here. If one opts to use commer-
cial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components rather than space
qualified equipment then the costs can come down sharply.
Also if you are building a small, micro, or cube satellite with
volunteers or students instead of paid professionals, then the
cost of building a small satellite comes down even further.
Today in the case of so-called “cube sats” it is possible to
order kits off the Internet that provide not only the basic
structural elements but many other elements of the satellite
electronics as well. Then if the small satellite is launched on
an experimental flight or as essentially ballast as part of a
much larger mission, then the costs drops even further. The
basic conclusion is that it is hard to compare costs effectively
in today’s satellite markets. One cannot easily stack up large
and sophisticated commercial and defense-related satellites
against various types of small, micro, cubesats, nanosats,
picosats and even femtosats. Each may have their niche in
today’s satellite markets.
About ninety five percent of all the mass represented by all
the spacecraft in Earth orbit can be classified as spacecraft
that is medium to large-scale in size. Nevertheless, the num-
ber of satellites that are classified as cube, micro, nano, pico,
femto, or simply “small” satellites represent a much larger
number when it comes to all the satellites in orbit. A hundred
cube satellites weigh at most a 1000 kilograms, or about a
quarter of one percent of the International Space Station
which weighs about 400 metric tons. Even the Hubble Space
Telescope at 11,000 kilograms or perhaps a large scale tele-
communications satellite weighing 10 metric tons can repre-
sent the equivalent of many thousands of pico-satellites.
One might logically ask: If larger spacecraft are more effi-
cient, why do we see so many of these smaller craft in space?
The answer is actually many different reasons. This is be-
cause the motivations and objectives for different types of
users vary greatly. In addition, new micro-miniaturization
technologies are also making smaller satellites—particularly
within lower orbit constellations—more and more efficient.
The Renaissance of Small Satellites
Feature
by Dr. Joseph Pelton
Different Functional Types and Sizes of Small Satellites1
Size of
Small
Satellite
Telecom
Constell
-ation
Data
Relay
B2B
Ama-
teur
Radio
Remote Sens-
ing & Low
Resolutio Ac-
tive Sensing
Sats receiv-
ing signals
from sen-
sors
Meteoro-
logical
Scien-
tific &
Student
Experi-
ments
Small 100
-1500 Kg
Typical Typical ___ Typical Typical Typical Typical
Micro 10-
99 Kg
Occa-
sional
Typical Typical Occasional Typical Typical Typical
3U Cube
Sat 10-20
Kg
___ Typical Typical Occasional Typical Occa-
sional
Typical
Cubesat 5-10Kg
___ Rare Rare ___ Occasional Occa-
sional
Typical
Nano,
Pico or
Femto-
sats*
___ Occa-
sional
Occa-
sional
___ Occasional Occa-
sional
Typical
* Definitions can vary but a Nano Satellite will typically be in the 1 kg to 10 kg range (also this can be a cubesat.)
A Pico Satellite is in the 100 grams to 1 kilogram range and a FemtoSatellite is in the 10 to 100 gram range.2
Satellite Executive Briefing 11 June 2013
If one can use kits ordered on line, commercial off the shelf
components and volunteer labor, then suddenly these minia-
ture satellites begin to make economic sense as well. When
you have a requirement for a low-earth orbit constellation of
small satellites to accomplish a mission, then again small
satellites can make sense for different reasons as well. The
chart above is from a book entitled Small Satellites and Their
Regulation (2013) that I am writing with Prof. Ram Jakhu of
McGill University. This chart is far from complete but it
seeks to summarize the diversity of “small” satellites and
their increasingly broad range of application. In the last few years we have seen some remarkable new
developments in the small satellite arena that has given new
momentum to the small satellite field and a closely associ-
ated new development in the area of “hosted payloads”. All
of these innovations and more are giving rise to a renais-
sance in the small satellite arena.
Significant new developments have occurred that are of par-
ticular note are as follows.
New Innovations and New Suppliers in the Mini-Satellite Field
Various types of microsats for specialized applications for
commercial or defense-related purposes have been built for a
number of years. Companies such as Surrey Space Tech-
nologies Ltd. (now largely owned by EADS), Orbital Sci-
ences, Sierra Nevada are just some of the companies that
have designed small or mini satellites for some years, but
now other companies such as Alliant (ATK), Lockheed Mar-
tin and Boeing have also entered the picture. Recently Boe-
ing has finished designing and manufacturing a 3 U Cubesat-
sized satellite for the U.S. Air Force for its Operational Re-
sponsive Space (ORS) program developed under its so-
called TACSAT-2 program.
This program was first announced to the U.S. Congress by
the Pentagon in 2007 and has developed rapidly since then.
Especially after the cancellation of the $13 billion T-Sat pro-
gram the U.S. DoD and DARPA have examined the possi-
bility of using smaller and lower cost micro satellites that use
commercial off-the-shelf components to build less costly
satellites. According to the U.S. Department of Defense the
ORS effort had three goals: “First, to rapidly exploit and
infuse space technological or operational innovations; sec-
ond, to rapidly adapt or augment existing space capabilities
when needed to expand operational capability; and third, to
rapidly reconstitute or replenish critical space capabilities to
preserve operational capability.” 3
The bottom line is that very small satellites are no longer
“experimental toys” for university students to learn about
space and satellite design and construction. In short, there
are more and more of these satellites used for a wide range
of purposes. There is now expanded use of these small satel-
lites for defense and commercial purposes. Today, large and
well established satellite manufacturers have begun to design
and build small and micro satellites. This is clearly a major
change in the satellite market over the past few years.
Innovations Related to Satellite Constellations and Hosted Payloads
Another big change in the small satellite arena comes with
the expanded use of hosted payloads. The Cisco designed
Internet Router in Space (IRIS) flew aboard the Intelsat 18 to
start this recent trend but now many dozens of payloads are
being designed to fly. The CHIRP (Commercially Hosted
Infrared Playload) that was designed by the U.S. AirForce
was launched on the SES 2 commercial satellite. From these
successful projects a number of new initiatives have now
sprung. There is now a Hosted Payload Alliance with dozens
of active members.4 Major satellite service providers like
Intelsat, SES, Irid-
ium, among others
now have created
offices to address
the contractual
and technical as-
pects of arranging
for small hosted
payloads to fly in
space.
Some of these
hosted payloads,
such as IRIS and
C H I R P h a v e
flown on geosyn-
chronous plat-
forms, but most
recently there has
been a surge in
interest in putting
ORS 3 U Cube Satellite designed and built by Boe-
ing for the U.S. Military. (image courtesy of Boeing)
Feature
Frastac small satellite constructed at the University of Texas-Austin. (image courtesy, University of Texas,
Austin)
June 2013 12 Satellite Executive Briefing
hosted payloads on low earth orbit satellite constellations.
Iridium LLC, in particular, has formed a joint venture
with NAV Canada5to equip its next generation of mobile
satellites with 50 kilogram packages (drawing some 50
watts and up to 200 watts of peak power) for a aircraft
tracking capability. This joint venture known as Aireon is
thus part of the replacement constellation for the Iridium
global mobile satellite network. The Aireon system will
thus “ride” on this new 66 satellite global airline tracking
system. The stated goal is for the Aireon service to use
space-qualified Automatic Dependent Surveillance-
Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers to provide an unprece-
dented ability to track aircraft on a totally global basis.
The receivers will normally operate at 100 kilobits per
second but will be capable of supporting 1 megabit per
second speeds if required. This joint venture will provide
air navigation service providers (ANSPs) – for the first
time ever – the continuously ability to track aircraft any-
where in the world in near-real time, including over oce-
anic, polar and remote regions.6 In addition Iridium has
now signed an agreement with the Harris Corporation for
selling additional hosted payload services on their gen-
eration NEXT system.7
The hosted payload approach provides economies to
those deploying the small payloads, an additional revenue
stream to the satellite service provider whose systems
host the payload and also serves to reduce space debris.
To many this seems to be a win-win-win result.
Orbital Debris and Small Satellites
This renaissance in small satellites, however, gives rise to
new concerns about orbital debris. In the 1980s Donald
Kessler a researcher for NASA predicted that if orbital
debris continued to accumulate in Earth orbit that in time
the cascade or avalanche effect from debris collision
could eventually build up and ultimately threaten long
term access to space and endanger vital infrastructure. In
the 1980s these concerns were generally dismissed, but
today there are major concerns. Today, there are about
6800 tons of debris in Earth orbit, about 40% of which is
in low earth orbit--especially in sun-synchronous polar
orbit. Efforts to address this issue related to small and
especially micro satellites which have no de-orbit capa-
bility is a key effort now undertaken by the IADC (the
Inter-Agency space Debris Coordinating Committee) and
the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Today there are various designs that include balloons,
inflatables and miniature solar sails to help accelerate
deorbit small satellite debris. The Fastrac satellite de-
signed by NASA and constructed at the University of
Texas-Austin has a 3 kilogram delployable solar sail that
when fully extended creates nearly 100 square feet (about
9 square meters) of “drag space” to help de-orbit a small
satellite.
Feature
June 2013 14 Satellite Executive Briefing
One of the new 3U cube satellites designed by
Surrey Space Technology Ltd. is seeking to test
an active deorbit capability. This satellite known as STRaND-1 flies a mobile phone and can be accessed by amateur radio operators worldwide. This satellite which is about the size of a loaf of bread is deployed within a 3U cube sat platform. The entire “satellite” weighs only 3.5 kilograms.8
One of key features that makes this particular miniature sat so unique is that it contains an active micro-thruster system to assist with de-orbit. This active de-orbit mechanism in a nod to the Star Trek sci-fi series is called
WARP DRIVE. In this instance WARP stands for Water
Alcohol Resisto-jet Propulsion--Deorbit Re-entry Velocity
Experiment. This WARP Drive consists of eight micro-pulse
plasma thrusters. If this experiment proves successful at the
end of life this will be the first miniature satellite with an
active—as opposed to a passive—deorbiting system.9
Others who are concerned with orbital debris and miniature
satellites have encouraged the idea that student experiments
and micro projects that wish to fly in space combine them to
fly on the International Space Station or other platforms that
might be available in the future. NanoRacks currently is the
prime opportunity available for this purpose. Organizations
such as the National Center for Earth and Space Science
Education and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Edu-
cation currently help students in secondary schools in North
America and Europe to compete for the chance for their ex-
periments to fly in space. Today thousands of students are
developing competing projects and literally scores of the
winning experiments have flown to space for actual tests.
But in these instances the experiments are brought back to
Earth on return flights rather than becoming space debris.
The Small Satellite Renaissance
Clearly there is a flurry of activity in the small satellite arena
and many things are driving this new renaissance forward.
There are new economic incentives at work. These include
Internet-based and easy to order kits, the proven ability to
use commercial off the shelf components, greater opportu-
nity to access launch services, widened university support,
greater participation by all types of aerospace corporations,
and even innovations provided by such entities as
NanoRacks as well as new ways to provide passive and pos-
sibly even active de-orbit capabilities for small satellites.
Despite these innovation the great bulk of satellites, as calcu-
lated by net mass launched into orbit, will remain medium to
large scale satellites and spacecraft. Everyone who is en-
gaged in space activities would do well to follow the current
renaissance in small satellites. This is because innovations in
the field may well have carry over value to their areas of
interest and application.
