Slashdot Mirror
Inmarsat Brings 3G Broadband to North America
Jessup writes "The Earth just got one step closer to true global broadband through satellite based communications.
With the launch of the Zenit-3SL rocket the Inmarsat-4 F2 satellite brings 3G high speed cell technology to North America. From the article: 'Their onboard technology is designed to allow people to set up virtual offices anywhere around the world via high-speed broadband connections and new 3G phone technology.'"
Now were only 2 years behind Korea, Japan, and the rest of the 3G world!
From the article: "It is the second in a planned two-satellite constellation."
It only takes two items to make a constellation?? Three would be a crowd, I guess.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
But is the world mature enough for that?
I was under the impression that 3G would be an overkill, till the mobiles etc does get mature enough for that..
Come to think of that, even now 2G is unavailable at quite a few places.
Why only North America, doesn't it orbit around the whole world?
"Virtual offices".. yeh ok, we all know it will be used for porn, porn and more porn. 3G porn on the go!
You'll sware it was broadband! Load of non-sense, doesn't this just cache web-pages? I'd be happier with real broadband, expecially because it's way more affordable (price/performance) than dialup. Of course, my opinions would be different if I was using the interent for different reasons (there's definately a niche demographic for this kind of technology somewhere).
What kind of reporting tells us in detail about the "innovative" use of oil drilling platform tech, but not *how fast this "3G" connection is*? It's just PR, not reporting. And since US "3G" means "whatever the phone company sells you and calls 3G", there's no way to find out. Thanks, BBC!
--
make install -not war
Most of the world is still using 2Ghz computers. Does this mean they simply won't be able to communicate as fast as 3G (i.e. only use ¾ of the pipe) or are they completely unable to sync?
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Can we back up, and make a phone that actually works before we put 100 different things on it?
INMARSAT is International Maritime Satellite, a company originally dedicated to ship communications. They're also a pipeline for information hacked by ship pirates to analyze booty to steal.
INMARSAT has enough satellites to cover the globe, and they've bribed every major government of the world to require large cargo ships to use their system, greatly increasing the cost. They now are manipulating the added profits to extend 3G internationally.
I'm a fan of 3G, but not by a megacorp that earned its income through coercion. The fact that large shippers are m ndated to use INMARSAT and that pirates are already receiving the information (speed, cargo weight, location) increases our costs of goods and puts more control powers to the company.
You think Haliburton is bad?
Inmarsat currently does phone service in many VERY remote areas (places such as the middle of the oceans, and Antarctica I believe), and it has a pricetag to match.
If the pricing for this is anything like their phone service...it won't be a very viable solution.
What's the purpose of having so much bandwidth without a decent ping time to make it worth gaming on? That's what offices are for, isn't it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmarsat
430kbps. Not bad!
There was a previous attempt to link the world with satellite based 'cell' phones. They launched lots of birds but at the price they were charging for air time, they had no customers. This kind of service may be good for offshore oil rigs and arctic explorers but that kind of customer base is much too small to make it pay. Everyone else is connected much more cheaply than this service can probably compete with. Of course, I didn't see any mention of fees in tfa.
Download Speeds
3G: max 384kbps
GPRS: max 48kbps
Upload Speeds
3G: max 64kbps
GPRS: max 24kbps
Why don't we join together to put wifi/wimax towers every few miles in our backyards ?
We could build a national network .
Is this possible ?
Can you imagine going war-driving with THAT!?
On a more serious note, anyone know how the service is going to work? Do the users have to subscribe to the BGan service and always use the satellite or does the satellite kick in when land based connections are weak? The latter case would be very cool. Imagine a phone that can pick and choose connection methods such as WiFi, 3G, and satellite as the situation dictates and an ISP that will provide it to you.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
In the late 90s, I talked to a very nice fellow who owned a gorgeous 120' yacht and was travelling around the world as he chartered it. Of course cut-price or no, a 120' yacht is not one of the cheapest things in the world to run, even if you get your diesel from Venezuela at $0.10 a gallon!
:-(.
We got to talking about boats and Inmarsat and the like, and he was kind enough to tell me his 56k connection cost $12 a minute. The mere act of emailing me must have cost a few bucks an email!
