Today a Russian Proton rocket was launched successfully from the space center of Baikonoer in Kazachstan carrying the Ka-Sat satellite.
It was safely put in orbit and this satellite will be operational in four months.
The Ka-Sat satellite was build by the European company Astrium and has a capacity equal to 40 TV-satellites.
It will serve over 1 million households in Europe with high speed internet connections.
The Ka-Sat satellite is owned by the European communication company Eutelsat.
It has a height of 6 meters (20 feet) and its wingspan is over 40 meters (131 feet).
This satellite costs 350 million Euros. (460 million $)
In the USA are several companies offering internet access through a satellite connection.
Hughes Network Systems is one such company having over one million customers.
It uses different satellites but no matter how, it is by now an outdated system with low transmission speeds.
But worse is the policy of Hughes towards their customers.
It is driven by hunger for profit no matter what.
It si capitalism at its worst.
Check for example the Consumer Affairs website for Hughes Network Systems for the most horrific stories.
Where people write things like:
How many individual complaints reporting the same problems with this company does it take to get a response from Consumer Affairs or The Federal Trade Commission? Does Hughesnet have a loophole within the law that makes it okay to falsely advertise, compromise the privacy of their customers and real them in with false claims of "Special Promotions" that offer free installation and equipment, that not even a month into service you are billed $ 495.82 for?
Or
One of their commercials used to make fun of DSL, saying it stood for dismally slow line. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We installed DSL just yesterday and it is wonderful. Probably 10 times as fast and a lot cheaper and no fair access policy, which is only a way to rip people off. I hope I hear of a class action lawsuit against them because I can't wait to get involved. I don’t really believe in lawsuits but these people are crooks and they need to be put out of business. Please Please Please stay away from them.
Or
I have had 5 years of the worst internet service. I have called HughesNet over 200 times. The customer service is outsourced to India as are all of US Companies. The signal and bandwith is terrible and is not High speed service as advertised. On its best day it is a hair better than dial up. The modem has to be restarted several times a day in order to try to get a connection.
Or
This has got to be the worst company in history. They are nothing but crooks who oversell their own product and pass the shoddy end product on to their customers who are forced to accept it without recourse. I really never thought of mental anguish before dealing with Hughesnet, now I know why it is a factor in lawsuits. Hughesnet needs to be forced by law to uphold their contracts with their customers who presently have no voice whatsoever. A class action lawsuit is the only way I can see where they can be made to account for their actions.
For now there is only the knowledge that it is a temporary matter.
Logic and history learns that in the future Internet will be everywhere at high speed.
And hopefully private companies will not be allowed anymore to be involved in this type of public services.
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Check:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/hughes.html.
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Above us in orbit are satellites and many of them are used for communication.
Like the SatMex 5 satellite.
It is the one used by the Internet system of the Fuso Szulc.
On the roof of the expedition vehicle is a satellite disk to which is connected a modem.
The satellite disk and modem can send and receive signals that are linking to the control center of the company HughesNet somewhere in the USA.
This is made possible by the SatMex 5: it receives and transmits from the one party to the other.
HughesNet put the signals on the regular Internet system and voila, the daily blog is published and fervent and loyal blog readers can read it on their computer screen.
Basically it is a good system.
Because one can be anywhere in parts of Canada, the USA and Mexico and with the satellite disk and modem remain on the Internet.
In the case of the Fuso Szulc, the modem is powered by solar energy, hence literally anywhere access to Internet is guaranteed.
Sometimes there are problems though with this system.
For example, HughesNet can suddenly change the transponder without warning and then suddenly access to Internet is gone.
But the main complain is the speed.
Every fervent and loyal blog reader can Google on the word SatMex5 and find many horror stories about the slow speeds that are suffered.
This is the case with the Fuso Szulc as well.
Certain times of day loading web pages is extremely slow.
Watching TV through website simply impossible.
Skype calls breaking off.
This is at certain times of days because the cause is twofold.
One is that the satellite SatMex5 by now is of outdated technology.
More modern satellites have higher speeds.
But the main reason for the slow speeds is that too many people are put on the satellite.
The more people use the system, the more down the speed goes.
For example, watching TV from a website is only possible after 9.00 pm when most people on the East coast of the USA have gone to sleep and are off their computers.
This situation also demonstrates how business is done in the USA.
When one sees the publicity HughesNet is making for their satellite Internet system transmission speeds are promised that are luring and impressing.
But the reality is that those speeds can never be experienced.
Because HughesNet is not limiting the amount of people using the satellite.
The more people on the satellite the more money HughesNet makes and when this means the speed drops dramatically they can’t care less.
Meanwhile in Europe something exciting has been happening.
A British company called Avanti Communications Group has launched on November 26 the HYLAS 1 satellite with a French Ariane 5 rocket from French Guyana.
This satellite will offer 10 Mbps speeds to some 350,000 customers.
10 Mbps !!
This compares to what HughesNet is fanfaring on their website. They offer: 1 Mbps..
Saying in small letters: “When you connect to the Internet using HughesNet, the upload and download speeds you experience will vary based on a variety of factors including the configuration of your computer, the number of concurrent users, network or Internet congestion, the speed of the Websites you are accessing, and other factors. Stated speeds and uninterrupted use of service are not guaranteed. During peak hours, actual upload and download speed will likely be lower than speeds indicated”.
In other words, and this is based on personal experience, forget about the 1 Mbps.
It is more likely to be 79 Kbps.
10 Megabytes per second or 79 Kilobytes per second: it is a world of difference.
Avanti is also developing a second satellite, called HYLAS 2 set to launch in 2012.
Which is to provide wireless high speed broadband in the Middle East and Africa as well as Europe.
Meanwhile in the USA the people remain in the Stone Age: while next year in Europe and in two years in Africa and the Middle East they happily surf the Internet at 10 Megabytes per second, the Americans are still digitally challenged at 79 Kilobytes per second.
Hey Avanti, put one up here, please!
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