July - August 2006 SATMAGAZINEBack to Contents 2 July - August 2006 SATMAGAZINE.COM Vol. 4 No. IV,...

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SATMAGAZINE.COMJuly - August 2006

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Vol. 4 No. IV, July - August 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTSClick on the title to go

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COVER STORY

.

REGULAR DEPARTMENTS

By Virgil Labrador

By Bruce Elbert

Bruce Elbert discussesthe applications drivingthe satellitemanufacturing sector.

3 / Notes from the

Editor

4 / Calendar of Events

5 / Industry News

10 / Executive Moves

14 / New Products and

Services

40 / Market Intelligence

42 / Advertisers’ Index/

Stock Quotes

by Chris Forrester

FEATURE

30 / EuropeanSatellite Radio –Battle Lines GetDrawn

22 / Directions forSatelliteManufacturing

18 / SatelliteManufacturing:State of Play

VIEWPOINT

37 / ISCe 2006Insights

by Jimmy Schaeffler

The satellite manufacturingsector is one of the fastestgrowing sectors of theindustry after experiencingone of the worseperformances just a fewyears ago.

Competition is heating upin the European SatelliteRadio market.

The recently-concluded ISCe 2006 in SanDiego, California highlighted key industryissues.

FEATURE

27 / Telenor Usedfor DistanceLearningProject in theAmazon

by David Freeman

CASE

STUDY

A remote section of thePreuvian Amazonrainforest is linked to theoutside world withtechnology provided byTelenor.

FEATURE

35 / New Services:Satellite Bandwidthon Demand

Opportunities abound in providing satellitebandwidth on-demand.

by Bernardo Schneiderman

SATMAGAZINE.COM

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July-August 2006

Satnews Publishers is the leadingprovider of information on theworldwide satellite industry. Foremore information, go towww.satnews.com

Cover Design by: Simon Payne

Published monthly bySatnews Publishers800 Siesta Way,Sonoma, CA 95476 USAPhone (707) 939-9306Fax (707) 939-9235E-mail: [email protected]: www.satmagazine.com

Baden WoodfordContributing Writer, Africa

Jill Durfee([email protected])Advertising Sales

Joyce Schneider([email protected])Advertising Sales

Copyright © 2006Satnews PublishersAll rights reserved.

EDITORIALSilvano PaynePublisher

Virgil LabradorManaging Editorand Editor, North America

Chris ForresterEditor, Europe, Middle Eastand Africa

Bernardo SchneidermanEditor, Latin America

Peter GalaceEditor, Asia-Pacific

John Puetz, Bruce ElbertDan Freyer, Howard GreenfieldContributing Writers,The Americas

David Hartshorn, Martin JarroldContributing Writers, Europe

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

NASA to Jump Start CommercialDevelopment of SpaceTransportation

We have covered in this magazine developments incommercial space transportation such as the excitingaward of the $10 million Ansari X-Prize to the Burt Rutandesign team that successfully carried out the first pri-vately-funded commercial space flight in the Mojavedesert last year. Some may ask how does the developmentof commercial space travel have any bearing on thesatellite industry?

Plenty. As we all know the satellite industry is closely tied to the largerspace industry. The technologies used are very similar especially inlaunch and electronic systems. So it is safe to say that any quantumleap in the space industry will benefit the satellite industry as well.

As it happens, NASA has finally decided to support a competition of itsown to encourage private sector developed space vehicles for commer-cial space travel. NASA will provide the winning private companieswith $500 million in seed money to develop space vehicles. Accordingto the LA Times some of the companies that have emerged as finalistsincludes companies that do a lot of satellite business such as ElSegundo,CA-based SpaceX and SpaceDev of Poway, CA.

The $500 million that NASA is putting up is just a fraction of thedevelopment cost if NASA were to do the job themselves. Not tomention the savings in time of development. Jump starting the privatesector is an idea whose time has come and deserves all our support.

In this issue, we tackle the backbone of the satellite industry--themanufacturing sector. We have interviews of key executives fromBoeing and Space Systems/Loral as well as another incisive look at thisimportant sector from Bruce Elbert. Much of what has been written waslargely drawn from the proceedings of the recently-concluded ISCeConference and Expo last month in San Diego, California. That confer-ence, if you missed it, has really developed into a must-attend eventwhere major industry issues are tackled by key executives.

