Getting acquainted with satellite means getting to know the players. But that task can be confusing because several take on more than one role. At least nine providers offer equipment for high-speed Internet access via satellite; many of these are also satellite operators or service providers. Their services are sometimes sold directly, but more often they go through local VARs (value-added resellers), carriers, or ISPs. For example, Hughes Electronics Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.) is known as an equipment manufacturer, but it also sells network services. In Europe, it does so via a joint venture with Olivetti called Hughes Olivetti Telecom (Milton Keynes, U.K.). Another manufacturer, Comsat Corp. (Bethesda, Md.), is the largest shareholder in satellite operator Intelsat (Washington, D.C.). And two others, Loral Orion Network Systems Inc. (Rockville, Md.) and Panamsat Corp. (Greenwich, Conn.), operate their own satellites and provide services. These providers—for lack of a better term, let’s call them that—also make different types of gear. Some, like Europe Online Networks S.A. (Luxembourg), Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Petach Tikva, Israel), Hughes, and Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (New York), make VSAT equipment for companies that are using satellite services only to download data from the Internet. It’s relatively cheap and easy to install, and it allows customers to bypass congested intercontinental links and low bandwidth dial-up lines. Others, like Netsat Express Inc. (Hauppauge, New York), Panamsat, and Tachyon Inc. (San Diego), sell equipment for two-way services among two or more corporate settings.
Teledesic LLC (Kirkland, Wash.) is planning mobile broadband services, albeit slower than its fixed offering, while Spectrum Astro Inc. (Gilbert, Ariz.) promises to push speeds up to 622 Mbit/s. Alenia Aerospazio SpA (Rome), Astrolink International Ltd. (Bethesda, Md.), and Spectrum Astro are working on GEO satellites that incorporate their own switches, eliminating the need for a ground station entirely. These switches in the sky sound similar to existing services such as Comsat’s Linkway, which use a satellite as a hub. But instead of broadcasting information, the satellites will use directional spot beams to target a particular town or end-user and make much more efficient use of bandwidth. Their higher orbits mean that more of the Earth’s surface is in view at any one time, so fewer satellites are needed for global coverage. But that also means more latency. Skybridge GP Inc. (Bethesda, Md.) and Teledesic plan to use the lower LEO orbits. Meanwhile, Hughes Electronics is hedging its bets with a system called Spaceway that uses both MEO and GEO orbits. Unlike GEO satellites, which remain in one position in the sky, LEO and MEO satellites move around. That’s not a problem for LEO satellites, which are close enough to Earth that their signal remains strong. But with MEO satellites, the movement, distance from Earth, and radiation combine to weaken the signal to such an extent that no broadband system can rely only on MEO gear. For this reason, Hughes’ Spaceway system will initially use new switching satellites in GEO orbits and add MEOs to the constellation at an unspecified date in the future. Virtual Geosatellite LLC and Sky Station International Inc. (both of Washington, D.C.) have schemes which appear to be in a GEO orbit while actually being much lower. Virtual Geosatellite’s Virgo will use satellites in complicated elliptical orbits, swooping up and down between MEO and LEO altitudes. To satellite gear on Earth, they will appear to be hovering for long periods in the same position. Sky Station avoids orbits altogether, instead suspending transceivers from unmanned blimps floating at the edge of space, about 15 miles above Earth. The trouble with this solution is that Sky Station will need thousands of blimps to cover the whole world, so it will initially concentrate on urban areas. All but two of the planned new constellations plan to speed traffic with ISL (intersatellite link), a technology that lets satellites communicate directly using lasers rather than via a ground station. GEO networks will use it to send delay-sensitive traffic around the world. That’s much faster than the present setup, which sends traffic from Australia to the U.S. through two satellites and their ground hubs, increasing the round-trip time to a whole second. Teledesic will also use ISL to increase the range of its LEO network. By contrast, the network from Skybridge won’t use ISL, so each satellite will only cover a radius of a few hundred miles. End-users must remain within this distance of a ground station. That means Skybridge will probably cover remote areas of populated countries and even the Caribbean or North Sea, but not the middle of the Pacific Ocean or the South Pole.