Katrina Could Unite Wireless, Satellite Industries
Cable and satellite industries might never converge, but they could be partners, industry officials said at an FCBA lunch Wed. After Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast terrestrial wireless network, satellite phones and satellite data services played a critical role in filling communication gaps left by the storm. So how about a “satellite backup” service for terrestrial wireless networks, some asked. Convergence between wireless and satellite hasn’t been a reality, a satellite industry official told us, but it could be a different story for next-generation systems.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
“It is assumed that MSV and ICO will probably be acquired by or partner with a cellular operator,” said consultant Tim Farrar, who spoke at the lunch. Farrar said one outcome could be a satellite operator building and operating an MSS satellite that’s then used by a wireless operator for an annual royalty fee. The wireless operator would pay to use the satellite and build Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) base stations as a capacity expansion for its cellular network, said Farrar.
Phones for such a system would be “triband” or “trimodal,” with cellular, ATC and direct-to-satellite capabilities, said Farrar: “The handsets could include the satellite component as an ‘emergency backup,’ for use when consumers are outside both cellular and ATC coverage,” he said. Or when terrestrial communications aren’t working.
Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV), the only current ATC licensee, has spoken with vendors about triband phones, said Monish Kundra, MSV senior vp-corporate development, who deals with potential investors and strategic partners: “In order to take advantage of the scale of the handset volume that cellular operators need, it makes sense to have trimode phones, which would be any of the traditional air interfaces, combined with a next-generation network that has an ATC and satellite component.”
Kundra said handset vendors favor the triband idea: “It takes advantage of what’s out there today, and adds on top of it a satellite capacity that gives it ubiquity.” Coverage is key for potential wireless partners, he said, and there’s no practical way besides satellite to cover the entire U.S. Wireless-satellite convergence is already becoming a reality in other countries like S. Korea, Kundra said: “The technical questions are already being answered there before they are in the U.S.”
“Hurricane Katrina has certainly been a topic of discussion with potential partners over the last couple weeks,” Kundra said: “It’s front and center in their minds. For traditional 3G companies or new companies looking to launch new networks, I think Katrina has been a great example of how service companies who offer satellite capacity will have a marketing advantage as well as a true service advantage over what’s out there today.”
Hybrid systems that incorporate a satellite component could play an increasingly important role in public safety, officials said at the lunch. Sen. Kerry (D.- Mass.) last week introduced a bill that would have the Dept. of Homeland Security and the FCC evaluate creation of a backup emergency system using satellite, wireless and terrestrial-based communications in tandem with existing technologies. Kundra said the chipset MSV is developing will also work inside Land Mobile Radios (LMRs) used by emergency responders: “Then if a police tower goes down, you could switch the ATC network and then to the satellite.” MSV Vp-Reg. Affairs Jennifer Manner said the hybrid chipset would add to public safety spectrum by allowing emergency responders to communicate within 700 MHz, but with satellite spectrum for backup. CTIA didn’t have a comment right away.