Ka Band Satellites

All about Ka Band satellite technology.

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Eutelsat 3D Satellite Prepares For May 14 Launch

Eutelsat's 3D Satellite reportedly arrived at Baikonour Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on April 13 and is now undergoing final preparations for launch by ILS Proton scheduled on May 14.

EUTELSAT 3D weighs 5.4 tons at lift off and has been built for Eutelsat by Thales Alenia Space using its established Spacebus 4000 platform.

Also, With a baseline design equipping it to strengthen Eutelsat’s overall in-orbit flexibility and back-up from multiple orbital slots, EUTELSAT 3D will initially be located at the 3° East orbital position to address high-growth video, data, telecom and broadband markets. Through its configuration of Ku and Ka transponders connected to three footprints, the new satellite will serve customers in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. A fourth service area in the Ku-band will address markets in sub- Saharan Africa.

See also: Orbital Sciences Preps For Antares Rocket Test Launch

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Galaxy Broadband To Launch A New Ka-Band Beam

A new Ka-band beam is to be launched by the Canada-based company, Galaxy Broadband Communications Inc. on its SkyDATA Enterprise Class for Central and Eastern Canada.

Scheduled on April 15, 2013, the new Ka-band beam will be launched from Galaxy's facilities in Toronto using Telesat's Ka-band spot beam on Anik F3.

Telesat's Vice-President North American Sales, Michele Beck said, "Telesat satellites have a proven record providing technical advantages that enable customers to develop new markets, which is what Galaxy Broadband did last year when they selected Telesat Ka-band to cover Western Canada. We are very pleased that Galaxy Broadband has added another Ka-band beam to serve the Northern portion of resource rich provinces of Eastern Canada. This additional capacity, in combination with Galaxy's existing coverage of Western Canada, dramatically improves the communications options available to end customers across Canada's Far North."

The new Ka-band beam will cover areas, namely, Northern Ontario, Northern Quebec, and the western areas of Newfoundland and Labrador.

“We launched our SkyDATA platform on 4 Ka-band beams last year to that cover the Western half of Canada’s north.  The service has worked very well so we wanted to expand to the Eastern part of the country. We offer a truly world class managed service on a reliable yet cost effective platform.  Our customers are seeking more and more bandwidth to support mission critical applications, morale services to work camps and reliable quality VoIP communications. The additional Ka spot beam will expand our coverage area to the resource rich areas of Eastern Canada.  We have shown the market that our SkyDATA Managed Ka service is both reliable and cost effective.  Leveraging the cost efficiencies of Ka with some really interesting technology we deliver to our customers a fast, predictable service for an affordable price. Since many remote areas are serviced by only aircraft, transporting a 1.2M Ka VSAT to a remote site is very cost effective,” stated Rick Hodgkinson, Galaxy founder, CEO and President.

See also: AT&T Debuts Larger Shared Data Plans

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ViaSat Inc. Demonstrated High-Throughput Ka-Band Satellite On An H-3 Helicopter

The communications company, ViaSat, has demonstrated a high-performance Ka-band satellite communications system that delivers beyond line-of-sight broadband rotary wing aircraft.

According to the news release on the company's website, the advanced system provided sustained data rates of 4 Mbps from the helicopter to a ground station and there are 8 Mbps to the helicopter despite very high shock and vibration and the inherent repetitive signal blockage from rotating blades. Also, the news noted that while previous "through the blade" demonstrations have proved the underlying patented and patent-pending technology, this fight test at Patuxent River, Maryland used a Sikorsky H-3 helicopter.

The flight conditions due to testing include severe banking and operation through several rotor orientations while running data-intensive applications. Also, operators were able to run five VoIP calls, three VTCs from air to ground, and stream videos from the internet to the aircraft during the tests without packet loss or video dropout.

Paul Baca, Vice-President and General Manager of ViaSat Global Mobile Broadband said, “We are enabling new operational concepts for military and civil helicopter missions.Rotary wing customers can experience broadband that overcomes the challenges of vibration, shock, and signal interference associated with satellite communication for helicopters.”

ViaSat used its new VR-12 Ka antenna (a form and fit alternative to VR-12 Ku-band antenna).

