Satellite Internet News

Wildblue Communications Inc. based out of Greenwood Village in Colorado, started offering Satellite Internet connectivity across the United States in June 2005. The Chairman of the company is Mark D. Carleton and CEO is Dave J. Leonard. The revenue so far for this year is $8.7 million. The company has 70 employees and is funded by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. It offers service using the Ka band geosynchronous satellite Anik-F2 which is operated by Telesat Canada. The competitors of Wildblue are HughesNet and Starband. Wildblue is a new company which will take sometime to generate more revenue and increase its employee strength.

As a young company they may not be able to offer the same level of service like an established provider like HughesNet. The support and installation services are not offered by the company directly but outsourced to local agencies. If a customer applies for a connection the installation will be done by an agency which has been authorized by Wildblue. There have been many instances where customers had to face the pangs of dealing with a new company. The local agencies have no solutions if there are problems with the modem and the dish. The billing process of the company has flaws and needs to be rectified so that customers do not get wrong billing details.

People in rural areas are excited about Wildblue because the only option they have now is 56Kbps dial-up connectivity. Unfortunately, the 1.5Mbps advertised download speed is not achieved regularly. Many customers are frustrated to find that the normal speeds are barely more or equivalent to dial-up connectivity. The charge of a connection starts at $50 which is much more than any other modes of Internet connection. Even if subscribers are not satisfied with the service, they have to continue for the minimum period of 12 months. The complainants say that speed of service is much more during the night when usage is less. This factor makes one to believe that Wildblue has oversold its satellite bandwidth capacity. This is a serious problem and until they take steps to increase speed and reliability quickly people will move away from the service.

Technical support is also not responsive and if they do respond the usual response that one might expect are, weather conditions are poor and hence there is downtime. Some customers have logged complaints that they were able to get across to tech support only after trying for 4 days. Wildblue has also been accused of being unfair by customers in regards to their FAP or Fair Access Policy. Under the manner of the policy customers have been denied of their legitimate bandwidth. The company has used this free bandwidth to increase the subscriber base. A subscriber with a committed bandwidth of 512 Kbps has been able to download only at speeds of 125 Kbps. As a young company, Wildblue is facing these problems and many more. The company should take steps to rectify the errors in processes so that customers do not face recurring speed and reliability problems in future. It will help Wildblue to remain competitive in the years ahead.

HughesNet is the leader in Satellite Internet connectivity in the United States. It has 325,000 customers and the number is growing everyday. To meet customer’s expectations HughesNet has launched the Boeing built Space3 satellite into space. The Ka- band satellite was launched by the Ariane 5 ECA launcher from Kourou, French Guiana on 14th of August 2007. The spacecraft will maneuver in a circular orbit at a height of 22,300 miles above the equator at 95 degrees West longitude. Hughes will start using the satellite for commercial purposes in 2008. The Spaceway 3 satellite was designed and developed by Hughes because there was a need for commercial satellite to fulfill growing customer expectations. It has features such as onboard traffic switching and routing capability. Other advanced features include 10Gbps overall capacity, fast packet switching and dynamic beam forming. The satellite will help Hughes to launch bandwidth-on-demand satellite services with site-to-site, single hop networking of high performance ground terminals. The single hop communication between satellite terminals will eliminate the need for routing traffic through a central hub earth station. The Ka-band spectrum will help in high speed services for IP data and multimedia applications. The satellite has a digital processor, downlink phased array antenna, microwave switch matrix and flight hardware and software.

In the next couple of months Boeing along with Hughes will complete on orbit testing of the systems. It will also complete deployment of the satellite’s 132-foot solar arrays. An overall satellite checkout and systems acceptance testing will also be completed during this period. After completing all tests Hughes will put the satellite into commercial operation providing high-end satellite Internet connectivity to clients across America and Canada.

Hughes mission statement of ‘Connect to the Future’ through Satellite based Internet services can be partly achieved by the launch of the Spaceway 3 satellite. Like many other first’s to it credit Hughes will be able to offer high-end Satellite Internet services to customers and will move ahead of it competitor Wildblue. The Satellite Internet market has enough space to grow and the technology is being accepted by people across the length and breadth of the country. Customers in rural areas who do not get access to broadband and cable modem facilities will benefit greatly once Hughes puts the Spaceway 3 satellite into commercial use. The expected date of the start of commercial operations of the satellite can be anytime in the early part of 2008. HughesNet is a communication filed with the SEC has stated that Spaceway 3 can help address a US$ 26 billion per year market in North America. Apart from this HughesNet can offer services in Canada and Puerto Rico. The existing customers of Hughes are offered service using the conventional Ku-band satellite systems. They would need to change their existing equipment to receive services from the Ka-band Spaceway 3 satellite. There are licensing issues which Hughes needs to sort out before the commercial operation starts in early 2008. Once that is done customers can expect Satellite Internet connectivity with speeds that are comparable with any other technologies and no downtime of services.