So it's not at all meaningful to know that INMARSAT service is getting better, without understanding how expensive it is. I think the satellite phone service is a couple of dollars a minute.
If it's that expensive, I fear it's of limited interest to most Slashdot users
D
The summary says both sattelite and cell. These are 2 totally different technologies.
Check out "Office Live" that Microsoft is pushing now...
;-)
Very basically, you will not be able to buy any software in the future. You will have to dial out and use all your apps online for a monthly subsribtion fee, like your cell phone! Ever heard of VNC?
Think of your future Microsoft computer as some kinda sick uber-terminal that needs to be hooked up to the mainframe at Redmond to run anything (don't need cables, maybe will use 3G or sattelite internet, or whatever). Upside is that you can carry with you all your settings, apps, docs no matter what device you use. And you can figure the downsides for yourself
Hacking that? Well, that would be like hacking cell-phones, or steal other people's credit money... Make no mistake about it: any computer hacking in the future would ab initio involve activities that are highly criminal and illegal. Couple that with mandatory biometrics, and the 'hackers' just can't hide! But hey, at least script-kiddies will be nubbed in the bud!
Off-topic, here I come
LLLOOOLL i'm using a 3G celular phone for a long time ago. ONLY NOW USA?????
How is it mandated that a ship must use Inmarsat/BGAN? Also, how is it that the pirates get your info from it? (No, I'm not a wannabe pirate.) I'm not giving you a hard time; I'm genuinely curious.
--
In the scenario where the constellation was a straight line... I'd allow it.
Of course, I am not the authority on such things.
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
Namaste
According to some promo info, with the new service you only pay for the bits you actually send/receive, not for just having the thing on, so you aren't tying up bandwidth for dead air.
--
Inmarsat: Bringing the worms home to you. Fast.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
I think that was true of this service as well, but nonetheless with the time required to set up and tear down the connection and likely minimums it probably cost almost a minute's worth of call time to send an email.
I'd love to know how much this new service is; anyone know?
D
You can actually get a broadband RV service for (if my memory serves) about $6500 for the service plus $150 a month but it appears not to work for boats, which is a real pity. That kind of company might be worth looking for next time you or your parents go on a cruise.
Skymate's still a bit expensive, with a total monthly allocation of 50,000 characters even for the most expensive ($69.95 monthly) plan.
And you can't surf the web or do anything interactive.
Still, it's a sign that the cost of this kind of service is going down.
Eventually.
D
This is nothing new, 3G (3rd Generation, not 3gig) has been offered in many US metropolitan areas (DC, LA, Chicago, Madison). 3G is still provided by standard cell towers, the problem is how to get that fatty pipe to each tower. There are a few ways. The expencive way is to run fiber from tower to tower. A cheaper route is Microwave (look for a 20' dish with LOS to another tower/20' dish), but it requires line of sight. Satelite allows the cell towers to connect via terestrial means, or in cases of isolated or expencive locations they can toss a small dish on the tower for a fraction of the cost.
This is not to be confussed with Magellon or other SatPhones that actually did communicate directly to the satelites. Those phones, while wikkid cool, were insanely expensive. And just how many phone calls are you going to make from the top of Everest when your minutes cost you $20 a pop?
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I have been using 3G network for almost a year already, and the 3G service has been available since 2003 in Hong Kong. I really don't understand why US is so behind on the broadband/3G service, which I think US should be the leader in these areas. When I live in the state back then, I almost paid $200 bucks for 6M down/256k up pipe with a /29 static IP blocks. Yes, it was expensive, and I guess it is still the same price even now. In Hong Kong, they already offer 1000mb pipe for US $300 a month and 100mb pipe for US $35 a month.
No, it's not that population/density issue, it's because of the regulation give absolutely no incentive for PacHell/SBC to upgrade.
On a side note, I see people posting that 3G is overkilled. I am not sure about you, but I have been watching news LIVE on my phone when I am on my way to work on bus.
How can it be that expensive? Even Iridium is "only" $30/mo + $1.50 per minute, through a handset. And you can even get data services at a whopping 2.4 Kbps. Ok, that's laughably bad, but you could transfer 50KBytes in under 3 minutes for about $4.50 in airtime.