Finally everyone needs to be aware that the orbital debris
problem continues to mount in importance even with new
guidelines in effect to mitigate the creation of new debris.
————————–————————
Notes:
1Ram Jakhu and Joseph N. Pelton, Small Satellites and Their Regu-lation, (2013) Springer Press, NY. Publication pending. 2Definition of Miniature and Small Satellites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniaturized_satellite 3“Small is Beautiful: US Military Explores Use of Microsatellites, De-fense Industry Daily (June 30, 2011) http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Small-Is-Beautiful-US-Military-Explores-Use-of-Microsatellites-06720/ 4Hosted Payload Association http://www.hostedpayloadalliance.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home 5Nav Canada http://www.navcanada.ca/
6http://www.iridium.com/About/IridiumNEXT/HostedPayloads.aspx
7“Iridium + Harris… A Next Step” Satnews, May 6, 2013 www.satnewscom/story.php?number=1552611158
8“Smartphone satellite “STRaND-1 Operational in Orbit” SSTL News, March 7, 2013 http://www.sstl.co.uk/News-and-Events?story=2132
9WARP DRIVE to be tested on Surrey Space Technology Ltd. STRaND-1 nano satellite http://www.sstl.co.uk/Missions/STRaND-1--Launched-2013/STRaND-1/STRaND-1-FAQs
Feature
Dr. Joseph N. Pelton is the award win-ning author or editor of over 30 books and over 300 articles in the field of space sys-tems. He is Director Emeritus, Space & Advanced Communications Research Institute (SACRI) George Washington University. He is a founder of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation and remains as the
Vice Chairman of its Board of Directors. Dr. Pelton was also the Founding President of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI). Dr. Pelton was elected to full membership in the International Acad-emy of Astronautics in 1998 and was awarded in 2000 the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for lifetime achievement. He can be reached at [email protected]
“...Everyone who is engaged in space activities would do well to follow the current renaissance in small satellites. This is because innovations in the field may well have carry over value to their areas of interest and application. …”
June 2013 16 Satellite Executive Briefing
Papua New Guinea
Country Profile
by Chris Frith
D igicel’s recent purchase of
Papua New Guinea’s (PNG)
largest VSAT provider Rem-
ington Communications is just a part of
a telecommunications landscape in
PNG that is rapidly evolving. This arti-
cle takes a look at some of the driving
forces behind these changes.
PNG is an independent state, about the
size of California located 160 kilome-
tres north of Queensland, Australia. It
lies on the eastern half of the island of
New Guinea, with the Indonesian prov-
ince of West Papua sharing the other
half. One of the key features of PNG is
its mountainous terrain, covered with
dense tropical rainforest, descending
into rolling foothills along the coast –
making it ideal satellite country!
Steep Growth in GDP Predicted
PNG earns the bulk of its
income from copper, gold
and oil extraction. As a
nation it is richly endowed
with natural resources in-
cluding vast liquefied natu-
ral gas (LNG) reserves. De-
spite this, agriculture pro-
vides a subsistence liveli-
hood for 85% of its 6.4 mil-
lion people as exploitation
of its natural resources has
proved problematic. Not
surprisingly the country
eagerly awaits completion in
2014 of the LNG production
facility near capital Port
Moresby, which is expected
to double PNG’s Gross Do-
mestic Product.
Mobile Phone Market Heating Up
Irish mobile operator Digicel has been
the driving force in increasing mobile
penetration in PNG from 160,000 when
it arrived to 1.8 million today. Digicel’s
aggressive branding and blanket distri-
bution has left incumbent Telikom
(Citifone) and BeMobile in its wake; a
situation
that may
change
for Be-
Mobile
at least,
with the
recent
signing
of a
manage-
ment deal with Vodafone Fiji.
Internet Penetration Gains Confined to Major Centers
The benefits of telecommunication de-
regulation have been a bit longer in
coming for PNG’s Internet subscribers.
Unfortunately, Internet access is still
unaffordable for many in a country
where wages are relatively modest.
Telikom recently attempted to shift the
blame for high Internet charges onto
ISPs with an announcement that it had
slashed its wholesale content charges.
The jury is still out however, as to
whether it was a miscalculation or a
cynical publicity exercise on Telikom’s
part, as it would be very difficult for all
but the largest ISPs (Telikom and
Datec) to ever realise the announced
price points.
Fortunately a number of ISPs such as
Daltron are now using satellite to trunk
content from offshore. This combined
with their own wireless local loop net-
works has enabled them to
offer unlimited data plans at
least in the major centers of
Port Moresby and Lae.
Satellite Market
The PNG satellite market is
dominated by services deliv-
ered via Australian based
VSAT hubs utilising Ku-
band capacity. Unfortu-
nately, this is not without its
downsides. On the one
hand, Ku-band services have
greatly increased penetration
by providing a lower entry
and ongoing service
charges. The problem how-
ever is that Ku-band is not
well suited to the tropical
conditions of PNG with
comments such as “the ser-
vice drops out the minute
there’s any rainfall” being a common
complaint.
A more subtle issue arises for those
customers seeking to use VSAT for
office-to-office communications, say to
their headquarters in PNG. Service
providers without local hubs often use a
second link as their backhaul to over-
come the high costs of terrestrial access.
Papua New Guinea Population: 6,431,902 Land Area: 462,840 sq km Mobile phones: 2.4 million Internet Users: 125,000
Villagers celebrating the installation of a satellite dish for a local radio station. (image courtesy of radioheritage.net)
Satellite Executive Briefing 17 June 2013
Country Profile
This double-hop and associated proc-
essing delays increase network latency,
sometimes to over 2 seconds rendering
older style corporate applications al-
most unusable.
Going Forward
The demand outlook for satellite in
PNG remains strong. The physical ter-
rain means that satellite will often re-
main the only viable choice. At the
same time increasing mobile phone and
internet penetration rates will fuel de-
mand to be connected at work as well
as home.
At the same time, the O’Neill govern-
ment’s announcement shortly after tak-
ing office in 2012, of upgrading PNG’s
telecommunications backbone gives
hope that the need for PNG to ‘get-
connected’ has been recognised. Ide-
ally this will also include nation-wide e-
enablement programs for government
agencies, which will deliver economies
of scale to the government in place of
the boom-bust project cycle, where pro-
jects fail due to lack of recurrent fund-
ing.
The supply side is less straight forward.
Digicel will likely continue its evolu-
tion towards becoming a full service
carrier. This view is supported by its
purchase of ICT company Data Nets
and more recently Remington’s VSAT
business. Already a major user of satel-
lite in support of its cellular network
(recently entering into agreements with
SES and O3b), Digicel’s purchase of
PNG’s largest VSAT provider’s opera-
tions marks a major thrust into satellite
service provision.
Less well known is Hong Kong pro-
vider Speedcast’s emergence as a major
force within the PNG satellite market.
Unlike Digicel, Speedcast operates
through its wholesale partners com-
mencing with its investment in an
iDirect hub in PNG with partner Oce-
anic Broadband. Since that time it has
gone on to acquire two Australian-
based service providers - Australian
Satellite Communications (supplier to
Daltron) and Pactel International
(supplier to Remington and others).
A combination of increasing demand,
rise of services that are a better fit for
PNG conditions bodes well for a strong
satellite market in PNG. One thing for
sure is that the battle for satellite cus-
tomers is only just getting started.
That’s got to be good news for enabling
a country with much potential.
Chris Frith is the founder and CEO of SatCHOICE, a new, global online marketplace that matches satellite communications suppliers with purchase-ready buyers. He can be reached at [email protected]
Satellite Executive Briefing 19 June 2013
The Satellite-Eye View of the Broadcast Booth
Opinion
by Robert Bell
W hen a satellite professional attends the National
Association of Broadcasters convention in Las
Vegas, it immediately becomes clear what a small
part of the media & entertainment economy we are. Our
combined booth space takes up one quarter of the Upper
South Hall and the parking lot between South and Central
Halls. Meanwhile, vast tracts of carpeted concrete are de-
voted to cameras, editing systems, animation software, pro-
duction workflow, power systems, cables – you name it.
I serve on the Advisory Board for NAB’s educational pro-
gram. For the past few years, I have made the case repeat-
edly that “distribution drives decisions” – that is, that evolu-
tion in distribution technologies plays a big role in driving
business models, and our industry knows more about how
that evolution is progressing than about anybody else. But
the volume of educational content on distribution remains
slim while sexier topics suck up most of the oxygen. No
surprise there.
Two years ago, we decided to do something about it and
launched our Executive Dialogue series. In a booth at NAB,
we interview thought leaders in the complex world of satel-
lite-terrestrial video distribution to see how that year looks to
them. At NAB 2013, we completed more than 20 inter-
views with executives from Bill Tillson and Ed Horowitz of
Encompass Digital Media to Jose Sanchez of Eutelsat. You
can watch the interviews at WTA’s Web site
(www.worldteleport.org): look for the link at the top of the
page for “WTA Executive Dialogue Series @ NAB 2013.”
Hot Topics
What did our executives tell us about the distribution world
in 2013?
Multi-screen is fantastic. To a man (and woman), execu-
tives saw nothing but good news in the accelerating adoption
of multi-screen viewing of video content. By boosting over-
all demand for content, it drives more widespread distribu-
tion overall, and is particularly a sweet spot for ground-based
service providers that provide program origination. Media
and entertainment companies turn to them for the complex
automated reformatting and playout required to serve multi-
ple devices and standards.
4K will be fantastic – if it ever gets here. There is consid-
erable difference of opinion about the future of 4K or Ul-
traHD. Everyone who carries signals for a living thinks it
would be terrific to see bandwidth demand quadruple –
though everyone knows that advances in compression will
carve demand growth back to something more reasonable.
The question is whether 4K follows the adoption curve of
HDTV or the adoption curve of 3DTV, which vanished with-
out a trace between NAB 2011 and 2013. I hope that it will
be the HDTV curve, but one of our interviewees had a differ-
ent view: “I have heard that it is called 4K because that is the
year when the technology will finally be adopted.”
The competitiveness of satellite is on everyone’s mind. We asked all of our executives to forecast if satellite would
remain a vibrant competitor for video distribution. The
answers were revealing. Everyone is feeling the competitive
pressure to lower the cost-per-bit for users as IP-based video
distribution expands at exponential speed and viewers accept
the lower resolutions that result. “Satellite has to become
more competitive” was the mantra, spoken equally by satel-
lite operator executives and those who buy their bandwidth.
That said, nearly everyone felt the goal was within reach and
they offered multiple suggestions for getting there.
Think evolution, not revolution. Ed Horowitz, a member
of our Hall of Fame for earlier achievements and now co-
CEO of Encompass, had the best comment of the series.
“We like to think we live in a world of revolution, but it is a
world of evolution. Three years from now we don’t be say-
ing ‘Oh God, I should have thought of that brilliant innova-
tion’ but ‘Oh God, it took so much longer than I thought.’
To view videos of the WTA Executive Dialogue Se-ries from the NAB 2013 go to:
www.worldteleport.org/?page=IDS_NAB_2012
Robert Bell is Executive Director of
the World Teleport Association, which
represents the world's most innova-
tive teleport operators, carriers and
technology providers in 20 nations.
He can be reached at:
June 2013 20 Satellite Executive Briefing
Company Spotlight
A ll systems are go for NewSat
satellite program to deliver
high-powered global coverage
for high demand markets such as gov-
ernment, resources, media and carrier-
grade telecommunications across high
demand regions of Africa, the Middle
East and Asia using cutting-edge Ka-
and Ku-band technology.