Internet connectivity at your home helps you to remain connected to the world. It also helps to pay your bills and book flight tickets. Offices use Internet to access Email, establish VPN’s and gather information. There are a host of options as to which Internet connection to get. Dial-up, DSL, broadband and cable Internet are some of the options that we are all aware of. Satellite Internet connectivity is another option that helps us to access high speed Internet connection. Companies like HughesNet offer Satellite Internet connectivity for home and office use. People in rural areas can easily acquire the services because there is no need for any fiber optic cable to be laid for accessing the service. A dish on the rooftop and a modem are the instruments needed to start browsing the Internet.

The charges are also moderate and different packages are offered by the service providers. Residential plans cost approximately $59.99 per month and $249.99 for the installation charges. The service provider will provide you with a modem and a satellite dish to access the Internet. The download speeds for home plans start at 700 Kbps which can be compared to any other Internet connection. The connectivity generally comes with features such as e-mail with volume storage options, spam protection, virus protection and blog creation tools. You can also customize your browser with the latest sports, news, financial reports, entertainment and weather information. The packages that are offered for small and medium sized business also come with a host of service offerings. There are other packages which cost $99.99 per month. These are ideal for small office and it is almost 50 times faster than a dial-up with speeds of 28. 8 Kbps. The maximum download speed for such connection is 1.5 Mbps. The maximum upload speed is 300 Kbps and the packages generally come with 10 Email accounts. Value added services are offered such as 1 to 2 day service assurance plans which provide additional support. If you have a medium sized business and you have higher requirements for speed and bandwidth then you need to spend around $179.99 per month for your connection. The download speeds are approximately 2Mbps and 20 Email accounts. All plans include free delivery of the system, standard installation, 5-20 Email accounts with 2GB of space, anti spam and virus protection and a warranty on parts and labor costs. If you have your office in rural America, Satellite Internet is the best option for you because you do not have to wait for the cable company to lay fiber optic cables. Chances of downtime are less with satellite Internet unlike cable modem and broadband connections.

Satellite Internet comes with host of features which keeps it ahead of other technologies. Researchers are working on gaps that are still there in the technology. If you are looking for options in high speed Internet connectivity for your home or office Satellite Internet is the best option.

Hughes is one of the leading satellite communication providers in the world. The history of the company goes back to 1932 when Howard Hughes fascinated by aircrafts founded Hughes aircrafts. During the Second World War, the US government asked Hughes to produce a cargo aircraft; but Hughes was unable to deliver the aircrafts until two years after the end of the war. After the war Hughes became one of the largest defense contractors to the United States government supplying weapons systems, missiles, satellites and lasers. The company was very successful and managed by highly qualified engineers. Howard Hughes started getting involved in the day to day management of the company around 1950. He was a billionaire who started running the company without any corporate governance. He started making his own decisions and over-ruling the decision made by the board. As a result many top executives left the company during that time.

The company became part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1953 and availed tax benefits from the Government. It continued to manufacture missile systems and other defense equipment till 1984, when the US government stopped procurement from Hughes due to poor quality. Questions were also raised on its tax free status. The company was ultimately put up for sale and taken over by GM for $5 billion dollars. By 1988, the company was producing half the communication satellites that were manufactured in the United States. In 1989, the company clocked sales of $3 billion but profits were not in line. In 1994, Hughes shut down many of its defense business facilities and the business of GM Hughes was split into seven divisions. By 1993, the satellite and telecommunications business was generating $2 billion in revenue. Stores such as Walmart implemented the Hughes network technology to transmit business data.

GM was not getting the right value and the objectives for buying Hughes were not being achieved. The automotive electronics business was not giving desired results and it was consolidated with Delphi another automotive electronics company of GM. The company under new CEO Michael Armstrong focused on DirecTV business. After the restructuring exercise Hughes focused on satellite and communications business; developing integrated circuits, electronic memory protection devices and high speed antennas which linked homes and small businesses with the satellite network of Hughes.

Today Hughes Network Systems headquartered in Maryland USA is one of the leading providers of broadband Internet and satellite communication services. It is headed by Pradman P. Kaul who is the Chief Executive Officer of the company. He is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hughes Communications, Inc. The satellite Internet business is one of the highest revenue grosser in the Hughes group and has over 325,000 subscribers. The history of Hughes is very old and it has seen many ups and downs but still comes out successful with new technologies and offerings for customer. Howard Hughes’ dream aircraft company is one of the most recognized brands in the world.