Accelerating Tomorrow’s Networks TM Integrated Services Terrestrial and VSAT Data Networks.

Accelerating Tomorrow’s Networks TM

Integrated ServicesTerrestrial and VSAT Data Networks

2COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005

About Spacenet Inc.

• Founded 1981– Owned by Southern Pacific, GTE, GE– Acquired by Gilat Satellite Networks in 1998

• 300 employees, headquarters in McLean, VA

• Managed network services provider– VSAT WAN connectivity– Terrestrial and hybrid DSL/VSAT networks– Value-added application services– Network management– Residential/SOHO ISP services by satellite

• Large and established customer base– 100 enterprise customers (more than 40,000 sites)– 32,000 residential customers


Some of Our Customers

Retail Restaurant & Hospitality Oil & Gas and SCADA

Lottery & FinancialGrocery Freight & Shipping


Spacenet’s Enterprise VSAT Business

• Spacenet supports more than 40,000 enterprise VSATs

• Customers come primarily from five verticals– Retail (including gas and convenience stores)– Restaurant & hospitality– Energy/utility– Finance– Government

• Application-centric networks for businesses

• Common applications include:– Credit/debit authorization, Point of Sale polling– Multicast file/content delivery– Interactive Distance Learning– Internet/intranet, back-office (e-mail, web, file transfers)– SCADA and remote monitoring or surveillance applications

• Full-time VSAT networks and part-time networks for failover/backup or burst connectivity

• Sometimes, VSAT is primary connectivity; in other cases, it is supplementary or backup to Frame Relay or other terrestrial


Spacenet VSAT Networks

Credit Card Processor

Music Provider

Spacenet Hub

Back-Office AppsTraining Video

Corporate Communications

HQ/Data

Center

Remote Sites

SatelliteIndoor Unit

TrainingVideo

Licensed Music

Web-basedPOS

Credit Authorization

Internet/Intranet

Web-basedE-mail

Multicast Services

Back-of-House Applications

Front-of-House Applications

Offsite Application Host Facility


Why Offer Hybrid Networks?

• Terrestrial offers several advantages over VSAT for data networks…– Compelling pricing (especially in consumer networks)– Low latency (better for some applications)– Greater familiarity within the IT community

• …although VSAT still retains several important advantages– Ubiquitous availability– Multicast support– Control of the last mile

• Increasing DSL footprint, technology maturity are increasing customer demand

• Spacenet sees itself as a services provider, not just a VSAT operator

• Hybrid networks are a competitive differentiator

• Allows us to build on the customer relationship


VSAT and DSL Data Networks

COMPONENT A (DELIVERY)

AGGREGATION POINTLEC CO

REMOTE SITE

Core Router

Local Loop

DSLAMDSL Router

HUB

Edge Router

T E L C O N E T W O R KCOMPONENT B (NETWORK ACCESS)

COMPONENT A (DELIVERY)

REMOTE SITE

SatelliteIDU/ODUHub RFT,

Baseband Equipment

ISP Network

COMPONENT B (NETWORK ACCESS)

Switch

LEC CO

Router

O V E R - T H E - A I R N E T W O R K


Integrated Services Challenges

• “Thinking terrestrial”

• Choosing service mix (DSL, private lines, Frame Relay, others)

• Choosing a business model (how much infrastructure investment?)– Facilities-based providers vs. reseller/ISPs– Layer-2 vs. Layer-3 services

• Developing terrestrial know-how (VSAT is the hard part!)

• Creating a business case for where terrestrial fits into your offerings– Majority-terrestrial networks– Terrestrial gap-fill for VSAT (line of sight, building rights issues)– Terrestrial and VSAT together for different applications or failover connectivity

• Dealing with the complexities of terrestrial installations

• Determining customer needs

• Creating marketplace-competitive offerings


Spacenet Hub Facility

DSL-Connected Sites

Customer Corp Headquarters or

Data Center Dedicated Terrestrial

Backhaul (Frame Relay or

IPsec Tunnels)

VSAT-Connected Sites

Transaction Processors

Hybrid VSAT/DSL Networks

ATM Interconnect with

Facilities-Based Provider

3rd-Party Value Added Services Providers


Spacenet’s Integrated DSL Offering

• Services for franchise/SME through enterprise needs– ADSL services on the low end– SDSL/IDSL services on the high end– Dual-pipe solutions for special needs

• DSL services are routed back to the Spacenet hub for a seamless hybrid network

– Terrestrial and VSAT sites can share IP space, be managed as part of one WAN– Allows for centralized firewalling/network management just as with VSAT

• Unifying the services:– Same NOC/NMC handles trouble tickets for DSL and VSAT customers– Customers receive one bill– Orders are placed through the same fulfillment system– Live prequalifications for both terrestrial and VSAT

• There are still differences:– Terrestrial on-site maintenance doesn’t have the flexibility of VSAT offerings – Different contract terms, different AUP/usage restrictions

• Enthusiastic response from customers


Integrated Services – Moving Forward

• In markets where terrestrial is a factor, it must be addressed– Some markets will always remain VSAT-centric– When there is open competition on connectivity services, terrestrial has an

important place

• Spacenet has not seen meaningful cannibalization of its VSAT market

– Most deployments are gap-fills on VSAT networks– Opportunities for VSAT and terrestrial in primary/secondary configuration

• Some customers actually switch to VSAT once they experience the problems of large terrestrial rollout

• Success is dependent on developing the attitude of a “service provider”

– Are you a hardware-specific operator or a solutions provider?– Successfully implementing one terrestrial platform opens the door to many

other future service offerings– Things like WiMax/EVDV and others represent future threats to VSAT data

networks that will need to be addressed in time as well

Accelerating Tomorrow’s Networks TM Integrated Services Terrestrial and VSAT Data Networks.

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