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| Nunavut broadband access limited, scarce satellite capacity http://www.fta-n-more.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1013 |
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| Author: | Prodigy [ Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Nunavut broadband access limited, scarce satellite capacity |
Nunavut broadband access limited by scarce satellite capacity, says NBDC A lack of satellite capacity is limiting Nunavut’s ability to expand broadband Internet access in the territory, Oana Spinu, acting executive director of the Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation (NBDC), said in an interview. “There are several satellites that footprint the North and right now all the telecommunications services for the territory are using one of those satellites, and its pretty much at capacity,” Spinu, head of the NBDC, a non-profit organization that helps provide broadband access to Nunavut residents, told The Wire Report. But Telesat, an Ottawa company that operates satellites serving the North, says there is still capacity to go around. “We have quite a bit of capacity that is available that can provide the services that are required to the North [and] into the Arctic,” Michele Beck, Telesat’s director of North American sales, said in an interview. “The capacity is there, it’s available to procure and anyone can step up.” Telesat operates three satellites, the Anik F1R, Anik F2 and Anik F3, which service Canada’s North on the fixed-service satellite band. Only Anik F2 and Anik F3 provide broadband Internet service, and only one, the F2 satellite, serves Canada’s territories through providers like SSI Micro and Northwestel. Anik F3 supplies broadband Internet to providers in northern Ontario and Quebec, but not in the territories. Jeff Philipp, president and chief technology officer of SSI Micro, said the satellites do not provide enough redundancy—or backup measures—if anything should go wrong. “If F2 falls out of the sky, every community in northern Canada would go dark until a technician visits [the site] and points the dish at a different satellite,” Philipp said in an interview. “We would have to point at F3 and hope they have enough free capacity to take all of us onto it.” But Beck said there is enough capacity on Anik F3 if something were to go wrong with Anik F2. “The coverage is almost equivalent on the other satellites. We can switch the traffic over to any one of the satellites,” she said. “Amongst the three, any one of them can back each other up.” Both SSI Micro and Northwestel operate on what is called the C-band, serving about 190 sites, or satellite dishes, in the North. Capacity on the C-band is used as a “telecommunications trunk” to deploy wireline and wireless services out of the North’s 190 sites. For $60 per month, customers in Nunavut can purchase a 384 Kbps Internet service from SSI Micro under a high-speed Internet service called Qiniq, administered in conjunction with the NBDC. For the same price, a Rogers Internet customer in Eastern Ontario can get an advertised download speed that is about 26 times faster, 10Mbps. Even at $60 per month, the Qiniq service is subsidized by the federal government. The subsidy scheduled to end June 30, 2012, with no immediate plans to extend the funding, Philipp said. “Broadband Internet will be a marginal business case in remote and rural Canada forever,” he said. “In fact it will be a losing proposition forever.” If the federal subsidy ends, one of two things will happen: the price of the service will increase or the quality will decrease—neither of which is in his interest, particularly the second scenario, Philipp said. Philipp added that he currently has secured enough satellite capacity to grow his business case for residential Internet service into 2015, but satellite operators need to think longer term. “There is a limit to how much capacity will be available over the next couple of years on those satellites,” Philipp said. “Currently, there is no strategy on how to put more capacity up there.” Telesat’s satellites also operate on the Ka band, which allows for a direct-to-home broadband Internet service. But the service is more expensive. Spinu said Northwestel offers Ka band Internet service under the Netcaster brand but noted that it is more difficult to install, with a satellite fixed at the home, and that high-use customers, such as mining camps, tend to subscribe. Barrett Xplore, a wireless and satellite Internet provider based in Woodstock, N.B., announced earlier this year that it will expand its Ka band broadband service in 2011, offering Internet download speeds of up to 25 Mbps. But the company does not operate in Canada’s territories. Philipp said Telesat’s redundancy measures in Canada’s North could soon be tested when the Galaxy 15 satellite, an errant satellite operated by American company Intelsat, is expected to interfere with Telesat’s Anik satellites. On April 5, 2010, Intelsat lost control of the Galaxy 15. It has since veered off course and continues to broadcast a signal, which can interfere with the signals of other satellites. “It will potentially cross or fly by F3 in the Sept. 9 timeframe. Then it will move to possibly fly by F2 in the Oct. 20 or 21 timeframe,” Beck said. The satellite is expected to cause interference when it crosses the paths of the other satellites. But Beck said there is a good chance it could run out of battery power before it reaches Anik F3, failing to cause interference. Beck added that Telesat has taken precautions to mitigate potential interference from Galaxy 15. Telesat will adjust the sensitivities of its satellites’ transponders, increase the power on the satellites’ carriers (which link the satellites to the ground), and do some minor tweaking of hub antennas on the ground to offset as much interference as possible from Galaxy 15, she said. “We’re doing everything to ensure there is no degradation of service,” Beck said. Over the long-term, Beck said Telesat is exploring opportunities with the government and private sector to create more satellite capacity. The development and launch of a new satellite can cost anywhere from $200 million to $300 million, and the company needs to line up customers to make a return on investment over a satellite’s 15-year lifespan, she said. “We can increase the number of services and vastly improve communications to the North today,” Beck said. “All it takes is a champion to step up and offer those services and use the additional capacity that we have.” |
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