In March this year, the Australia-based
NewSat an-
nounced at a
press confer-
ence during
SATELLITE
2013 in Wash-
ington, DC that
the company
had secured the
US$ 611 mil-
lion funding
from US Ex-Im
Bank, CO-
FACE, and
other institu-
tional global
investors. The
US Ex-Im Bank
was the major
contributor with
a direct loan of
US$291 mil-
lion, the first for
an Australian satellite project. Last
year, Ex-Im Bank authorized more than
US$3.1 billion in financing for US ex-
ports to Australia, its number one mar-
ket in the world.
Making NewSat’s satellite program
unique is its decision to utilize state-of-
the-art Ka- band technology to deliver
high-powered coverage enabling higher
bandwidths and speeds. Combined with
more efficient client infrastructure, such
as smaller end-user antennas and more
effective terminal equipment, NewSat’s
birds are expected to provide a better
solution when supporting large band-
width applications. NewSat stated their
satellites will provide “raw” Ka-band
capacity, not managed services, and
will provide “new” capacity to high
demand regions.
With C-band heavily congested and
very high levels of capacity utilization
at Ku-band, the satellite industry is ex-
panding into the next satellite frequency
band for satellite capacity, Ka- band.
NewSat’s Ka-band Jabiru-1 satellite
will feature a range of regional, steer-
able and spot beams providing, flexible
payloads to meet evolving customer
demands.
Jabiru Satellite Program: Australia’s Space Quest
NewSat’s Jabiru Satellite Program will
launch a fleet of next generation geosta-
tionary satellites starting with Jabiru-1
to be launched in 2015. With Ka-band
technology, flexible payloads and ex-
tensive teleport operator experience, the
Jabiru Satellite Program will deliver
high performance satellite capacity to
lead Australia’s space quest.
Jabiru-1, Australia’s first commercial
Ka-band satellite, is currently being
built by Lockheed Martin and a prelimi-
nary design review has recently been
completed.
Jabiru-1 has
been designed
to provide
customers
flexibility in
configuring
their own net-
works through
a combination
of “raw’ ca-
pacity and
regional,
steerable and
spot beams.
NewSat be-
lieves a satel-
lite as large as
Jabiru-1 can
take some
time to build,
but once com-
pleted, will provide enormous benefits
throughout its on-orbit life. NewSat’s
Jabiru-1 satellite will supply 7.6 GHz
satellite capacity and will cater to high
demand regions across the Middle East,
Africa and Asia. Jabiru-1 will deliver
“new” and “raw” capacity to govern-
ments, enterprise and carrier-grade tele-
communications users.
NewSat expects its first satellite to gen-
erate in excess of US$3 billion in reve-
nue over 15 years at 85% margins and
expects to have a significant percent of
by Peter Galace
NewSat Focuses on Ka-Band to Deliver Flexible Service
NewSat Founder and CEO Adrian Ballantine at the press conference held at SATELLITE 2013 announcing their securing a US$ 611 mil. funding from the US Ex-Im Bank and other sources. On his right is Fred P. Hochberg, Chairman of the US Ex-Im Bank and on his left is Linda Reiners, President Commercial Ventures, Lockheed Martin.
Satellite Executive Briefing 21 June 2013
transponder ca-
pacity presold
before Jabiru-1 is
launched.
Cellular back-
haul, enterprise
networking, large
data file transfer,
mobility applica-
tions and video
applications are
some of the di-
verse range of
applications that
will be provided
throughout the
life of the Jabiru-
1 satellite, thanks
to its broad cov-
erage beams and
flexible design.
Jabiru-1 has been
specifically cre-
ated to address
the requirements
of enterprise, government and telecom-
munication industries, as opposed to
most current Ka-band satellites that are
prepared for managed service solutions.
Jabiru-1 will be the realisation of the
company’s long term vision to become
a global satellite operator. To help the
company achieve this, NewSat cur-
rently has the rights to eight premium
orbital slots for its fleet of next genera-
tion satellites.
Jabiru-2 will provide highly targeted Ku
-band coverage in and around Australia.
Jabiru-2’s 216 MHz capacity is ex-
pected to meet the growing demand for
high bandwidth connectivity from the
resources and government sectors
across Australia, Timor Leste and
Papua New Guinea and is aimed at sat-
isfying the growing demand for reliable
and cost-effective communications.
These high intensity “hot zones” will
provide the resource sector with more
efficient solutions to support large
bandwidth applications, employee pro-
ductivity and operational efficiency.
NewSat’s Teleport Advantage
NewSat prides itself as the largest inde-
pendent satellite communications pro-
vider in Australia with its teleports,
VSAT’s and satellite services providing
coverage to 75% of the Earth’s surface.
NewSat Founder and CEO Adrian
Ballintine listed the Company on the
ASX in 1999 and since then NewSat
has grown from a ‘solutions provider’
into a ‘teleport operator’, and through
the Jabiru Satellite Program, NewSat
will become a global “satellite opera-
tor”.
To be given credit for NewSat’s trans-
formation into one of Australia’s lead-
ing satellite companies is Ballintine.
His 30+ years of global technology ex-
perience, with extensive knowledge of
the satellite industry saw NewSat ac-
quire the Australian teleport assets in
2005 from Dutch-based Newskies Sat-
ellites in Perth (Western Australia) and
Adelaide (South Australia), building a
successful pure-play satellite communi-
cations company. Ballintine was instru-
mental in NewSat’s acquisition of eight
orbital slots, which will serve as a plat-
form for the company’s strategic
growth and will lead Australia’s space
quest.
With a number of planned satellites,
NewSat sees itself providing global
coverage across its multiple satellites
interconnected by an extensive global
ground network, delivering superior
coverage for global customers within
the government and enterprise markets.
NewSat’s focus on high performance
Ka-band technology will ensure rapidly
growing demands for large bandwidth
and flexible capacity can be met to sup-
port critical and creative end-user appli-
cations.
Company Spotlight
NewSat started as a teleport and continues to leverage its strength as a “solutions pro-vider.” With the launch of its Jabiru Satellite System, it is now transitioning from being a “teleport operator” to a global “satellite operator.”
June 2013 22 Satellite Executive Briefing
Market Intelligence
Networking Towards a High Throughput
Maritime Space
T he GVF’s Maritime Insights/
Broadband Maritime Confer-
ence Series – like its Oil & Gas
Communications Conference Series –
takes, as the name suggests, a wholly
vertical market-specific view of broad-
band communications, and as well as
the total of 17 Oil & Gas Communica-
tions Series
events held
around the
world since
2006, the
GVF-EMP
Partnership
is about to
engage on
delivering
the 9th con-
ference
program in
its global
Broadband
Maritime
Series,
which was
established
at around
the same
time.
Now in-
creasingly
featured in
the confer-
ence programs for both the oil & gas
and maritime conferences are dialogs
which reflect the specific impact on
broadband communications networking
in these verticals of the wider and gen-
eral trend towards high capacity satel-
lite communications delivery over high
throughput satellite (HTS) systems for
millions of varied corporate, enterprise,
and consumer users at CAPEX and
OPEX rates that are transforming the
broadband value proposition from both
geosynchronous (GEO) and medium
Earth orbit (MEO) positioning.
As noted in my column in April, the
connection between the Partnership’s
vertical market-specific conference Se-
ries, and the GVF’s HTS Roundtable
Series – which has only recently seen
the conclusion of its latest event in
Washington DC – is established in the
context of this new HTS technology
and service paradigm, within which, for
example, maritime operators are today
implementing innovative high capacity
satellite-wireless hybrid architectures to
reduce costs and improve performance
for their customers on the high-seas.
The Washington DC HTS Roundtable
event, held on 21-22 May, is reviewed
on page 41 in this edition by Bruce El-
bert, and I will not duplicate his cover-
age. Instead I will limit my focus here
to GVF’s London’s 25-26 June event –
Maritime Insights Europe 2013: GVF
Broadband Maritime Offshore &
Oceanic ~ Networking towards a high
throughput space.
The seas and oceans of the world are
vital for resource exploitation, for trade,
and for leisure. Though hostile com-
pared with most of the land masses,
their vital, and increasing, importance
as a means of
transport for
our globalized
trade goods, as
an important
source of food
supplies and
of vital energy
resources, as
well as an
environment
for our enter-
tainment pur-
suits, is not
diminished.
Our ability to
communicate
effectively
whilst on even
the remotest
parts of its
surface is
paramount,
and now goes
beyond only
or simply the
means to im-
prove the safety of seafarers and their
vessels – the key consideration associ-
ated with the first maritime satellite
communications networks - and natu-
rally of continuing utmost importance.
Yet, for many years the technology and
services enabling communication at sea
was expensive. The practical use of
relatively high-cost, and limited, band-
width has been of quite restricted appli-
cation, and certainly not ideally suited
to the facilitation of vessel-at-sea inte-
gration with corporate networks so that
vessels effectively become functional
by Martin Jarrold
Satellite Executive Briefing 23 June 2013
remote offices, with satellite communi-
cations infrastructures and applications
being extended to allow the extension
of the ship’s captain’s role to that re-
mote office manager. This extension of
access to the rest of ships’ crew has also
allowed personnel to both extend their
maritime training, and use the advan-
tages of the Internet and Social Media
to remain in contact with home.
However, now, the satellite communi-
cations industry continues to accelerate
its transition to new technology deploy-
ments and service delivery models,
wherein a broader range of segments of
the maritime industry are able to lever-
age the advantages of very small aper-
ture-based (VSAT-based) communica-
tions, beyond the traditional usage of
demand assigned, pay-per-megabyte,
services in the L-band of Mobile Satel-
lite Service (MSS).
The maritime communications environ-
ment will continue to progress from its
former wholly narrowband communica-
tions axis, into the broadband age, em-
ploying stabilized antenna systems to
access Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) in
the C, Ku, and increasingly, Ka bands
of the satellite frequency spectrum, as
well as – as noted above – tracking an-
tenna systems to access the very soon to
be launched satellite constellation oper-
ating in MEO, i.e., O3b.
Early maritime VSAT, i.e, high-cost
Single Channel per Carrier (SCPC)
technology (requiring dedicated band-
width for each vessel), actually made
VSAT more expensive than L-Band,
but with Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA) VSAT networks, the horizon
for maritime satellite communications
has changed completely. TDMA offers
service comparable to SCPC networks
but by sharing and segmenting band-
width across vessels, high speed, al-
ways-on, flat-rate VSAT, is a now
wholly-realized practical reality for the
broad sweep of the maritime industry.
According to the 3rd Edition of the
COMSYS Maritime VSAT Report (www.comsys.co.uk), the size and
scope of the maritime VSAT market
can be characterized as near-1.2 million
vessels of all types that could theoreti-
cally be connected by satellite services.
Subtracting the small yacht market, the
almost 150,000 vessels which remain
represent the core opportunity of which
over 25% are actual or near-term poten-
tial customers for VSAT companies.
Concomitantly, the number of operators
deploying stabilized antenna systems
has risen from a handful of very spe-
cialized companies to more than 140
service providers across the world posi-
tioned to provide some form of VSAT
service to the maritime sector.
