 | Issue: | Latin America II 1998 |
| Article no.: | 4 | |
| Topic: | VSAT and the Promise of Ubiquitous Telephone Service | |
| Author: | Felipe Gomez | |
| Title: | Manager, Applications Engineering | |
| Organisation: | Skydata, USA | |
| PDF size: | 20KB |
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Article abstract
Communicating has always been one of mankind’s basic needs, yet half the world’s population has no access to communications in the modern world. With satellite technologies, there is now a business case to provide basic telephony service to previously under-served areas. Gilat has come up with affordable solutions based on proven reliable technology that makes the promise of affordable ubiquitous telephone service a reality.
Full Article
In everybody’s mind, telephone service and copper wiring always go hand in hand. Although this model has worked very well for many years, it has failed to bring telephone service to all comers of the world. In fact, the telephone, which most of us in the developed world take for granted, remains an elusive dream for 3 billion people – roughly half the world’s population. The problem is that it does not make financial sense to lay the terrestrial infrastructure necessary – copper, microwave, etc.- to reach most of these remote areas. The financial case for laying 150 miles of wiring through treacherous terrain to serve a community of 100 people is indeed a difficult one. The Rules Have Changed Advances in satellite communications and related technologies offer us the possibility to break the bond between telephones and copper once and for all. Telephone calls have been transmitted over satellite for well over 30 years now. This traffic was mostly international long distance traffic and because the technology was so new, it was expensive. Just 20 years ago making long distance telephone calls was reserved for very few special occasions in all but the wealthiest households. A number of recent technological advances have brought the price of telecommunications over satellite to the point where they are available to a much wider sector of the economy. Satellite space segment is much more available and affordable today than 10, 15 or 20 years ago, and it covers virtually every inhabited square mile on the earth’s surface. The electronics on board the spacecraft have also evolved tremendously. On the receiver side they have become much more sensitive. This allows them to receive weaker signals from earth while still preserving the integrity of the information they carry. On the transmitter side, transponders have become more powerful, allowing coverage of greater areas and the use of smaller antennas on the ground. With the advent of Digital Signal Processing (DSP), voice calls are now converted to digital formats for transmission. Today, with state of the art coding algorithms designed to recognise and mimic the human voice, toll quality voice can be achieved with as little as 6.4 kbps, compared with the traditional 64 kbps required, with additional savings realised if 4.8 kbps is used. The end result is that over 2,000 telephone conversations can be carried on a single 66 MHz transponder, which means very low space segment cost per line. New modulation schemes have introduced further space segment savings as well as allowing the digital information to be recovered from weaker satellite signals. Powerful satellites, efficient coding techniques, and novel modulation schemes have allowed for smaller antennas and smaller Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA), both of which account for significant savings in the overall cost of the earth stations. To top it all off, silicon prices continue to drop and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that perform the majority of the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) functions, are economically feasible. They also bring the added benefit of reducing component count, reducing costs and increasing reliability. New Rules, New Game Gilat has developed a portfolio of solutions for different telephony requirements. DialAway VSAT is a public service, rural telephony product that provides Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) voice, and fax and data channels, to and from remote locations via satellite. DialAway delivers toll-quality voice transmission on demand, in a star/multi-star-topology. The system is ideal for providing public call office and pay-phone services for small businesses and rural communities in areas where telephone and fax services are unavailable, unreliable or too expensive. Its low energy consumption offers the opportunity for low-cost, solar powered telephony operation. Its network management system enables the hub operator to monitor and control the remote terminals as well as gather call data for billing purposes. The DialAway network also supports video and audio broadcast for value-added services such as entertainment and distance learning programs. FaraWay VSAT is a DAMA telephony product that provides telephone services, fax and high-rate data communications via satellite. It was designed for areas with insufficient telecommunications infrastructure, and satisfies the exacting standards of Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and private network operators for voice encoding, signalling, call accounting and maintenance. Excellent bandwidth utilisation, unique technology and low power consumption makes the FaraWay a choice solution for high-end voice and data communications in under-served areas. Utility companies, banks and public telephony providers are among the-FaraWay users. ISAT provides a satellite-based frame-relay platform for comprehensive data, voice and video applications in smaller corporate networks. It is ideal for networks with heavy data and voice traffic. ISAT’s rooftop-to-rooftop approach is based on frame relay link protocol, which provides high-speed multiplexing and routing of signals with low overhead and high efficiency. ISAT can be used in any combination of mesh, star and broadcast networking, with enhancements enabling Internet and intranet connection as well as video conferencing. New Markets, New Opportunities Communicating has always been one of mankind’s basic needs, yet half the world’s population has no access to communications in the modern world. Gilat has recognised the need and the business opportunity available and has come up with affordable solutions based on proven reliable technologies. It is widely recognised that an adequate communications infrastructure is a prerequisite for economic growth. So much so that the number of phone lines per inhabitant is used to measure a country’s degree of development. The lack of basic communications in rural areas seriously detracts from the quality of life of their populations. Health and education services are hampered. Business and industry are crippled by lack of communications, so employment opportunities are also limited. It is telecommunications that becomes the critical catalyst for encouraging local extractive, agricultural and manufacturing industries, as well as rural business and tourism. Privatisation and deregulation are creating new opportunities. There is now a business case to provide basic telephony service to previously under-served areas, sometimes with special tax breaks or favourable licenses, and since Gilat’s platforms can be expanded and upgraded easily, laying down the telephony infrastructure will enable the service provider to offer new services in the future. The long distance telephone market is one of the most coveted jewels in the telecommunication arena. The market has been open to competition in many countries, yet the old monopolies still hold the upper hand because they control the copper going into subscribers’ homes. Satellite networks offer a way to bypass that ‘last mile’, opening the door to this lucrative market. Also, satellites are impervious to distance; the cost for long distance and local calls are basically the same, which leads to lucrative margins on long distance calls. Conclusion Today, Gilat has the product line at the price points that will enable telephone service to reach all corners of the world and improve the quality of life of millions of people, create new business opportunities, new jobs, and activate the economies of communities and countries that have not yet become part of the new Global Economy in which we now live. We believe that our technology will be the enabler that makes the promise of affordable ubiquitous telephone service a reality.