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July 10-11, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.3rd Digital Latin America SummitElaine Turner Conference Director Tel: +44 (0)207 841 0265E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.worldsummits.com

July 11-13, Stockholm, Sweden2006 SUIRG Interference Conference/MeetingRobert W. Ames Jr.Tel: +1-941-575-1277Fax: +1-941-575-7048Email: [email protected]: www.suirg.org

July 19-23, The Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, U.S.A.NewSpace 2006 ConferenceJeff FeigeTel: 800-78-SPACE (800-787-7223)Email: [email protected]: http://www.space-frontier.org/Events/NewSpace2006/

Sept. 21, London, UK1st European Mobile Satellite Radio SummitChris ForresterTel: 44-20-8948-8561 / Fax: +44-20-8940-6009Email: [email protected]: www.tvconferences.com

Sept. 26-28,Hotel Lotte World, Seoul, KoreaAPSCC 2006 Satellite Conference and ExhibitionTel: +82 2 508 4883~5 / Fax: +82 2 568 8593Email: [email protected]: www.apscc.or.kr/event/apscc2006.asp

Oct. 19 - 21, World Trade Centre, Mumbai, India.Broadcast India 2006 Exhibition & SymposiumKavita MeerTel: 91 22 2215 1396/2215 2721 / Fax: 91 22 2215 1269Mobile: 98200 56060Email: [email protected]: www.broadcastindiashow.com

July 24-26, Virginia, U.S.A.Geospatial Intelligence 2006Tel: +800-882-8684 / Fax: +1-973 256 0205Email: [email protected]: www.idga.org/na-2410-02

Aug. 22-26, Beijing, ChinaBIRTV 2006Tel: +86 10 86093207 or 86092783 ext. 801Fax: +86 10 86093790Email: [email protected]: www.birtv.com/english/about.asp

Sept. 7-11, RAI Convention Centre, AmsterdamIBC2006 ConferenceTel: +44 (0)20 7611 7500 / Fax: +44 (0)20 7611 7530Email: [email protected]: www.ibc.org/

Nov. 7 - 9, Houston, TX, USAOffshore Communications 2006Tel: 1 (772) 221 7720 / Fax: 1 (772) 221 7715Email: [email protected]: www.offshorecoms.com.

Nov. 16, London, UKPersonal TV ConferenceTel: +44-20-8948-8561 Fax: +44-20-8940-6009E-mail: [email protected] www.tvconferences.com

Nov. 28, New York, NY, USAISCe Satellite Investment Symposium NYC ‘06 David BrossTel: +1-301-916-2236 E-mail: [email protected]: www.isis-nyc.com

Nov. 29-30, New York, NY, USASatcon 2006Tel.: 203-371-6322E-mail: [email protected]: www.satconexpo.com

http://www.isis-nyc.com

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Intelsat Completes Acquisition ofPanAmSat; Becomes the LargestSatellite Services Provider WASHINGTON — Intelsat, Ltd. announced on July 4 thecompletion of its merger with PanAmSat Holding Corporation.With the addition of PanAmSat’s video market expertise,advanced satellite fleet and blue-chip media customer base toIntelsat’s portfolio, Intelsat said the company has become theworld’s largest provider of fixed satellite services (FSS). Intelsat acquired PanAmSat for approximately $3.2 billion withPanAmSat becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intelsat.The total value of the transaction, including PanAmSat debtthat was refinanced or remained outstanding, is approximately$6.4 billion. Intelsat said the combined revenue backlog of bothIntelsat and PanAmSat, which is based on long-term customercommitments of up to 15 years, was approximately $8.3 billion.

The new merged company, which will retain the Intelsat name,will have a combined fleet of 51 satellites and a large terrestrialinfrastructure including eight owned teleports, fiber connectiv-ity and over 50 points of presence in almost 40 cities.

