TECHNOLOGY


COMMUNICATION IS KING


ONBOARD talks to Simon Pearce about the emerging capabilities and innovations surrounding satellite


communication and how the industry as a whole will benefit in the years to come


A


s we move into one of the most exciting phases of communications technology in recent history, it’s a time of


disruption and uncertainty for many and the term ‘future proof’ gets used more and more to reassure buyers that their confidence is not misplaced, however, true future proofing is not here yet but is promised in much of the next tier of solutions about to be released.


Software configurable satellites and soon, software configurable terminals will bring new levels of flexibility that will deliver something much closer to true future proofing. In fact, the emerging technology will deliver benefits far in advance of current capabilities to deliver it and, as usual, we won’t see the full benefits of these advances until technologies converge and back-office systems evolve to be able to offer the flexibility and control that is often talked about. The emerging capability to connect a single terminal to multiple constellations


from multiple operators simultaneously, is way ahead of the current capability, or will, to invoice for it as a single service and for that reason alone, end user options are limited to those provided by each individual satellite operator.


The eagerly anticipated next generation phased array terminals will provide multibeam support so that 2 or more satellites in any orbit can be tracked simultaneously, providing make-before- break, high throughput connectivity via a single terminal. Ku versions have been tested successfully and the Ka option will be launched in 2022 and this, along with multiple options for modems, means that the antenna will be configurable to operate with any satellite constellation and only limited by the commercial offerings of the satellite operators.


New operators are bringing the benefits of LEO constellations to market and recent acquisitions see communications giants


merging to combine networks to deliver immense capacity and higher reliability. We haven’t seen the end of the mergers and we are about to see disruptive pricing as LEO operators enter the maritime markets. The fact is, that it costs more to provide maritime VSAT than it does on land. Factors such as more resources in frequency spectrum usage, international licensing, laser link technology to land data and that there are far less end users in the maritime market to share the costs, all contribute to the relatively high cost of services, so don’t expect to see the $99 subscription in maritime anytime soon. Sector-wide surveys that I have been involved in over the past 5 years, show that year on year, end user expectations are for more bandwidth for similar costs.


Selecting hardware and services becomes more difficult as the number of options increases and to complicate it further, the drivers for such services are becoming stronger, even to the point of legislation.


ONBOARD | WINTER 2022 | 79


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