The broad scope of this latest Maritime
Insights conference from GVF-EMP
includes the following segments of the
maritime transport market: the Mer-
chant segment, the Passenger segment,
the Ocean Resource segment, and the
Leisure segment. For the purposes of
this conference these segments, and the
satellite-based communications applica-
tions requirements associated with
them, are defined as follows.
The Merchant segment includes tank-
ers for crude oil, its refined derivatives,
as well as LNG; container vessels; bulk
carriers; oil & gas field maintenance &
supply vessels; and cable/fiber/pipeline
laying vessels. High demand communi-
cations applications in this segment
include: remote Internet & corporate
intranet access; email & webmail, large
file transfers; SMS text & instant mes-
saging; video conferencing; store &
forward video; real-time navigation &
weather updates; Global Maritime Dis-
tress Safety System (GMDSS); crew
welfare communications; corporate
secure communications; vessel & en-
gine telemetry; cargo monitoring &
telemetry; and, telemedicine.
The Passenger segment principally
refers to point-to-
point vehicle &
passenger ferries
and shares many of
the above listed
applications, plus
that of cellular/
mobile backhaul and trunking.
The Ocean Resource segment – which
includes inshore fishing trawlers, and
their offshore and deep-water equiva-
lents and factory ships, as well as deep-
water floating and semi-submersible oil
& gas platforms – typically features
applications such as telephony; email &
Internet access; crew welfare communi-
cations; telemedicine; real-time naviga-
tion, position reporting & weather up-
dates; GMDSS; sea/ocean floor depth
mapping; market information (e.g. fish
market price downloads & selling catch
online); tracking applications (e.g. fish
finding); updating electronic logs.
The Leisure segment – covering ocean-
going cruise liners, ocean-going private
leisure craft, and inshore leisure craft –
communications requirement includes
such key applications as: maintenance
of 24/7 business communications via
telephony, email, fax, Internet, cellular
backhaul and trunking, and video con-
ferencing, as well as credit card verifi-
cation and ATM support, plus real-time
weather & navigation updates,
GMDSS, and ship-to-shore advance
repairs booking & supplies orders.
For more information please contact the
Series organizers’. Their contact details
are, wi th GVF , me at mar-
[email protected], and with EMP,
Paul Stahl at paul.stahl@uk-
emp.co.uk
The event website is at www.uk-
emp.co.uk/emp-home/current-events/
broadband-maritime-europe-2013/.
Martin Jarrold is Chief of International Program Development of the GVF. He can be reached at [email protected]
Market Intelligence
June 2013 24 Satellite Executive Briefing
Mergers and Acquisitions
Sydney, Australia, May 9, 2013--
Mobile satellite communications com-
pany Inmarsat has acquired TC Com-
munications Pty Ltd. based in Australia.
Inmarsat will integrate the company
into its existing operations with a
particular focus on supporting its
expanding Global Government
and Enterprise Business Units,
according to a company state-
ment.
TC Communications is a satellite
communications specialist com-
pany that builds primarily mo-
bile, deployable satellite commu-
nications systems for military and
government customers as well as
media, mining, oil and gas and aid
agencies. Todd McDonell, CEO
of TC Communications will join
Inmarsat as Vice President of
Global Government Solutions. His new
role will cover sales and operations of
the direct arm of Inmarsat’s Global
Government business in Australia, Can-
ada, New Zealand and the Netherlands.
Andy Start, President, Inmarsat Global
Government said: “The strategic ration-
ale is compelling. The acquisition of TC
Communications brings strong VSAT,
Wideband Global Satcom system, avia-
tion and solutions skills to Inmarsat’s
Global Government and Enterprise
Business Units. These skills are particu-
larly important to drive the take-up of
Global Xpress® in the enterprise and
government markets following the
launch of the first satellite later this
year."
“We see this acquisition as a very natu-
ral growth strategy for TC Com-
munications. Inmarsat brings the
financial capital and reach to be
able to fully exploit the solutions
and expertise that TC has built up
over the past twenty years in the
satellite industry. This move will
enable us to share and replicate our
successful, multipronged model
with Inmarsat providers throughout
the region so as to assist the entire
market to aggressively pursue In-
marsat’s growth objectives,” said
McDonnell.
In 2012, TC Communications had
24 employees. The acquisition will
increase Inmarsat’s team in Australia to
65 people based in Sydney, Perth and
Canberra.
Middletown, RI, May 13, 2013 – KVH
Industries, Inc. announced that it has
acquired Headland Media Limited, a
UK-based media and entertainment
services company. Headland Media is
a provider of commercially licensed
news, sports, movies, and music content
that they sell in the maritime, hotel, and
retail markets.
“The acquisition of Headland Media
supports our strategic vision of extend-
ing our maritime broadband service to
also include delivering premium con-
tent to vessels,” said Martin Kits van
Heyningen, KVH’s chief executive offi-
cer. “We’ve captured a leading market
share in the maritime VSAT market for
one-to-one connectivity, and are now
rolling out a new, highly efficient, low-
cost multicasting capability that we
believe will create significant growth
opportunities for Headland Media’s
content by eliminating the time and cost
of physically delivering DVDs to ves-
sels. For KVH’s mini-VSAT Broad-
band service, Headland Media’s pre-
mium content offers us a great opportu-
nity to create exciting new services that
will help our customers keep their
crews happy, and in the process help us
differentiate our service and increase
our ARPUs,” van Heyningen added.
Headland Media has 115 employees,
and offices in the UK, Europe, the
United States, India and the Philippines.
Headland Media has established rela-
tionships with content providers and a
customer base of 9,600 vessels, 1,700
hotels, and 1,700 retail outlets receiving
their various services.
In 2012, Headland Media generated
revenue of $12.2 million, of which ap-
proximately 85% was derived from
annual subscription-based services.
During that same period, the gross
profit margin was almost 78%.
Headland Media provides television
shows, premium movies, sports, news
channels, and music for exhibition in
commercial locations, which include
ships at sea. KVH’s capabilities to mul-
ticast data in the background during
network idle times, and cache, manage,
and distribute data onboard vessels us-
ing its Integrated CommBox Modem
(ICM) will serve as key enabling tech-
nology for Headland Media’s services.
Headland Media’s broad content range,
which KVH intends to deliver over the
mini-VSAT Broadband network, will
also enable KVH to bring Internet Pro-
tocol television (IPTV) technology to
the maritime market.
The US$ 24.0 million transaction is
anticipated to be accretive to KVH
earnings per share in 2013. The com-
pany financed the transaction from its
cash on hand and proceeds from its ex-
isting credit facility.
KVH Buys Headland Media
Inmarsat Acquires TC Communications
Inmarsat global headquarters in London.
June 2013 26 Satellite Executive Briefing
Products and Services MarketProducts and Services MarketProducts and Services MarketPlacePlacePlace
A guide to key products and services showcased at CommunicAsia 2013 in Singapore from June 18-21, 2013.
Advantech Wireless Booth no. 1U1-07 www.advantechwireless.com
At CommunicAsia, Advan-
tech Wireless will be show-
casing its ew Sapphire Series
of UltraLinearTM GaN based
SSPAs and BUCs with unmatched performance surpassing
all technologies available on the market – the ultimate Solu-
tion for Direct to Home TV. Featuring high power density in
a compact, rugged and weatherproof package, the New Sap-
phire Class of UltraLinearTM GaN technology based solid
state power amplifiers (SSPAs) and BUCs, exceed all barri-
ers between Klystrons, TWTs and SSPAs.
•Low energy consumption, High Efficiency
•UltraLinearTM High Power
•High reliability
•Able to cover simultaneously all transponders of a specific
satellite, regular or extended bands.
The considerable reduction in
size, weight, and energy con-
sumption achieved with the
New UltraLinearTM GaN
based SSPAs and BUCs from
Advantech Wireless makes
this new architecture the ulti-
mate Solution for Direct to
Home TV. Over the past 6
years, Advantech Wireless has
developed a full line of GaN
based SSPAs and BUCs/
SSPBs. The New Sapphire Series of UltraLinearTM GaN
based amplifiers can cover multiple transponders, full DVB-
S2 enabled and can save 8 to 15 dB power compared to in-
door Klystrons or linearized TWTs. Combined with our high
performance line of Satcom Antennas, these new systems
are the only worldwide solution able to offer the maximum
use of satellite bandwidth and power.
Amos Spacecom Booth no. 1V3-01/ 1E2-01 www.amos-spacecom.com
Scheduled for launch in the
second half of 2013, Space-
com’s AMOS-4 satellite
will establish a new orbital
position at 65° E, providing
a full range of satellite services for Asia, Russia, the Middle
East and other additional service areas. AMOS-4's multiple
Ku and Ka transponders create a powerful platform, ena-
bling a wide range of cross-band, cross-beam connectivity
options. For their customers, this means extensive broadcast
and broadband reach into the vast urban and rural areas of
these regions. Available satellite services for customers in-
clude Direct-To-Home (DTH), video distribution, VSAT
communications and broadband Internet.
With its new orbital slot, additional capacity, expanded cov-
erage areas and cross-region connectivity, AMOS-4 posi-
tions Spacecom at the forefront of international satellite
operators delivering comprehensive satellite solutions.
The AMOS-6 satellite is planned for launch in 2015, to be
co-located at the 4° W orbital position with AMOS-3, re-
placing AMOS-2. It will provide steerable Ku-band beams
with Pan-European and Middle East coverage, and a Ka-
band beam for broadband services with coverage in Africa
and Europe.
With the launch of AMOS-4 and AMOS-6 satellites, Space-
com will expand its reach to serve additional markets, in-
cluding Asia and Russia, strengthening its position as an
international satellite operator.
APT Satellite Company Ltd Booth no. 1N2-01 www.apstar.com
APT Satellite (listed company in The Stock Exchange of
Hong Kong Limited, Stock Code:
1045) was founded and commenced
its operation in 1992. APT Satellite
currently owns and operates AP-
STAR in-orbit satellites covering
regions in Asia, Australia, Europe,
Africa and the Pacific—accounting for 75% of the world’s
population, and provides excellent quality “one-stop-shop”
transponder, satellite telecommunications and satellite TV
broadcasting and transmission services to broadcasting and
telecommunication customers.
Asia Broadcast Satellite Booth no. 1R3-01 www.absatellite.com
Asia Broadcast Satellite is one of the fastest growing pre-
mium satellite operators in the world. ABS operates 4 satel-
lites (ABS-1, ABS-1A, ABS-3 and ABS-7) from 3 premium
Satellite Executive Briefing 27 June 2013
locations at 3°W, 75°E and 116°
E. The fifth satellite, ABS-2 is
scheduled to launch in 2H 2013,
will be fitted with up to 89 ac-
tive C, Ku and Ka-band trans-
ponders. ABS has also ordered
two new Boeing 702SP satellites
planned for launch in 2015 with the options to add more
satellites over the next 2-3 years to ABS’ growing satellite
fleet.
ABS offers a complete range of tailored solutions including
broadcasting, data and telecommunication services to enter-
prises and government organizations. Through its teleports
and alliances with world-
class partners including
Bahrain and Tel Aviv, ABS
offers SCPC, MCPC, Play-
out, Encryption, Turn-
around, Uplink , Co-
location, IP backbone and
VSAT services. ABS also
provides full satellite opera-
tions, payload and client monitoring, tracking, telemetry and
control services, and a full Network Operations Center
(NOC) managed 24/7 by highly trained professionals.
