On Jul 8, 2020, at 3:05 AM, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka@seacom.com> wrote:
Satellite earth stations are not irrelevant, however. They still do get used to provide satellite-based TV services, and can also be used for media houses who need to hook up to their network to broadcast video when reporting in the region (even though uploading a raw file back home over the Internet is where the tech. has now gone).
Oh man I wish that were wholly true... Satellite/VSAT has another very very important attribute: it's not subject to the whims of the local government or regulators. So when there's an election or some unrest or coup or the prime minister has very bad flatulence, and some person says "turn off the Internet," your non-terrestrial connection is there so that you can continue to do business. Right now I'm in the middle of a project installing more than 300 VSATs, replacing an incumbent provider, and the rationale for all that money and all that equipment and all that work is "the bits must flow." (Plus, there are also still many places outside of capital cities in the world where the Internet is truly awful and if you want bits, you have to bring your own) jms -- Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719 Senior Partner, Opus One Phone: +1 520 324 0494 jms@Opus1.COM http://www.opus1.com/jms
On 9/Jul/20 17:51, Joel M Snyder wrote:
Oh man I wish that were wholly true... Satellite/VSAT has another very very important attribute: it's not subject to the whims of the local government or regulators. So when there's an election or some unrest or coup or the prime minister has very bad flatulence, and some person says "turn off the Internet," your non-terrestrial connection is there so that you can continue to do business.
Very true, except there are still a few countries that require a single operator to have all "gateway" access out of the country, even via satellite. So yes, install, for sure. But if someone does the rounds and catches an "unlicensed" installation, that could be interesting.
(Plus, there are also still many places outside of capital cities in the world where the Internet is truly awful and if you want bits, you have to bring your own)
I did mention that use-case, already, in a previous post. Simple applications such as ATM's in remote locations is still quite typical. Mark.
Not quite VSAT, but in the bad old SA days (pre-demicracy), I did some work for a company that used a UK-based satellite provider for data to the client (data was sent in the VBI), and dial-up for the traffic from the client. Still relied on a local provider for the dial-up, though, so could be censored. Before TICSA, I also looked at buying a private (pirate) satellite earth station. The Russian government were selling off surplus 8-wheel-drive military satellite earth stations, and I was thinking of parking one in my back garden (I lived on a farm). paul
On Jul 9, 2020, at 12:44 PM, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka@seacom.com> wrote:
On 9/Jul/20 17:51, Joel M Snyder wrote:
Oh man I wish that were wholly true... Satellite/VSAT has another very very important attribute: it's not subject to the whims of the local government or regulators. So when there's an election or some unrest or coup or the prime minister has very bad flatulence, and some person says "turn off the Internet," your non-terrestrial connection is there so that you can continue to do business.
Very true, except there are still a few countries that require a single operator to have all "gateway" access out of the country, even via satellite. So yes, install, for sure. But if someone does the rounds and catches an "unlicensed" installation, that could be interesting.
(Plus, there are also still many places outside of capital cities in the world where the Internet is truly awful and if you want bits, you have to bring your own)
I did mention that use-case, already, in a previous post.
Simple applications such as ATM's in remote locations is still quite typical.
Mark.
On 12/Jul/20 14:00, Paul Nash wrote:
Not quite VSAT, but in the bad old SA days (pre-demicracy), I did some work for a company that used a UK-based satellite provider for data to the client (data was sent in the VBI), and dial-up for the traffic from the client.
Still relied on a local provider for the dial-up, though, so could be censored.
Yes, in these scenarios, we called the uplink the "back-channel" :-). And it could be anything, including dial-up. It was not uncommon to buy uplink via SCPC from one provider, and downlink via DVB on an inclined orbit satellite from a totally different provider. This was a very common model between 2000 - 2009, where your uplink and downlink ISP's were vastly different. And who says the Internet must be symmetric :-)? Mark.
participants (3)
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Joel M Snyder -
Mark Tinka -
Paul Nash