Two-way
Broadband Internet Connectivity?
Just
about everyone has seen the 18" round satellite dish
that thousands of consumers use to receive TV satellite signals.
Many can be found attached to RVs and long-haul trucking tractors
while their owners enjoy easy access to their favorite TV
programming even when they are miles away from land-line connections.
For years, Dashboarders have anticipated similar connectivity
to the Internet at speeds that would enable true, two-way
broadband access while sitting on a glacier, under a giant
sequoia, or any remote location. For our purposes, broadband
access is defined as any two-way throughput greater than 400
Kbps.
It
turns out that the majority of consumers employing those cute
18" dishes are using a landline telephone as the mechanism
to send the up-load component of the signal. Some early adopters
have been successfully using wireless digital cellular phones
as the upload signal to reach the communication satellites,
which in turn can access the Internet. But, (with the exception
of KVH's TracNet - below) the process is very tricky and requires
specialized equipment and knowledge.
For
a while, we thought (and insiders at both Hughes Network Systems
and Dish Network shared this perspective) that DirecWay
or Starband might be able to provide the first cost-effective, efficient,
true two-way broadband Internet access we were seeking. There were
three fundamental flaws in this plan. First, the FCC has never licensed
this technology for mobile use by consumers and, in fact, requires
that anyone making adjustments to the equipment be FCC-certified.
Two, most of the hardware has not been hardened to withstand the
rigors of on-the-road use, and the required antenna (36" oblong)
and transceiver are very awkward to store and manipulate aboard
a vehicle. But the killer reason has to do with the enormous energy
that a transceiver must emit to "hit" the communications
satellite hundreds of miles above earth. There is a legitimate concern
about the degree of stray radiation that a Dashboarder might absorb
in the process of manually targeting the antenna. In addition, a
device emitting so much energy could inadvertently cause problems
with other communication equipment in the area.
Starband
is now being targeted exclusively at residential customers
at fixed locations. DirecWay is primarily focused on the enterprise
and small business sector with some limited focus on telecommuters
and some residential users through affiliations with Earthlink
and Pegasus. DirecPC,
which provides download by satellite and upload by land line,
is still in the mix for fixed locations.
An
interesting wrinkle is the expected merger of Hughes Network
Systems and Echostar slated for mid-2002. The resulting firm
is expected to use the Echostar moniker and to keep both brands
(DirectTV / DirecPC / DirecWay and Dish Network / Starband)
in business and competing for customers in the same markets.
There
is a partial solution on the horizon. It is called "TracNet"
and will be managed and promoted by KVH
Industries. KVH supplies "in-motion" TV satellite
receivers to both marine and terrestrial users. The official
launch of the service is still a couple of months away, but
preliminary pricing is expected to be around $6000 for the
receiver dish, wireless server and supporting software. The
monthly service fee will be around $80 and there will be additional
per-minute charges depending on the mode of upload. The price
may seem high, but according to Jim Dodez, Vice-President
of Marketing with KVH, "Such a system could deliver always-on
TV and Internet access nearly everywhere in North America."
TracNet
will provide one-way broadband Internet service with download
speeds in the neighborhood of 150 to 400K. The upload leg
will be enabled at rate of 2.4 to 33.5K by either the use
of a land line, a digital cellular modem, or a low-data-rate
satellite service like Globalstar or Inmarsat. The coordination
of the up and down legs would be handled by an on-board wireless
server. The wireless server would use 802.11(b) networks to
deliver content from the server to the on-board laptops and
other data devices.
The
product that KVH will be rolling out in early 2002 will be
encased in a TracVision dome. They are also working on a phased
array configuration that will be about six inches tall and
allow installation on regular passenger vehicles or SUV's.
This phased array receiver should be ready by late summer.
It seems that inexpensive connectivity is still in the realm
of the holy grail but this is a crucial first step in achieving
Internet connectivity for Dashboarders.