AVL Technologies Booth no. 1N1-01 www.avltech.com AvL Technologies designs and manufacturers mobile, mo-
torized antenna systems and positioners featuring high per-
formance carbon fiber reflectors, auto-acquisition control-
lers, and the unique AvL cable drive system. Ideal for small
aperture antennae, it boasts zero backlash,
high stiffness, light weight ruggedness,
reliability, and cost effectiveness.
AvL has designed and developed SNG antennae for 1.0M,
1.2M, 1.4M, 1.6M, 2.0M and 2.4M apertures and a diverse
product line of rugged motorized FlyAway packages, many
available in backpack configurations, some as small as to
meet airline requirements for cabin baggage. AvL, now
recognized as the leading producer of SNG antenna systems
in the USA and fast becoming known worldwide, developed
in the first motorized, auto-acquisition Mobile VSAT an-
tenna system designed specifically for IP broadcast. AvL has
more than 18,000 high-quality antennae for C-band, X-band,
Ku-band, DBS-band and Ka-band in service throughout the
world for SNG, military, emergency communications, disas-
ter management, mobile medicine and other specialty appli-
cations.
C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. Booth no. 1V3-07 www.c-comsat.com C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. is a leader in the develop-
ment and deployment of commercial grade mobile satellite-
based systems for the delivery of two-way high-speed Inter-
net, VoIP, Video and WAN services into remote locations,
either fixed or mobile. Operating in Ottawa since 1997,
C-COM has sold thousands of antenna systems to resellers
across the globe.
It has been a busy start to the
year for C-COM’s design and
engineering teams. A new Ka-
Band Flyaway antenna has been
designed for a market we expect
to be substantial. This unit has
been designed around the exist-
ing 75cm, one piece reflector
from ViaSat and supports the
ViaSat Exede Nomadic Trans-
ceiver and modem. This com-
pact, fully motorized, auto-
acquire flyaway antenna unit will provide operators looking
for a truly mobile and easily transportable Ka platform with
amazing speeds in a very tiny package. It is expected to be
available shortly.
More good news, C-COM has recently received type ap-
proval for its next generation iNetVu® 1201 Ku antenna sys-
tem from Eutelsat, the leading European satellite operator.
This vehicle mounted auto-pointing antenna is now officially
approved to operate on Eutelsat’s Satellites constellation.
It’s one of the few 1.2m drive-away systems which have met
all the auto-pointing characterization tests per the latest Eu-
telsat ESOG Module 260 requirements.
Cobham SATCOM Land Booth no. 1N2-07 www.cobham.com/satcom Cobham SATCOM Land offers the most comprehensive
range of land-mobile satellite communication terminals in
the market covering both BGAN and VSAT. The EX-
PLORER family fulfills critical communications needs and
reduces system configuration requirements for end users
through highly reliable and easy-to-use solutions.
EXPLORER BGAN is a series of L-Band terminals utilizing
the BGAN
network
from Inmar-
sat. BGAN is
the chosen
data and
voice service
when the
requirement
is quick de-
ploy, ultra-
portable, reliable and fast communication in areas where
terrestrial telecoms aren't available. We offer two types of
June 2013 28 Satellite Executive Briefing
BGAN terminals. Four ultra-portable terminals (no bigger
than a laptop) and two vehicular terminals with satellite
tracking antennas, making it possible to stay connected, even
on-the-move.
EXPLORER VSAT terminals offer back-pack antenna sys-
tems that are portable, lightweight solutions for use any-
where in the world. With solutions that include ancillary
equipment for VoIP, RoIP, Fax, Video and Data, systems are
customized to individual requirements. The ACU, antenna
control unit, from Cobham SATCOM is now the standard of
measure for auto-acquire and auto-deploy antenna systems
throughout the world. From a wide array of Fly-Away anten-
nas to a broad selection of Vehicle Mount antennas includ-
ing Comm-On-The-Move, the EXPLORER VSAT Product
line offers the ultimate in dependability.
Comtech Xicom Technology Booth no. 1T2-07 www.xicomtech.com
Comtech Xicom Technology, Inc., located in the heart of
Silicon Valley, is the world's leading SATCOM power am-
plifier supplier, offering the broadest product line in the
industry. For more than 20 years, our focus on customers,
innovation and quality has created a tremendous breadth of
products and created a company with a reputation for
excellence.
At CommunicAsia, Xicom
will be showcasing its new
generation of XTCT rack-
mount controllers provide
an easy to use, intuitive
touch screen interface for
monitoring and controlling
outdoor amplifiers (ODUs).
The new touch screen front panel displays the HPA’s opera-
tional status, including power output and temperature,
graphical displays of parameter trend analysis, and event
logs. Local and remote diagnostics can also be easily per-
formed via an Ethernet interface. This new display elimi-
nates the need for a separate external controller to control
multiple HPAs for common architectures (TWTAs or
SSPAs). All operational data is saved within the amplifier’s
non-volatile memory, providing a complete history of the
HPAin the event that the unit needs service or repair.
Gazprom Space Systems Booth no. 1Y1-07 www.gazprom-spacesystems.ru
Gazprom Space Systems
(GSS) is a Russian non-
governmental satellite operator.
GSS operates four Yamal satel-
lites. Yamal-201 (90°E) serving
Russia, Yamal-202 (49°E)
aimed at international market and successfully launched at
the end of 2012 two new satellites: Yamal-300K (90°E)
serving Russia and Australia (Steerable beam) and Yamal-
402 (55°E) aimed at international market. Yamal-401 (90°E)
is under construction to be launched next year. Main busi-
ness directions of GSS are providing satellite capacity, tele-
communications services and system integration. In the international market GSS is positioned as a Fixed Sat-
ellite Service Operator, while within Russia the company is
also a Services Provider (satellite communication links, sat-
ellite broadcasting services, satellite Internet access, aero-
space monitoring services) and a System Integrator
(development of space and ground communication systems).
GlobeCast Hospitality suite HELICONIA 3410B www.globecast.com
A subsidiary of Orange,
GlobeCast is a leading pro-
vider of media management
and global content delivery
services for broadcasters and content creators. With a secure
fiber and satellite network connected to dozens of teleports,
technical operations centers, and points-of-presence world-
wide, GlobeCast manages and transports millions of hours of
video and other rich media each year. An integrator of
audiovisual technology and a full-service provider, Globe-
Cast works with all the actors in the audiovisual chain from
production companies to broadcasters, retail organizations,
cinema chains, and more.
The company provides on-site service from major news and
sporting events for coverage in SD, HD, or even 3D. Present
in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and
Australia, GlobeCast is also an expert in international televi-
sion markets, and works with new and established broadcast-
ers to reach and secure distribution with leading pay-TV
operators around the world.
Globecomm Systems Booth no. 1N-07 www.globecomm.com
Globecomm is a leading
global provider of managed
network communication solu-
tions. Employing our expertise in emerging communication
technologies we are able to offer a comprehensive suite of
system integration, system products, and network services
enabling a complete end-to-end solution for our customers.
We believe our integrated approach of in-house design and
engineering expertise combined with a world-class global
network and our 24 by 7 network operating centers provides
us a unique competitive advantage. We are now taking this
value proposition to selective vertical markets, including
government, wireless, media, enterprise, and maritime. As a
Satellite Executive Briefing 29 June 2013
network solution provider
we leverage our global net-
work to provide customers
managed access services to
the United States Internet
backbone, video content, the
public switched telephone
network or their corporate
headquarters, or government offices. We currently have cus-
tomers for which we are providing such services in the
United States, Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle
East, and Asia.
O3b Networks Hospitality suite ANGSANA 3D www.o3bnetworks.com
O3b Networks is a Global Satellite
Service Provider, deploying a next
generation satellite network. O3b
will combine the coverage of satel-
lite with the speed of fiber, offering
a round trip latency of less than 150 milliseconds. O3b’s first
four satellites will launch on June 24, 2013.
O3bEnergy offers the performance of fiber with the flexibil-
ity of satellite delivered cost effectively and reliably.
O3bEnergy is the first satellite solution that matches your IT
investments with a transport technology designed to meet
the performance needs of your network now and in the fu-
ture. We offer unlimited scalable bandwidth whilst reducing
network latency to one quarter of that for existing geosta-
tionary satellites.
Our Mobile Backhaul product, O3bCell allows mobile op-
erators to reach more subscribers economically, significantly
improving voice quality while supporting data rates un-
achievable using conventional satellite solutions.
ND Satcom Booth no. 1T4-08 www.ndsatcom.com
ND SatCo m‘s
SKYWAN modem
is a versatile, flexi-
ble satellite communication platform for customer centric
networks.
The platform enables Star, Mesh, Multi-Star or Hybrid to-
pologies allowing service providers to seamlessly adapt net-
work connectivity requirements to customer application
needs. SKYWAN unlocks new business opportunities with
improved total cost of ownership for service providers that
need to leverage multiple hub or hubless network configura-
tions not easily achievable by other vendor platforms. The
latest SKYWAN release now incorporates COTM capabili-
ties thus further increasing the scope of applications that are
supported by the modem.
Enter a new generation of flexible satellite communication
networks with SKYWAN by ND SatCom.
Newtec Booth no. 1P2-01 www.newtec.eu
Newtec will be highlighting the most efficient broadcast
equipment for video contribution and distribution at
CommunicAsia including the award winning MDM6100
Broadcast Satellite Modem and the M6100 Broadcast Sat-
ellite Modulator.
Features include:
- Seamless migration to Multistream and S2 Extensions
- Re-use of existing infrastructure
- Reduction of satellite interference through DVB CID
Ready for HEVC and UHDTV
Thuraya Telecommunications Company Booth no. 1T1-01 www.thuraya.com
When you need superior
mobility with zero com-
promise on connectivity,
there can only be one choice: Thuraya IP+. The high-speed
IP capabilities of Thuraya IP+ enable users to access corpo-
rate networks, browse the Internet, connect with colleagues,
family and friends via email and social media, and hold
video conferences or chat over VoIP solutions - wherever
and whenever they need it. Delivering the highest through-
put in its size class, Thuraya IP+ can be easily deployed
from backpack to broadband in a matter of seconds - allow-
ing you to take advantage of reliable broadband access from
locations covered by Thuraya’s congestion-free satellite net-
work.
Offering portability and
‘always-on’ mobile broadband
access, Thuraya IP+ is the pre-
ferred satellite broadband solu-
tion for a wide range of mis-
sion-critical operations such as
broadcast media, defense, tele-
medicine and disaster re-
sponse, especially for deploy-
ment in areas that are inade-
quately served by terrestrial
networks. With Thuraya IP+, broadcasters are also equipped
with high-speed streaming connections to ensure that their
June 2013 30 Satellite Executive Briefing
video feeds can be transmitted back to their studios in the
most optimized manner.
Work Microwave Booth no. 1V2-07 www.work-microwave.de At CommunicAsia2013, WORK Microwave will showcase
a wide range of innovative satellite communications tech-
nologies spanning various applications within the broadcast,
satellite, and telco markets.
For the first time in the Asia-Pacific market, WORK Micro-
wave will unveil a powerful new DVB-S2 multistream fea-
ture for its demodulator product line. Other key highlights
include advanced demonstrations of the company's DVB-S2
Modem SK-DV, DVB-S2 IP-Modem SK-IP, and Fifth-
Generation Frequency Converter Series.
