Broadband from the Heavens
The growing role of geosynchronous satellites as a last mile solution.
The end of the US-Soviet cold war at once decreased demand for military satellites and increased the growth of the global commercial telecommunications market. The opening up of formerly closed markets around the world, recent leaps in computing power and significant advances in the capacity and capabilities of telecommunications satellites, have set the stage for a great expansion of both business and personal use of satellites over a wide range of applications.
Satellites in geosynchronous orbit (Geo) do not move relative to the earth below and are therefore perfectly suited to receive and re-transmit signals across a wide area of the earth. In an article entitled "Extra Terrestrial Relays" published in the October 1945 edition of "Wireless World" magazine, Arthur C. Clark described a complete, integrated worldwide network of communications satellites, with just three Geosynchronous satellites able to cover the entire surface of the earth (1). With the 1957 launch of Sputnik I, mankind entered the satellite age. In 1962, Project Telstar, was used to relay a television signal between Europe and the United States for the first time. Telstar carried a 'transponder,' which could receive, amplify and then retransmit signals back to earth (2). Although their capacity, power and switching ability has evolved significantly since that time, modern communications satellites operate in essentially the same way today.
Until about a decade ago, receivers needed to collect signals from a geosynchronous satellite 22,000 miles in space were large and very expensive; certainly not accessible to the individual consumer. But as sophisticated high power satellites have evolved in the forty years since Sputnik, signals are much easier to detect and the cost of receivers has come down dramatically. In 1967 the first earth stations in the Comsat system cost approximately $250,000. In the mid 1970's the FCC approved the use of 4.5 meter dish receivers which cost more than $25,000 and ten years later consumer satellite television receivers were in the $1000-3000 range (3). Today a satellite dish capable of receiving high-definition digital television and broadband data costs several hundred dollars and can be installed by the average homeowner in an afternoon.
The various satellite systems currently being designed and financed for deployment over the next decade include Geo, Low Earth Orbit (Leo), Middle Earth Orbit (Meo) as well as hybrid constellations which employ a combination of methods. The main area of my recent research is the new generation GEO systems which promise significant expansion of Direct Broadcast Satellite television (DBS) services, increased, inexpensive capacity for domestic and international telephony and bandwidth for business and consumer integrated broadband needs.
1- Frank Baylin, Satellites Today, Guide to Satellite Television (Columbus, Ohio: Howard W. Sams & Co, 1985), P.4.
2- Baylin, P.5.
3- Balyin, P.11.
. Home
Next
©1998 Bill Swersey