First Advanced Communication Satellite HYLAS 1 Into Orbit - 06/12/10
Posted by Cloud Net on Mon, Dec 06, 2010 @ 03:35 AM
I read with interest that Avanti Communications launched their first
advanced communication satellite HYLAS 1 (Highly Adaptable Satellite) into orbit around the earth on Friday the 26th of November.
While the satellite will have an important role to play in helping the government to meet its 2015 target of delivering a minimum broadband download speed of 2Mbps to everybody in the country, it does potentially present a snag for VoIP.
This snag is for VoIP users is based around the latency caused by the 72,000km round trip of signals to and from the satellite will make VoIP impractical. The latency of around ½ a second is caused because light and other electromagnetic radiation simply take that long to travel there and back.
It takes so long as the satellite now needs to fire secondary rockets to get into geostationary orbit – the process will actually take a few weeks.
Here are some quick facts about Hylas: It was built at the EADS Astrium factory in Portsmouth, UK, which is part of Europe's largest space company, and in Bangalore by Antrix, a commercial arm of the Indian space agency (Isro). The launch took place from the Guyana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guyana, as one of two satellites launched by the Ariane 5 rocket.
The satellite cost around £120m of which £40m was contributed by the UK government. It is expected to have an operating life of 15 years. It weighed 2541kg at lift off and its solar cells generate 3.2Kw of electricity.
HYLAS 1 can deliver a Ka- band* service to 350,000 customers' and a forthcoming sister satellite, HYLAS 2 (due to follow in just over one year's time), should expand upon that to reach an additional 700,000 at similar speeds. Further satellites are planned.
The estimated cost to consumers will be around £25 per month for the service with the cost of the associated equipment including a dish aerial being around £500.
In Europe, Avanti faces competition from the long-established Eutelsat space communications company, which is putting up its own net-dedicated Ka-band satellite, delivering 10Mbps through its Tooway service. Eutelsat's KA-Sat is due for launch on a Russian Proton rocket on 20 December.
* Wikipedia sasy "The Ka band (Pronounced: "Kay-A Band") covers the frequencies of 26.5-40 GHz. The Ka band is part of the K band of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This symbol refers to "K-above" — in other words, the band directly above the K-band. The so-called 30/20 GHz band is used in communications satellites, uplink in either the 27.5 GHz or 31 GHz bands."
About Cloudnet
Cloudnet supplies business phone systems and services to SMEs and start-ups. Its Cloudnet Connect system offers the advantages of no capital expenditure necessary to run a professional PBX and dramatically lower running costs. Cloudnet has developed a dedicated voice over IP (VoIP) network providing free calls within its network and cheap rate calls outside of the Cloudnet network. The company also offers CLASS, a live answering service and has introduced mobile VoIP solutions. Cloudnet is privately financed and started trading in March 2009.
Written by David Hill