New DVB-S2 Multistream Feature For SDD-TS and
SDD-DV Demodulators
At CommunicAsia2013, attendees will get a first look at the
DVB-S2 multis-
tream functionality
being integrated
into WORK Mi-
crowave's complete
line of demodula-
tor solutions, in-
cluding the com-
pany's popular
SDD-TS and SDD-DV products. Utilizing this powerful new
technology, users can seamlessly deaggregate up to six
transport streams and IP data from a single carrier, thereby
optimizing efficiencies while reducing the amount of equip-
ment required for uplink and downlink operations. Ideal for
local cable distribution and satellite newsgathering applica-
tions, the technology simultaneously supports IPv4 and IPv6
outputs, as well as full integration of DVB-S2 multistream,
including null-packet reinsertion and output realignment,
decreasing CAPEX and OPEX for cable and satellite provid-
ers.
Xiplink Inc. Booth no. 1W2-05 www.xiplink.com
Delivering the most advanced opti-
mization solutions, XipLink pro-
vides more value per invested capi-
tal than any other product. XipLink
utilizes advanced TCP acceleration
techniques, UDP/VoIP optimizations, stream-based data
compression, byte caching and internet (web) acceleration
capability. These are further enhanced with class-based
Quality of Service shaping and link management tools such
as TCP session balancing, link bonding and intelligent link
path selection. Based on IETF standards in combination with
the Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS),
XipLink provides a standards-based interoperable solution
ensuring government and military organizations multi-
vendor interoperability. XipLink solutions are transparent to
users, requiring no pre-configuration, operating over any IP
topology including TDMA, SCPC and Mesh.
The Satellite Technol-
ogy Guide for the 21st
Century clearly explains
in non-technical terms the
basics of satellite commu-
nications technology and
how it works. This book
also provides a historical
background of the indus-
try, its current status,
market prospects, trends
and the future of satellite
communications. Fully
illustrated with graphs and
tables, the book contains
appendices including a
glossary of terms and a list of industry resources.
Chapters Include:
A Brief History of the Satellite Communica-
tions Industry
Overview of the Satellite Communications
Industry
The Basics of Satellite Communications
The Space Segment
The Ground Segment
Satellite Services
VSATs
Satellites and the Internet
The Future of Satellite Communications
An indispensable guide to the basics of satellite tech-
nology and the global industry. No other book in the
market today provides a more comprehensive view of
satellite technology and the industry in one easy-to-
read volume at a very low price of only US$ 20.00.
To order go to: www.satellitemarkets.com/
satellite-technology-guide
Or visit Satellite Markets and Research at Com-
municAsia, Level 3 Marina Sands, Booth no. C2-
07 to get your copy.
June 2013 34 Satellite Executive Briefing
Executive Moves
Asia Broadcast Satellite Appoints Youssif as COO and President &
MD, Middle East
Hong Kong, May 29- Asia Broadcast
Satellite (ABS) announced the appoint-
ment of Mohamed Youssif as Chief
Operating Officer (COO) of ABS and
President & Managing Director of the
Middle
East.
As
ABS’s
COO,
Mo-
hamed
will be
respon-
sible
for
global
sales
and
reve-
nue for
the
company as well as directly managing
business development for the Middle
East region.
Youssif previously served as the Chief
Executive Officer of YahLive and as
the Chief Commercial Officer responsi-
ble for sales for Arabsat. He has also
held executive positions at ICO Global
Communications, Hughes and was the
founder of MESAT Consultancy in
Beirut. He holds a BSc in Telecommu-
nications Engineering from Helwan
University in Cairo.
Hartwig named United Space Alliance President and CEO
Houston, Texas, May 7— Scott Q.
Hartwig has been named to succeed
Virginia A. Barnes as President and
Chief Executive Officer of United
Space Alliance (USA), effective May
10, 2013. Barnes will be returning to
The Boeing Company as the company’s
Space Launch System (SLS) Vice
President and Program Manager in
Huntsville, Alabama, after having
served for three years as USA President
and CEO.
Hartwig currently serves as USA Vice
President of Aerospace Services and
Mission Operations and is also the Pro-
gram Manager for the Integrated Mis-
sion Operations Contract (IMOC),
which provides support to the NASA
Mission Operations Directorate (MOD)
and Flight Crew Operations Directorate
(FCOD) at the Johnson Space Center
(JSC).
Hartwig joined the U.S. Space Program
at Rockwell International’s Space Sys-
tems Division in Downey, California, in
1984. He was reassigned to Rockwell
Space Operations in Houston in 1986.
In 1996, he was assigned to the Space
Flight Operations Contract (SFOC)
under USA, and became responsible for
the development and execution of the
SFOC Transition Plan for Flight Opera-
tions.
Hartwig
was
selected
in 1997
as the
director
of Space
Flight
Training
and Fa-
cility
Opera-
tions,
where he was responsible for Space
Shuttle flight controller and astronaut
training until his selection as deputy
Associate Program Manager (APM) for
Flight Operations in 2002 and as APM
in 2009.
MobiTV Appoints Fernandes as new CTO
Emeryville, Calif., May 7—MobiTV,
which delivers live and on-demand TV,
has elevated Vice President of Technol-
ogy Cedric Fernandes to Chief Tech-
nology Officer.
Over the past eight years, Fernandes
has been one of the company's key tech-
nologists helping to drive innovation in
the delivery of media to all connected
screens. Most recently, in his post as
vice president of technology, he over-
saw the the company's connected media
platform, OEM partnerships and R&D
efforts.
Fernandes has also been working
closely with former CTO Kay Johans-
son who has moved into a strategic ad-
visory role to support Fernandes and to
help the company continue to drive the
future of television.
Prior to MobiTV, Fernandes served as
chief information officer at NetPace
Inc., an application development and
systems integration company. During
his tenure, he trail blazed the B2B en-
terprise application space by having
effectively architected and delivered a
platform for managed enterprise appli-
cations designed specifically for wire-
less.
Utilizing his experience with delivery
across networks, he built an SMSC and
ESME to provide text messaging ser-
vices to wireless operators and content
providers while running some of the
highest volume messaging campaigns
of its time. Fernandes is an inventor on
several technology patents related to
media streaming and distribution.
ViaSat names Ken Peterman as GM, Government Systems
Carlsbad, Calif., May 6—ViaSat has
named Ken Peterman as General Man-
ager of its Government Systems seg-
ment. Before joining ViaSat, Peterman
was president and CEO of SpyGlass
Group, a provider of executive strategic
advisory services to the defense, aero-
space, and associated communities.
Peterman has over 30 years of experi-
ence in systems engineering, strategic
planning, portfolio management, and
business leadership in the defense and
aerospace market. Prior to founding the
SpyGlass Group in July 2012, he was
president of ITT Communications and
Force Protection Systems where his
tenure began in 2007 and included the
spin-off of the defense business out of
ITT Corporation into Exelis in 2011.
Before joining ITT, Peterman was vice
Scott Hartwig
Mohamed Youssif
June 2013 36 Satellite Executive Briefing
Executive Moves
president and general manager of Rock-
well Collins Government System's Inte-
grated C3 Systems business and, prior
to that Rockwell Collins Displays and
Awareness Systems business. He
earned a B.S.E.E. degree from Tri-State
University (now Trine).
ViaSat also announced the appointment
of Robert Bowman to its board of di-
rectors. Bowman will serve as a Class II
director and will stand for election at
the company's 2013 annual meeting of
stockholders. With the appointment of
Bowman, the ViaSat board now con-
sists of seven members, six of whom
are independent directors.
Bowman serves as president and CEO
of Major League Baseball Advanced
Media, L.P., which manages the inter-
active and Internet rights for Major
League Baseball, a position he has held
since 2000. Prior to joining MLB Ad-
vanced Media, he was president and
COO of ITT Corporation from 1995 to
2000, where he previously served as
CFO from 1991 to 1995.
James Meyer Appointed CEO of SiriusXM
New York, May 1—Satellite radio
broadcaster Sirius XM Radio has ap-
pointed James E. Meyer as Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer. Meyer has served as
the interim CEO since December.
Gregory B. Maffei,
chairman of SiriusXM,
announced the ap-
pointment and praised
Meyer as highly quali-
fied leader and opera-
tor. He said the com-
pany looks forward to
working with him to
build on SiriusXM's
position as the innova-
tor in audio entertainment.
Meyer served as SiriusXM's President
of Sales and Operations from May 2004
until his appointment as our interim
CEO in December. Prior to joining
SiriusXM, he was President of Aegis
Ventures, a general management con-
sulting company, and provided consult-
ant support for SiriusXM.
Before Aegis, he held a number of sen-
ior management positions in consumer
electronics, including the Senior Execu-
tive Vice President of Digital Media
Solutions for Thomson, a leader in con-
sumer electronics.
SSTL Appoints Yunoki as Telecom Business Dev. Manager
Guildford, UK, May 1—Surrey Satel-
lite Technology Limited (SSTL) has
appointed Toru Yunoki as Business
Development Manager for its telecom-
munications products responsible for
promoting SSTL’s range of telecommu-
nications solutions.
Dr. John Paffett, Director of Telecom-
munications and Navigation at SSTL,
said Toru will be working with him to
secure future sales of our products.
Yunoki has extensive technical knowl-
edge and experience of the telecommu-
nications market. In his previous role as
Deputy General Manager of the Civil
and Commercial Space Department at
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
(MELCO), he was responsible for
bringing in orders and negotiating con-
tracts from TURKSAT, Singapore Tele-
com and Superbird-7. In his 25 year
career at MELCO, Yunoki worked with
commercial companies and space or-
ganisations across the world and is well
-known and highly regarded in this
field.
As a child Yunoki lived in Vancouver,
Canada and is fluent in Japanese and
English. He graduated from Waseda
University with a degree in Economics.
Newtec appoints Mario Querner As VP Asia
Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, April 29—
Newtec has appointed former Techni-
color, Alcatel-Lucent, and ECI Telecom
executive Mario Querner as the com-
pany’s new VP Asia. Querner will lead
the business activities for Newtec in
Asia and the Pacific.
Prior to joining Newtec, Mario Querner
worked as Head for
South-East Asia at
ECI Telecom, based
in Singapore. He also
worked in a number
of other leading tele-
communication infra-
structure and media
solution providers
such as Technicolor,
formerly Thomson, in charge of sales in
APAC-EMEA for Digital Home Solu-
tions, based in Paris and as Managing
Director and Country Senior Officer in
Indonesia for Alcatel-Lucent.
Mario Querner has a degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Ap-
plied Science in Braunschweig/
Wolfenbuettel (Germany) and a degree
in business administration from Brunel
University (United Kingdom). Based in
Singapore, Mario will manage New-
tec’s Singapore and Beijing offices.
Snell Names Ferreira Sales Director for Southern Europe
Reading, U.K., April 30— Snell has
appointed Carlos Ferreira as regional
sales director for Southern Europe.
Ferreira, who from 2002 to 2010 served
as regional sales manager for Iberia at
Snell (then Snell & Wilcox), returns to
the company to manage not only South-
ern European sales operations, but also
those in Latin American markets.
Ferreira has nearly 20 years of experi-
ence in the broadcast industry. He spent
the past two years as Southern Euro-
pean manager at Harmonic and earlier
was responsible for the successful de-
velopment of Snell's foundations in
Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Prior to
joining Snell, Ferreira earlier served as
a field engineer at Grass Valley Group,
where he focused on major accounts
projects.