This is not "bringing" 3G to the US. We've had it for quite some time - CDMA2000 is a 3G technology. You can transfer data at higher than modem speeds via cell phone (1xRTT) just about anywhere in the country, and in most major cities, you can get DSL speeds too (1xEV-DO).
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
I seem to remember my friend's Iridium equipment for his yacht was something like $25,000-$50,000. The Skymate service uses a $1,000-odd receiver/dish. That difference in equipment cost pretty much insulates Skymate from price comparisons with Iridum.
Actually, it sounds like SailMail offers very similar services for a much cheaper fee, apparently $250 a year. (That's up from $100 when I'd first heard of them - yikes). Sailmail uses SSB radio which I think is less spiffy than satellite, but I understand it does the job, and there's a 10k limit on messages instead of the rather pathetic 1k limit from Skymate. Worth a look.
D
Yowsers! Nowadays the Iridium phone is down to $1500 and the data kit is $189.
Obligatory meta-funny whore post.
I hope you're happy now.
Below are the international rates ( dollars per minute pricing, so talk quickly)
I can get through my phone company:
Inmarsat Atlantic East Aero
15.84
Inmarsat Atlantic East Mini M
12.47
Inmarsat Atlantic East A Voice/Data
12.47
Inmarsat Atlantic East BHSD
12.47
Inmarsat Atlantic East B Voice/Data
12.47
Inmarsat Atlantic East M
15.84
Inmarsat Atlantic West A Voice/Data
12.47
Inmarsat Atlantic West Aero
15.84
Inmarsat Atlantic West BHSD
17.94
Inmarsat Atlantic West BVoice/Data
12.47
Inmarsat Atlantic West M
15.84
Inmarsat Atlantic West Mini M
12.47
Inmarsat Indian Ocean A Voice/Data
12.47
Inmarsat Indian Ocean Aero
15.84
Inmarsat Indian Ocean BHSD
17.94
Inmarsat Indian Ocean B Voice/Data
12.47
Inmarsat Indian Ocean M
15.84
Inmarsat Indian Ocean Mini M
12.47
Inmarsat Pacific Ocean A Voice/Data
11.31
Inmarsat Pacific Ocean Aero
12.47
Inmarsat Pacific Ocean BHSD
12.47
Inmarsat Pacific Ocean B Voice/Data
9.30
Inmarsat Pacific Ocean M
12.47
Inmarsat Pacific Ocean Mini M
9.30
Inmarsat Unified B
17.28
Inmarsat Unified M
15.84
Inmarsat Unified Mini M
12.47
Me bad. Sorry. I meant Inmarsat.
I think Inmarsat is quite a bit more reliable on the high seas. Because of wave action the antenna has to be stabilized which makes equipment a lot more expensive.
D
Typically the opening weekend of a movie dictates the maximum amount of money it will make. Consoles stay on the market for considerably longer than movies, but sales at introduction are still important. Sony helped guarantee success by selling in Japan first, where they were virtually guaranteed to succeed. By the time they initiated sales in the US they had a lot of positive buzz.
There is something to be said about introducing your product in a smaller market as well. If you have any problems with the product you have time to fix them before starting sales in larger markets. We often rolled out our software enhancement to smaller user communities overseas before the US so that we could verify everything worked.
If you subscribe to Verizon's 3G service (which uses CDMA, I believe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#CDMA_2000 ), you pay a flat $60 fee for unlimited usage.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
3G is not broadband!
...is actually ahead of the US - Amazing!
PS - For the people who don't know what i am talking about, South Africa has a history of taking a very long time to deploy advances in telecoms - mostly due to our EVIL incumbent Telco, Telkom making sure they are able to rape the South African Internet population for all they are worth. Which means that typically our Internet connectivity options plainly suck. For some more information on how bad they suck, you can visit Hellkom or MyADSL.
However, we have actually had 3G technology over here for quite a couple of months already.
You can actually get a broadband RV service for (if my memory serves) about $6500 for the service plus $150 a month but it appears not to work for boats, which is a real pity.
You can get systems on the same service for boats. It just costs a bit more because the dish is in a gyro-stabilized bubble.