After the merger, Intelsat said it will now carry one out of everyfour television channels transmitted over fixed satellites; willsupport 27 DTH (direct to home satellite) platforms worldwide;be the number one provider of transponders for video program-ming worldwide; and carry more high definition (HD) program-ming than any other FSS carrier. Established in 1964, Intelsat became the world’s first commercialsatellite services provider when it launched its first commercialcommunications satellite in 1965. Intelsat said the integration process already underway willensure a smooth and seamless transition for Intelsat’s custom-ers. David McGlade will continue to serve as Chief Executive Officerand a Director of Intelsat, Ltd. The executive team of thecompany also includes James Frownfelter, formerly the Presi-dent and COO of PanAmSat, as Chief Operating Officer; PhillipSpector, Executive Vice President and General Counsel; andJeffrey Freimark, Executive Vice President and Chief FinancialOfficer. Joseph Wright, formerly Chief Executive Officer ofPanAmSat, has been appointed Chairman of the Board.

The Bermuda based company, with headquarters in Washing-ton, D.C., began as an intergovernmental organization with 11participating countries. It became a private company in 2001 andis now owned by a consortium of four companies.

Air Force Awards Boeing $138-MNAVSTAR GPS Satellite Contract

WASHINGTON, D.C. — TheU.S. Air Force has awardedBoeing Co., Navigation andCommunication Systems ofHuntington Beach, Calif., a$138 million contract modifi-cation for the Air Force’sNavstar global positioningsatellite program. Pentagon announced thecontract award on June 22providing for next generationof advanced NAVSTARGlobal Positioning SystemBlock IIF with enhancednavigation support for bothmilitary and civilian users. The global positioningsystem IIF is an upgrade ofthe original GPS, which is aworldwide timing and

navigation system that utilizes 24 satellites positioned in orbitapproximately 12,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. Thesesatellites continuously transmit digital radio signals pertainingto the exact time (using atomic clocks) and exact location of thesatellites. By referring to signals transmitted by four satellites,the GPS can be used to calculate longitude, latitude, andaltitude. The Department of Defense originally developed the GPS for all-weather military applications, but the system is available at noadditional charge for civilians and commerce. The contract calls for the production of three satellites (SpaceVehicle 10 through 12) with an expected delivery date of January2010.

As a result of increasedcivil and commercial useas well as experience inmilitary operations, theU.S. Air Force isintroducing newcapabilities andtechnologies to the GPS IIFto sustain the space andcontrol segments whileimproving missionperformance. (Boeing photo)

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According to Boeing, its Huntington Beach campus will managethe new contract and provide engineering services while itsAnaheim plant contributes electronic subsystems. The actualsatellite bus will be built at Boeing-El Segundo.

Air Force Awards L-3 Communica-tions and Rockwell Contracts toFurther Develop GPS Technology NEW YORK — The U.S. Air Force NAVSTAR Global Position-ing System (GPS) Joint Program Office has awarded U.S.Interstate Electronics Corporation (IEC), a subsidiary of L-3Communications, a $37 million contract for the first phase of theU.S. Air Force Modernized USER Equipment (MUE) Program. The MUE program is funding the design and development ofnew GPS receiver technology to support future military GPSrequirements. L-3 said IEC’s System on a Chip (SOC) approachwill become the primary feature of IEC’s new line of TruTrak M-Code GPS receivers. According to L-3, use of this technology will result in a signifi-cant reduction in production costs, and provide flexibility for abroad range of military applications including gun-fired projec-tiles, aircraft avionics and hand-held GPS data units. IEC’sproduct architecture will allow the production of receivers andhigher-level systems to be accomplished in unclassifiedproduction facilities, further lowering the final system cost. In another contract award worth $28 million, the U.S. Air Forcehas selected Rockwell Collins to develop the next-generationGPS technology as part of the MUE Receiver Card Developmentprogram.

Rockwell said the main objective of the program is to developand demonstrate modernized user segment receiver cards,establishing first proof of design for the modernized GPSarchitecture. The current contract, to be executed throughOctober 2007, supports preliminary design of the modernizedreceiver cards for ground and airborne applications. Completionof the receiver card development, test and security certificationwill be accomplished under a government exercisable contractoption for these tasks, Rockwell explained.

This program, awarded by the U.S. Air Force Space and MissileSystems Center (SMC), represents the military user equipment

portion of a next-generation GPS system that adds a newmilitary signal and security architecture. According troRockwell, the new technology offers enhanced integrity,exclusivity and improved anti-jam capabilities.

