Low cost, high bandwidth satellite is on its way
Following on from the recent Ka-band successes for the European broadband market, it now seems that high speed, permanently connected, affordable bandwidth over satellite is firmly on its way for businesses, and that can only be good news for the oil and gas industry!
With the launch of further Ka-band satellites from Inmarsat and Telenor by 2014, in addition to existing services from Eutelsat, these services should eventually provide the global coverage that operators in oil exploration and production need. When used in conjunction with the new Ka-band marine VSAT systems from Seatel, for example, it now seems highly likely that bandwidth of up to 50Mbps will be available to offshore, on a point-to-point basis, and we all know what that means for voice, video and applications to offshore!
Future investment
Although costs are still a bit of a secret for point-to-point links, ISN feel that because of the technology used, operators can expect perhaps four or more times the bandwidth for the same existing expenditure. We expect that companies like Telenor, Inmarsat, Arqiva, Nessco and Harris CapRock will, over time, invest in the necessary Ka-band ground earth station equipment, and that will speed up the replacement of older, conventional C and Ku-band systems.
Available now
But for those of you don’t know, limited Ka-band services are here already and you can have them tomorrow! I’d love to hear any views on how Ka-band might change things in your business. Please comment below or give me a call on 020 7313 9900.