You can get much cheaper hardware for RVs, if you're willing to spend an hour learning how to manually point the dish, and 15 minutes to set it up whenever you move. It's not as hard as professional installers say it is to align a dish. The $5000+ systems are for motorized GPS-enabled dishes that do it all for you. (Which is what I'm sure 99% of RV'ers want.)
A 56k connection (or voice call) on Iridium is about $1 minute. It works almost anywhere in the world and at 35,000 feet. My company uses the motorola 9505 on aircraft and we use SMS and voice mostly because data is just so slow... but it is cheap, can be cheaper than international cellphone roaming charges!
Will this work with current 3G phones which only need to be able to send a signal 10-20 miles to the nearest cell tower - rather than 22,000 odd miles to this satellite ? Or will you in fact need a nice bulky satellite phone to use this.
These comparisons to cellular data networks are a bit off the mark. Inmarsat's BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) of which the I4 satellites are the space segment, only supports fixed applications. You need a directional antenna that is pointed at, and has clear line of site to, the satellite.
The closest satellite equivalents to cell networks for voice are the Irridium and Thoria services. Irridium is heavily used for mobile data applications, but doesn't offer GPRS-like speeds or IP connectivity.
I don't have much experience with satellite-based networks but I've heard the latency makes them less-than-optimal. It doesn't matter how much pipe you have if it takes an eternity to get packets to and fro, especially if there's any packet loss (which assumedly there would be). Any interactive appliaction or protocol that used multiple simultaneous connections (like HTTP) would feel really slow.
If this network is no better than bonding 28.8 modems together, what's the point?
I used to work on that launch project, Sea Launch. It was alot of hard work, but it was also alot of fun. http://www.sea-launch.com/ Novel to follow: For three to four weeks at a time we would put to sea, with the rocket resting peacefully in the hangar. During the one and a half week trip to the equator from Long Beach the crew would spend the time performing launch rehearsals and verifying their system readiness to support the launch. Needless to say there was plenty of time for recreation. Basketball, volleyball, table tennis, and spin classes in the cargo hold followed by poker and darts in the bar. But nothing beats launch day! You have been preparing for this day for the past three months. You have spent countless hours double-checking your launch procedure and launch support equipment. At L minus one hour it starts to get real intense. I take my usual position in front of the RF tracking station after launching the final weather balloon to check upper atmospheric winds. I watch my spectrum analyzers and AGC levels to ensure maximum signal quality. You take one final look over your shoulder at the rocket standing 6 kilometers away on the Launch Platform. Then the final countdown; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Launch! I see the position change in the signal and I engage autotrack, my fingers poised above the handwheels ready to take over should the autotrack fail. Finally the sound hits the ship and you see the equipment rack light up in this bright orange-yellow light, but you cannot look away from the antenna control. The next three minutes of telemetry data rest solely on your shoulders. Finally the call comes over the net, TDRS has picked up the signal; data recorders are switched to the NASA feed and you relax knowing that you job is done. You stow the antenna and secure your position before signing off the net to go party with the crew on the weather deck. And then there is the sail home, one week of the most absolute boredom you can ever experience. I read all 5 Harry Potter books in an row, twice, because I needed something to do. But eventually that passes and you hear that call of Catalina Island off of the starboard bow. Seeing the smog of LA is one of the sweetest sights of that whole trip. You take a couple of days to get to know your family again, and then do it all over again. Justin Miles Former Sea Launch RF Technician
The following site refers to the European BGAN network, but has some pricing info ($6.95 - 9.95 per MByte), which is a good indication of possible Western hemisphere pricing.
http://www.outfittersatellite.com/rbgan.htm
(can't get the HTML to work in preview, sorry)
--
3G has been here in the UK for several years, I have a 3G data card in my laptop and I've got to say I'm impressed. For the most part it picks up a good 3G connection at 384kbs/s, fast enough to browse. It will use 8011.2g if availible otherwise 3G or failsover to GPRS.
My package alows me something like 75MB a day for free and then you have to pay for extra bandwidth but as something to use on train/road for picking up emails, doing basic browsing it's perfect.
Obviously this get's owned but the 24Mb/s ADSL2+ offered in the home but for a truely portable device that actualy has a large infrastructure built unlike 8011.2g it's not bad.
3G coverage is obviously not quite the 99.9% that GPRS covers but it's getting there. Welcome to the modern world USA.