Boeing Braces for $1.115-B Chargesin 2Q for Delays on AirborneSurveillance Program and TentativeLegal Settlement CHICAGO — Boeing Company said on June 29 it will recognizecharges related to delays on an international airborne surveil-lance program and a previously disclosed tentative legalsettlement with the U.S. government when it announcessecond-quarter 2006 results July 26. Boeing said it expects to record a charge of between $300million and $500 million pre-tax due to delays related to itsAirborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) program forAustralia and Turkey. In addition, the company expects torecognize a $615 million charge to reflect a tentative settlementwith the U.S. Justice Department related to the hiring of a formerAir Force official and handling of a competitor’s proprietaryinformation. The total 2nd quarter charges could go as high as$1.115 billion. The expected charge for AEW&C program delays, Boeing said,will be finalized after ongoing reviews and will be recorded inthe Precision Engagement & Mobility Systems segment ofBoeing’s Integrated Defense Systems business. The actualamount of the charge will be determined over the course of thenext few weeks as the recovery plan is better understood andwill be disclosed when Boeing issues its second quarterfinancial results. This international airborne surveillance program, known asWedgetail in Australia and Peace Eagle in Turkey, consists ofthe 737-700 aircraft outfitted with highly complex, integratedcommand and control and advanced radar systems. Australia has purchased six AEW&C aircraft and Turkey haspurchased four. Delivery of the first two Wedgetail aircraft andthat effort’s flight test schedule have been delayed up to 18months because of development and integration issues withcertain hardware and software components. Boeing said it nowplans to deliver all six Wedgetail aircraft by the end of 2008 andis developing the Peace Eagle schedule with its Turkishcustomer.

INDUSTRY NEWS

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INDUSTRY NEWS

IDS has reorganized the AEW&C program, strengthened the management teamand put additional oversight in place. The team is working with the customersand suppliers to implement a go-forward plan. That plan will target the talentand resources necessary to develop Wedgetail and Peace Eagle on realisticschedules compatible with the team’s ability to deliver reliable, mission-readysystems. On May 15 this year, Boeing agreed to pay the U.S. government $615 million tosettle two criminal investigations and related civil claims over stolen documentsand hiring of a government procurement officer. The deal would put an end toover three years of government investigations into Boeing’s recruitment ofDarleen Druyun, a former senior Air Force acquisitions official, who served ninemonths in jail after pleading guilty of giving Boeing preferential treatment inexchange for a job and other favors. The second investigation concerns possession by Boeing of documents fromits rival contractor Lockheed Martin in connection with launch service con-tracts with the Air Force under the Evolved Expendable Launch VehicleProgram. Some officials believe the documents may have been used by Boeingto win additional contracts from NASA for 19 missions under its launchservices contract. Some of Boeing’s contracts were eventually rescinded as aresult and awarded to Lockheed at higher cost, according to the Department ofJustice.

Boeing said while the agreement is still beingfinalized, the charge will be recorded in thesecond quarter.

Boeing’s Delta IV LaunchesNRO Satellite from WestCoach ST. LOUIS — Boeing completed the first flightof a Delta IV rocket from Vandenberg Air ForceBase, Calif. on June 26 with the successfullaunch of the National Reconnaissance Office(NRO) satellite, NROL-22. The launch is the firstWest Coast mission completed for the U.S. AirForce Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle(EELV) program. Liftoff of the Delta IV Medium+ (4, 2) configura-tion vehicle occurred at 8:33 p.m. PDT from SpaceLaunch Complex (SLC) 6. The payload wassuccessfully deployed approximately 54 minuteslater.

