The Future of Wireless Backhaul

Today Intelsat sponsored and hosted the Satellite Communications track at ITW 2009. The most popular session today was the Future of Wireless Backhaul panel moderated by George Giagtzoglou, Vice President of Corporate and Marketing Strategy at Intelsat. (Photo: George Giagtzoglou)

In an industry that expects to have 5.2 billion subscribers by 2011, reaching the “last billion users” presents challenges both from a financial perspective as well as geographical perspective—after all, the cost of getting connectivity to the heart of the jungle presents a unique set of challenges.

Richard Swardh, Business Manager of Satellite Services with Ericsson stated that 80% of the last billion subscribers can be addressed through more cost effective handsets and attractive pre-paid solutions. The remaining 20% presents a much greater challenge for developing attractive business cases to bring services to developing nations. These areas often bring topography challenges that prohibit fiber and are ideal for satellite solutions, yet the average ARPU in these developing markets do not provide high enough EBITA margins for an acceptable business case.

George opened the panel by stressing Intelsat’s commitment to finding the most efficient compression technologies and optimizing cellular software for satellite connectivity—important to insuring that our 60 wireless customers have viable business models that support their growth objectives. Several panel members discussed their top technology recommendations where operators should focus their attention to bridge the digital divide.

Paul Ziegler, Executive Director of Carrier Services with Gateway Communications stated that infrastructure sharing and outsourcing of networks are viable means for multiple operators to expand in new markets without large capital investments.

Richard Swardh reminded the audience that power requirements of VSATs are a challenge in developing nations and states that increasing power efficiency in equipment is necessary for these challenging markets—many of these sites run on solar or generator power. In addition, Richard mentioned that local switching versus satellite hops back to the central office dramatically reduces the satellite capacity required to and reduces operator costs for operating their networks.

Ramesh Ramaswamy, Assistant Vice President of International Marketing at Hughes Network Systems discussed the need to obtain more bits/Hz to efficiently utilize satellite bandwidth and intelligent processing of signaling as a means to entering developing markets. Maxwell Walker, Carrier Services Technical Manager with Digicel encouraged manufacturers to work towards standards-based equipment versus proprietary systems to enable interoperability among networks.

I personally found it interesting that the governments of developing nations are encouraging infrastructure development in rural areas with their process for awarding 3G licenses – awardees in Brazil and India, for example, must commit to connecting a specific percentage of rural populations within designated time periods.

~ Lynette Simmons, Director, Marketing Communications