Ferreira holds a diploma of specialized
higher studies in video and telecom
applications from the University of
Valenciennes, France, a Master of Sci-
ence in electronics from the University
of Brest, France, and a technical univer-
sity degree in electronics and industrial
computing from the University of Paris.
James Meyer
Mario Querner
June 2013 38 Satellite Executive Briefing
MarketMarketMarketBriefsBriefsBriefs
Key industry trends and opportunities.
Mobile TV Viewers to Exceed 2 Billion by 2017
Hampshire, UK, May 16, 2013--A new report from Juniper
Research has found that by 2017, two billion mobile and
tablet users will watch TV and video on their devices. This is
attributed to the growing popularity of short and easily
shared video clips, and the increased global uptake of con-
nected devices with faster processors and better displays.
Users ‘Cut the Cord’
The Mobile/Tablet TV & Video: Content, Broadcast & OTT
Strategies 2013-2017 report examines how mobile is increas-
ingly being used as the primary screen for consuming TV
and video content among younger demographics, and the
seamless integration of streaming services with social net-
works. Sharing content via handsets or tablets has become an
intuitive experience
for many.
Furthermore, the suc-
cess that many stream-
ing providers such as
Netflix, have achieved
online has led them to
offer truly multi-
screen experiences via
smartphones and tab-
lets. This move has
begun to affect the Pay
-TV business, with the
threat of consumers
‘cutting the cord’ and
ending their pay-TV
services in favor of
internet streaming ser-
vices. However, many Pay-TV providers, such as Sky in the
UK are fighting back with multi-platform strategies of their
own.
YouTube Trials Paid-for Channels
Report author Siân Rowlands was keen to point out that “we
are now seeing companies such as YouTube trialling paid
channels to get a slice of the marketplace. This will have
incredible repercussions throughout the mobile space given
YouTube comes preinstalled on an immense number of de-
vices and the Android platform’s billing options”.
However, it remains to be seen whether YouTube will be
successful with this new monetisation model. In 2011, simi-
lar paid channels were launched, some of which didn’t see a
sizable enough audience to warrant their continued funding.
Furthermore, YouTube has seen limited success with its
movie rental service given the foothold which Apple and the
iTunes ecosystem has on renting
movies to smartphones and tab-
lets.
‘Smarter’ Featurephones
A further area which will accel-
erate the growth in the number
of mobile and tablet viewers is
the uptake of improved devices.
In developing regions, although
featurephones continue to reign,
the better quality displays and
faster processors means that
watching mobile TV and video
on a featurephone is no longer a
cumbersome, poor quality ex-
perience. Furthermore, in many
developing regions, fixed broad-
band penetration is still very low, whereas the uptake of
wireless devices is higher; these two factors in tandem mean
that the handset is the only device in certain regions to ac-
cess video content such as news, sports and music.
Other key findings from the report include:
Western Europe will account for the most users in 2017,
viewers in this region will represent over a fifth of the
global user-base.
The Social TV market is also expected to grow signifi-
cantly to 2017, as the market matures and key players
develop their business models.
“...mobile is increasingly being used as the primary screen for consuming TV and video content among younger demograph-ics, and the seamless integration of streaming services with social networks. Sharing content via handsets or tablets has become an intuitive experience for many…”
June 2013 40 Satellite Executive Briefing
MarketMarketMarketBriefsBriefsBriefs
Key industry trends and opportunities.
India DTH Subs Hit 54 million New Delhi, India, May 10, 2013--
According to the latest “Indian Telecom
Services Performance Indicator Re-
port,” the Telecom Regulatory Author-
ity of India (TRAI) reported that as of
end of 2012, India had 54.52 million
subscribers registered with six private
DTH operators.
Besides the free DTH service of
Doordarshan, there are six private
DTH licensees, offering DTH ser-
vices to subscribers. As of end of
2012, India had 54.52 million sub-
scribers registered with six private
DTH operators.
India’s total number of permitted pri-
vate satellite TV channels at 823. There
are 184 pay TV channels in existence at
the end of December 2012.
The number of wired and wireless tele-
phone subscribers in India declined by
4.5 percent to 895.51 million at the end
of December 2012 but Internet sub-
scribers increased from 24.01 million in
September 2012 to 25.33 million at the
end of the year registering a quarterly
growth rate of 5.49 percent.
In the “Indian Telecom Services Per-
formance Indicator Report,” the Tele-
com Regulatory Authority (TRAI) said
the decline in the teledensity reflects
year-on-year negative growth of 3.35
percent over the same quarter of the
previous year. The overall teledensity in
India declined from 77.04 as of Septem-
ber 2012 to 73.34 at the end of 2012.
The report said subscription in urban
areas decreased from 595.69 million in
September 2012 to 556.96 million at the
end of 2012, resulting in urban teleden-
sity decline from 161.13 to 149.90. Ru-
ral subscription also decreased from
342.01 million to 338.54 million, result-
ing in rural teledensity drop from 40.36
to 39.85.
However, share of subscription in
rural areas increased from 36.47
percent in September 2012 to 37.8
percent of the end of December
2012.
With a decline of 41.90 million
subscribers during the quarter, total
wireless(GSM+CDMA) subscriber
base registered a negative growth of
4.62 percent over the previous quarter
and subscriber base declined from
906.62 million at the end of September
2012 to 864.72 million at the end of
December 2012. The year-on-year (Y-O
-Y) negative growth rate of wireless
subscribers for December 2012 is 3.26
percent. Thus wireless teledensity de-
creased from 74.49 in September to
70.82 at the end of December 2012.
Scottsdale, Ariz., May 24, 2013-Fueled by demand in
emerging markets, worldwide pay-TV subscriber households
grew by an impressive 8% in 2012. MRG research highlights
that the market growth was significantly influenced by the
type of pay-TV services available (cable TV, satellite TV, or
IPTV) in each country or geographic region, and by the over-
all competitive environment for pay-TV services. Current
trends that are shaping the pay-TV market include:
In the cable TV industry, the majority of global sub-
scriber growth occurred in the Asia, led specifically by
China, India and Vietnam. Other regions, especially North
America and Western Europe, are experiencing little or no
growth in cable TV households. Overall, global cable TV
subscriber households grew modestly in 2012 to just over
520 million.
Global satellite TV service subscribers grew solidly in
2012, as demand for pay-TV satellite TV services in coun-
tries like Russia and India spiked. Total pay-TV satellite
households now exceed 202 million, an annual growth rate
of 12%.
Demand for IPTV services picked up significantly in
2012, as subscribers increased by a healthy 36%. Subscriber
growth was strong in all geographic regions, and worldwide
IPTV households now total more than 77 million.
On a regional basis, a number of mature pay-TV markets,
such as North America and Western Europe, are seeing very
low or no growth in subscriber households. Over the next
few years, we expect this "low growth" trend to continue in
these regions, while markets in developing regions continue
to drive overall global growth in pay-TV subscriber house-
holds.
The report examines the current state of the worldwide pay-
TV subscriber market. It provides subscriber data for the top
60 cable, top 100 satellite (DTH), and top 140 IPTV pay-TV
operators, and also reports pay-TV subscriber totals by coun-
try, geographic region, and by platform. Global pay-TV sub-
scriber households are also forecasted through 2017. For
more information go to: www.mrgco.com
Global Pay TV Subs Hit 800 million
Satellite Industry Forum 2013An Industry in Transition17 June 2013 | Shangri-La, Singapore
CASBAA’s annual Satellite Industry Forum will provide a platform for industry experts from across the region and the world to delve into compelling issues including new technologies, orbital slots, new frequency bands, future trends and the ever present India capacity crunch.
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June 2013 42 Satellite Executive Briefing
Satellite Executive Briefing 43 June 2013
Conference Report
T he High Throughput Satellite
(HTS) Roundtable organized by
EMP and the GVF held last
month at the Renaissance Hotel in
Washington, D.C. was a very worth-
while opportunity to hear from and in-
teract with some of the principle players
in this evolving segment of the com-
mercial satellite communications indus-
try.
Chris Baugh of NSR led off the discus-
sion by explaining how difficult it has
been to quantify the capacity and capa-
bility of multi-beam HTS systems; the
normal standard of the “transponder
equivalent” (TPE) of 36 MHz at C or
Ku band is no longer applicable. Most
estimates of HTS capacity are in the
range of three to four times that of a
conventional area-coverage satellite
such as those currently operated by In-
telsat and SES. Satellite bandwidth is an
expensive component of every applica-
tion and multiple spot beam reuse is key
to improving overall economics. Im-
provements in modulation and coding
are not likely to be as significant owing
to the high ratio of bits per Hertz pro-
duced by DVB-S2 and its recent en-
hancements – we are effectively at the
bound predicted by Claude Shannon.
On the pleanary panel were Aruna
Slekys from Hughes Network Systems,
Ashok Rao from O3b, Aditya Chatter-
jee from Spacenet, Bruno Fromont from
Intelsat and Vern Fotheringham from
Kymeta. Part of the discussion related to
how HTS would relate to in-flight
broadband to commercial and other
aircraft. Currently, Ku band is used in
many cases along with Inmarsat BGAN.
In HTS (as in BGAN), aircraft will fly
between beams, thus requiring handoff.
The total demand of these aircraft could
be 700 to 800 Mbps. To meet this de-
mand, operators like Panasonic are cob-
bling together their networks from vari-
ous Ku band coverages on different
satellites as they develop their markets.
This is different from the “build it and
they will come” model of Connexion by
Boeing, which was withdrawn before
establishing itself on a commercial ba-
sis.
Baugh brought up the point that con-
ventional FTS satellites are quickly
profitable as they hit a 70% fill in a year
or so. The business model for HTS
would seem to involve a slower ramp
up to perhaps 30% fill in some years;
Baugh wondered if they would be prof-
itable at this level owing to their sub-
stantially greater capacity and uneven
distribution of traffic loading. There
was then a discussion of the relative
volume and value of different customer
groups – the consumer segment has the
lowest revenue per bit but the largest
market size. Industrial and government
users are willing to pay more for a tai-
lored service and potentially greater
bandwidth. It makes sense for HTS
operators to play in both markets to
achieve the highest overall value.
A question was raised as to whether
HTS is here to stay or is it another de-
batable innovation like inter-satellite
relays or on-board routing. Another
question is what HTS means to the cur-
rent FSS market. Also, HTS implemen-
tations differ greatly from each other.
Much discussion related to the openness
or closed-ness of the respective net-
works. An open architecture could
mean that the operator, e.g. Intelsat,
provides space segment while the cus-
tomer, e.g., Harris CapRock, installs
their own gateways and terminals to
serve end users in vertical markets. It
also could refer to allowing customers
to use their own CPE, which may in-
clude the VSAT or stop at the router. A
closed network might be like what In-
marsat offers in terms of BGAN, but
even here there are several equipment
suppliers and gateway operators to
choose from. Someone mentioned that
in addition to consumer broadband
there are also DTH and SNG models
appearing that could exploit HTS for
limited coverage at attractive pricing.
This could make the medium more
competitive with classic FTS.
HTS Roundtable Delve into Key Issues by Bruce Elbert
June 2013 44 Satellite Executive Briefing
Regarding the aeronautical area, current
systems support about 1 Mbps to on-
board users, which is shared. Would it
be cost/effective to raise this to 100
Mbps? This is beyond what MSS and
classic FSS could reasonably provide.