Boeing completes thefirst flight of a Delta IVrocket fromVandenberg Air ForceBase, Calif. with thesuccessful launch of theNationalReconnaissance Office(NRO) satellite, NROL-22. (Boeing photo)

http://www.aaesys.com

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INDUSTRY NEWS

SLC-6 is the West Coast launch site for the Boeing Delta IVfamily of launch vehicles that provides the Air Force thestrategic capability to launch national security satellites topolar, Sun-synchronous and high inclination orbits. The newlaunch site can support all five configurations of the Delta IVfamily. The mission is the first for the NRO aboard a Delta IV and thesecond aboard a Delta rocket. The first was the GeoLITEmission in 2001 aboard a Delta II. The 132-acre SLC-6 features structures similar to Boeing’s DeltaIV SLC-37 launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.,with a Fixed Umbilical Tower, Mobile Service Tower, Fixed PadErector, Launch Control Center and Operations Building, and aHorizontal Integration Facility. SLC-6 also features a MobileAssembly Shelter that protects the rocket from adverse weather. Launch vehicle hardware is transported from the Boeing factoryin Decatur, Ala., to Vandenberg via the Delta Mariner ship thatdocks just south of SLC-6. Boeing said the next Delta IV launch from Vandenberg isplanned for late 2006 aboard a Delta IV Medium vehicle that willfly a mission for the Air Force Defense Meteorological SatelliteProgram, DMSP-17.

Europe’s NewVega LaunchVehicle SecondStage MotorRoars to Life PARIS — European SpaceAgency said on June 26 itsVega small satellite launchvehicle has made a new steptoward its maiden flight, latenext year, with the successof the first firing test on itssecond stage motor, theZefiro 23. The static firing was per-formed on Monday, June 15,at the Italian Ministry ofDefense test center in Saltodi Quirra, Sardinia. The 7.5m

tall, 2m diameter motor, featuring a carbon epoxy filament woundcasing, delivered more than 100 metric tons of thrust (1,070 kN),burning some 24 metric tons of solid propellant in 75 seconds. Numerous data were gathered during the test and are nowunder analysis to improve technical knowledge of the motor’sbehavior and refine the launcher’s future performance. Alsotested during the firing were various subsystems, including athrust vector control system that will steer the motor’s nozzle toprovide flight control. After this success, the motor will proceedwith its critical design review, at which stage its technicalcharacteristics will be finalized. Built by Avio in Colleferro, near Rome, the Zefiro 23 motor willbe the basis for the second stage of ESA’s Vega launcher. Thefirst firing test with the third stage motor – the Zefiro 9 – wasperformed in December 2005. Conducted on behalf of ESA’s Vega development program,these two firing tests followed three static firings of the Zefiro16 demonstrator in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Both the Zefiro 23 andZefiro 9 will undergo an additional ground firing test each tocomplete their development and qualification.

NASA Selects Ball Aerospace toBuild Two Cloud Cameras on GloryMission BOULDER, Colo. — NASA has chosen Ball Aerospace &Technologies Corp. to design and build two cloud cameras forthe Glory mission under NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.The Glory mission is part of the U.S. Climate Change ScienceProgram to improve our understanding of what forces influenceglobal environmental changes and how to predict thosechanges. Glory is a remote-sensing Earth-orbiting observatory scheduledto launch in 2008 for a three-year mission life. The mission willcollect data on aerosols as well as radiant energy emitted by thesun. Two instruments will be deployed in order to accomplish theseobjectives. They include the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS);and the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM). The Ball Aerospacecloud cameras complement the APS instrument, being devel-oped by Raytheon Civil Space Programs. Ball Aerospace said that as part of the Aerosol PolarimetrySensor package, the cloud cameras will distinguish between

A static test firing of theZefiro 23 second-stageengine of Europe’s newVega launch vehicle wasconducted on Monday26 June 2006, at the ItalianMinistry of Defense testcentre in Salto di Quirra,Sardinia. (Credits: ESA-S.CORVAJA photo

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INDUSTRY NEWS

cloud fields and clear scenes over land and the ocean, in orderto collect data on chemical, microphysical, and optical proper-ties, and spatial and temporal distributions of aerosols.