See also: iPhone 5 Case To Boost WiFi Reception?

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Gilat introduces new SkyEdge II-c platform with Ka-band support

Gilat Satellite Networks, a leading provider of satellite networking technology, solutions and services, recently launched its new SkyEdge II-c connectivity solution -- a platform which now offers Ka-band and Ku-band internet services for consumer and enterprise applications. To improve its operations, Gilat’s new connectivity solution makes use of a wide range of new features and capabilities. These includes the following: TotalNMS -- a web-based network management system for small and big networks, with custom-fitted capabilities for Service Providers, ISPs and VNOs; Fair Use System (FUS) which aims to provide Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and configurable usage plans for every network and ISP; Multi-tiered acceleration and compression for Internet surfing and application response using TCP Acceleration; Rich IPv6 Stack; and a do-it-yourself Ka-band VSAT installation kit. Explaining the recent development with the SkyEdge II-c, Gilat’s VSAT Business Head Hagay Katz noted that the new platform’s scalable architecture allows operators to start small and proceed to expansion as the demand grows -- all while providing a flexible business and the ability to deliver tailor-made and competitive Internet broadband services. Katz explained, “It’s never been easier to offer your customers the right Internet service plans and bandwidth usage levels to fit their needs. Our new SkyEdge II-c platform dramatically simplifies your network operations and can now provide your ISPs and VNOs the business flexibility to deliver customized and competitive Internet plans and services. Compact, fully integrated, and easy to install, SkyEdge II-c is the new simple in Internet connectivity.” Supporting the statement made by Katz, Gilat Satellite Network CEO Erez Antebi said that the company is currently investing back on its business segments and its Ka-band and satellite-on-the-move initiatives. Following the launch of SES’ Astra 2F satellite last September 2012, Gilat had its first order of Ka-band from a bigger European ISP. The Astra 2F satellite will allow SES Broadband Services (SBBS) to provide commercial Ka-band satellite broadband across Europe. “As part of the SBBS consumer rollout, we received our first order from a larger European ISP,” said Antebi. “The initial order is for several thousand self-installed customer premise equipment based on Gilat’s SkyEdge 2 Aries VSAT. The service aims to allow European households to access satellite Internet, video and Voice-over-IP services.”

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Satellite executive Steve Rich explains how Ka-band will open up new satellite possibilities in Africa. Ka-band introduces “new” capacity, higher bandwidth, smaller end-user antennas (VSATs), increased mobility and cost-effective network deployments, thus having the ability to enter the African market and clearly differentiate itself from existing bands.

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Executives from VT iDirect, Inc. will be present at the GVF Ka Roundtable Assembly 2012 at the Strand Palace Hotel in London, UK on December 5 and 6. The iDirect officers will contribute their expertise and insights on the recently-developed high-throughput satellites (HTS) and Ka-band capacity. These new technologies can accommodate the increasing demands of end users in a broad variety of vertical markets such as satellite Internet.

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South Sudan is the world’s youngest country and the government is looking for ways to upgrade its telecommunications network. The Internet is a crucial platform for progress and the nation’s government expects the new project from Yahsat will expand wireless Internet solutions at affordable rates.

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The rise of powerful ka band satellites are also encouraging the growth of internet from satellite. Since the new generation of birds have high-throughput capacity and paves the way for smaller, mobile, and thus more cost-effective end-user terminals, accessing the world wide web through satellites is not only conceivable, but even ideal.

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British satellite communications company Inmarsat announced yesterday that it had chosen L-3 Global Communications Solutions as its launch partner for the land satellite terminals of the Global Xpress service.

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Express-AMU1, the second satellite and scheduled to be put to orbit by 2015, is a powerful ku and ka band satellite with up to 70 transponders, and will also deliver service continuity to the growing market by Eutelsat in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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After tests of the ASTRA 2F Ka-band satellite proved successful, Astrium has turned the multi-band communications platform over to satellite operator SES.

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An announcement by Avanti Communications Group revealed that the Company’s Hylas 2 broadband satellite has reached fully operational status. Customers in Africa, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East can now benefit from high-speed data and video service coverage courtesy the newly-operational Ka-band satellite.