Fotheringham of Kymeta discussed his
company’s innovation in flat array re-
ceive and transmit antennas for Ku and
Ka band. They have demonstrated a
receive array with DIRECTV. Transmit
is still low power and will take some
time to develop into a competitive solu-
tion for mobile broadband. The technol-
ogy looks promising as it allows a user
to install a nearly conformal antenna
and avoid a raised profile.
Slekys of HNS reviewed the checkered
history of VSATs, starting with the first
system installed for WalMart in the late
1980s. These terminals cost $10,000
each and only supported a single 9.6
kbps channel. Today, they have raised
the transmission rate from 1 Mbps on
Spaceway 3 to 10 Mbps with Jupiter 1,
and the terminal costs less than $500
(it’s free if you sign up for more than 18
months of service). The satellite broad-
band market has seen a trend away from
the pure satellite operator to the inte-
grated provider of the service owning
space and ground resources. Today,
70% of Hughes revenue is from ser-
vices. This allows the operator, e.g.
Hughes and Viasat, to “own” the end
user and gain all of the margin. That
end user experience is nearly as good if
not as good as for DSL, with 10 Mbps
plans available. This has been facili-
tated by the conquering of Shannon’s
limit along with acceleration for appli-
cations like Web browsing and media.
Hughes now employs a proxy server
that maintains a lot of current content to
reduce latency. There are 3.3 million
Hughes sites around the world with
700,000 US consumers today. Ka band
with spot beams drops the cost per bit
to where the service is more attractive
to consumers and small businesses;
with a customer terminal coming in the
$300 to $400 range, the cost of cus-
tomer acquisition will match that of
terrestrial wireless.
Chatterjee of Gilat Spacenet discussed
their consumer and energy market
groups, both sizable service markets in
the US using Gilat hardware. In particu-
lar, Halliburton currently uses 6 Mbps
forward and 2 Mbps return data rates;
they are asking form 10 to 12 Mbps.
With HTS, they are back in the main-
stream of the broadband market. They
play in the open systems segment and
they are talking to O3b as well as Intel-
sat and SES. They are worried about
providing high Service Level Agree-
ment (SLA) guarantees on availability,
but admits that Ku and Ka bands are
here to stay.
Fromont of Intelsat said that the Epic
satellite services now will encompass
two plus four more of their 52 total
global fleet to address current and
evolving customer groups using the
same Ku band spectrum currently em-
ployed in customer equipment around
the globe. The future of HTS is data
driven, especially by big data, where
having the information available any-
where at any time will prove the key to
success. There is still a concern about
competition for spectrum by the terres-
trial operators who act to “grab spec-
trum” where they can. But Intelsat is
working with a leveraged model to
blend satellite and terrestrial. Epic is
one solution to this problem. “It lowers
the cost per bit and is flexible so we can
unlock applications and stimulate de-
mand through new applications,” said
Fromont.
Terminal costs will decline, yet it could
take a few years to reach the US$ 200
cost per fixed terminal. Yet, that is only
about 30% of the total cost. Currently,
the terminal cost is $300 plus an an-
tenna at another $70. Today, you can
sign up for a 15 month contract at $40
per month. The hardware is discounted
and with a longer period could be free.
Installation is done for the consumer as
the FCC does not permit customer in-
stallation of transmitting terminals. This
overall model will not work in a devel-
oping country on an individual basis
due to the cost relative to incomes.
David Hartshorn of the GVF suggested
that hurdle could be addressed through
the “universal funds” held by govern-
ments for use in telecom development.
“There is a lot of money sitting there
but it doesn’t seem to get spent” said
Hartshorn
The second day of the conference con-
cerned application areas such as de-
fense, maritime, emergency and health
services, oil and gas, and rural develop-
ment. Due to space limitations, I could
not get into details into the other ses-
sions, but you can go to the GVF web-
site (www.gvf.org) for a more detailed
conference report.
This conference established an impor-
tant benchmark for HTS and perhaps
the satellite industry overall. I recall a
conference held in the same city in the
late 1980s to address the “new” tech-
nology of Ku band VSATs. Like this
HTS conference, it was well attended
and covered the landscape in a couple
of days. The environment today is more
mature with regard to the basic techno-
logy, but the potential is substantially
greater.
Conference Report
Bruce Elbert has over 40 years of experience in satellite
communications and is the President of Application
Technology Strategy LLC, which assists satellite operators,
network providers and users in the public and private sectors.
He is an author and educator in these fields, having produced
seven titles and conducted technical and business training
around the world. During 25 years with Hughes Electronics,
he directed major technical projects and led business activities
in the U.S. and overseas. He is the author of The Satellite Communication
Applications Handbook, second edition (Artech House, 2004).
web : www.applicationstrategy.com/ email: [email protected]
“...There is still a concern about competition for spectrum by the terrestrial operators who act to ‘grab spectrum’ where they can…”
June 2013 46 Satellite Executive Briefing
Satellite Executive Briefing 47 June 2013
Featured Event
T he IBC Conference,to be held from September 12-17,
2013 in Amsterdam, is at the heart of the industry.
Over the course of its six days more than 300 high-
profile speakers in more than 60 hard-hitting and high-level
sessions will discuss in detail the current state of the industry
and help draw the roadmap for its development. Co-
ordinated and produced by some of the leading figures in the
industry, the thought-leaders shaping its future are drawn to
the Conference Program of visionary keynotes, discussions,
debates and master classes that are carefully adjusted each
year to reflect the changes in the industry.
IBC2013 is no exception. Carefully curated into four distinct
streams - Content Creation and Innovation, Advances in
Technology, The Business of Broadcasting and Media, and
the innovative
free-to-attend
Industry In-
sights sessions -
seven key
themes are
threaded
through the
conference and
will help drive
this year's
agenda.
‘From Broad-
cast to Multi-
cast: Collision,
Casualties and
Challenges’
looks at the
global impact of
convergence on
the industry and the challenges for all involved as it adapts to
the connected world, while ‘Converging Industries: Telcos
Flirting with Broadcasters’ examines the significant strategic
shift as the increasing number of telcos entering the broad-
cast market becomes disruptive.
‘The New Language of Digital Spaces’ will look at how they
are changing the established order, and will cover everything
from multiplatform commissioning, through technological
innovation in creating content across platforms and advertis-
ing on new devices, to the economics of multiplatform.
‘Creating a More Engaging Entertainment Experience’ will
investigate craft skills and the latest theory behind the audi-
ence experience, and ‘Production – Innovation in Tech-
niques’ will see the latest production technologies and tech-
niques investigated and assessed.
‘Understanding the Power of Big Data’ will examine the
ability to analyse massive volumes of data about customer
behaviour, preferences and application performance and ask
how good a match it is for the broadcast and media industry.
Finally, ‘Running Your Business: Technologies, Systems,
Standards and Skills’ encompasses a series of sessions de-
signed to give you valuable insight into the latest advances in
industry collaboration and standards from a variety of per-
spectives, including business and content production. Find
out more about the IBC Conference, view the program and
book your pass at: www.ibc.org/conference
One of IBC’s most unique features sees it able to project
content onto its own cinema screen in the state of the art
1,700-seat Auditorium the center of the RAI. Designed to
IBC’s specifications
and boasting facili-
ties for 4K and
stereoscopic 3D
digital projection,
with audio presented
in Dolby 7.1 sur-
round sound, the
IBC Big Screen
plays host to numer-
ous presentations
and conference ses-
sions, as well as
exclusive movie
screenings.
It is the perfect place
to see and hear the
latest technical ad-
vances, as both
manufacturers and
conference sessions push it to its limits, as well as to cele-
brating the IBC Awards and unwinding in the comfort of
complimentary movie screening and the IBC Big Screen
experience.
The exact details of the IBC2013 Big Screen program are
still under wraps, but it will undoubtedly reflect the wider
technological trends within the industry, where higher frame
rates, the increasing impact of laser projection, the impor-
tance of ‘the look’ in 4K, ongoing debates about stereo 3D
revenues and more are all having an impact on a global
scale. Plus, of course, there are the free screenings of the
very latest content to consider. Exactly what they will be this
year, IBC’s 50,000 attendees will just have to wait and see.
Make the most of early bird rates and register today at
www.ibc.org/register
IBC Conference Examines the Burning Issues
June 2013 48 Satellite Executive Briefing
Asian Pay TV Market
Of the 440 million digital homes to be added in Asia between 2012 and 2018, 128 million will come from DTT, according to the latest research from Digital TV Research. However, the number of analog terrestrial homes will fall by 204 million. Digital cable will contribute a further 187 million additional homes, with analog cable losing 141 million. Pay DTH will supply an extra 35 million and pay IPTV 71 million more. Pay IPTV subscribers will overtake pay DTH ones in 2016.
Satellite Executive Briefing 51 June 2013
© 2013 Satellite Markets and Research, Satellite Executive Briefing and the Satellite Markets IndexTM are trademarks of Synthesis Publications LLC. Synthesis Publica-tions LLC is the owner of the trademark, service marks and copyrights related to the Index. This newsletter does not constitute an offer of an investment product. Satel-lite Executive Briefing makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing based on the information provided in the Satellite Markets IndexTM. All information is provided ‘as is’ for information purposes only and is not intended for trading purpose or advice. Neither Satellite Executive Briefing nor any related party is liable for any informational error, incompleteness or for any actions taken based on information contained herein.
The Satellite Markets 25 IndexTM is a composite of 25 publicly-traded satellite companies worldwide with five companies representing each major market segment of the industry: satellite operators; satellite and com-ponent manufacturers; ground equipment manufacturers; satellite service providers and consumer satellite services. The base data for the Satellite Markets IndexTM is January 2, 2008--the first day of operation for Satellite Market and Research. The Index equals 1,000. The Satellite Markets IndexTM provides a benchmark to gauge the overall health of the satellite industry.
Stock Index
June 2013 52 Satellite Executive Briefing
Advantech Wireless……………......…….....….50www.advantechwireless.com Amos Spacecom................................................2 www.amos-spacecom.com APT Satellite Co. Ltd.…………….....……….....13 www.apstar.com Asia Broadcast Satellite…………………….…...9 www.absatellite.com AvL Technologies............................................45 www.avltech.com CASBAA Satellite Summit 2013......................39 www.casbaa.com C-COM Satellite Systems ...............................12 www.c-comsat.com Cobham SATCOM Land ..................................35 www.cobham.com/satcom Comtech Xicom................................................48 www.xicomtech.com Gazprom Space Systems…………..................39 www.gazprom-spacesystems.ru Globecomm Systems…………........................31 www.globecomm.com EM Solutions……………….................................8 www.emsolutions.com.au Intersputnik………............................................40 www.intersputnik.com IBC 2013……….................................................46 www.ibc.org O3b Networks………………...............................5 www.o3bnetworks.com ND Satcom………………..................................25 www.ndsatcom.com Satservice GmbH…………………...................33 www.satservicegmbh.de
Satchoice………………….................................17 www.satchoice.com
SATCON 2013………........................................37 www.satconexpo.com Satlink Communications………......................18 www.satlink.com SFIG………........................................................32 www.sfig-teleport.com Thuraya Telecommunications Co.…cover & 15 www.thuraya.com Work Microwave………………………..…….....49 www.work-microwave.de
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