NASA’s Micro-Satellites CompleteTechnology Validation Mission WASHINGTON — NASA’s three orbiting micro-satellitesknown as Space Technology 5 have completed their planned 90-day mission. NASA said the mission team is shutting down thespacecraft to conclude operations on June 29. The mission primarily focused on flight testing miniaturizedsatellites in the harsh environment of space and evaluating theirability to make research- quality scientific measurements. The satellites were launched on March 22. Each fully fueledsatellite weighed approximately 55 pounds when launched and

is about the size of a 13- inch television.A major milestone of the mission was reached when the space-craft assumed a constellation formation on May 24. Thesatellites lined up in nearly identical orbits, like three pearls on anecklace, approximately 220 miles apart. Reaching formationrequired seven maneuvers using miniaturized micro- thrusters.Each spacecraft has a single micro-thruster the size of a quarterto perform both attitude- and orbit-adjustment maneuvers. NASA said the mission demonstrated the benefits of using aconstellation of spacecraft to perform scientific studies of thebeautiful auroral displays that occur near Earth’s polar regions.The spacecraft simultaneously traversed electric current sheetsand measured the magnetic field using miniature magnetom-eters. SM

http://www.comtechefdata.com

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EXECUTIVE MOVES

Loral Names Patrick Dewitt CEO ofSpace Systems/Loral; John Celli toBecome President, COO

NEW YORK — Loral Space &Communications Inc. has promotedPatrick DeWitt to chief executiveofficer of Loral’s satellite manufactur-ing subsidiary, Space Systems/Loral(SS/L). John Celli has been promotedto president and chief operatingofficer of SS/L. DeWitt, 60, was most recentlypresident of SS/L, where he has ledthe company through one of its mostsuccessful periods in the company’s

history. Since 2003, SS/L has booked 12 new commercial satelliteawards, more than any other satellite manufacturer. He has heldsenior management positions with SS/L and its predecessorcompanies since 1973. DeWitt earned his degree in businessadministration from San Jose State University. John Celli, previously executive vice president of the company,will succeed DeWitt as president of SS/L. With nearly 30 years of experience, Celli, 57, is a veteran of thesatellite industry. Starting in 2001, Celli served as SS/L’s seniorvice president of engineering, manufacturing and test opera-tions, where he was responsible for the development, manufac-turing, testing and procurement for all SS/L satellites, as well asmanaging the company’s materiel, information systems andfacilities organizations. He originally joined the company in 1981as an antenna mechanical engineer and has held increasinglyimportant roles with the company. Before joining SS/L, Celli held various engineering and projectmanagement roles with the Space and Ground Systems divisionof Alenia S.P.A. In addition, from 1975 to 1980 he taughtmechanical engineering at the University of Rome. Celli holds amaster’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Universityof Rome.

ESA Director General and otherDirectors Reappointed PARIS — The Council of the European Space Agency hasrenewed the appointment of Jean-Jacques Dordain as director

general of ESA for a further period offour years. Dordain was appointed ESA directorgeneral in December 2002 and took uphis post in July 2003. Dordain held anumber of positions at the OfficeNational d’Études et de RechercheAérospatiales before joining ESA inMay 1986. At ESA he started with heading theSpace Station and Platforms Promotion

and Utilization Department, and then, following a reorganiza-tion, the Microgravity and Columbus Utilization Department. In1993 he became associate director for Strategy, Planning andInternational Policy and in May 1999 was appointed director ofthe Strategy and Technical Assessment Directorate. He subse-quently took up the post of director of launchers in February2001. Since taking over as ESA director general, Jean-JacquesDordain has been instrumental in building the future of Euro-pean space activities for the benefit of all citizens, doing muchto ensure the success of Europe in the process and in reinforc-ing the Science activities of ESA. He has fostered closerrelations with the European Union and has been one of thedriving forces behind the elaboration of a European SpacePolicy.

Hughes Completes Board withAppointment of 3 IndependentDirectors GERMANTOWN, Md. — Hughes Communications, Inc. hasappointed three independent executives to complete its eightmember board of directors. Stephen Clark, venture partner withIntersouth Partners, Gene Gabbard, private investor andLawrence J. Ruisi, advisory consultant, assume their positionsimmediately. Stephen Clark has more than 30 years of general managementexperience in high growth companies in the telecommunica-tions, technology and manufacturing sectors. Most recently, heserved as Chairman and CEO of SpectraSite Communicationswhich was sold to American Tower Corp. in August 2005. Gene Gabbard is a private investor who has a long and success-ful track record in the telecom industry. A former executive vice

Patrick DeWitt

Jean-JacquesDordain (ESA photo)

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EXECUTIVE MOVES

president and chief financial officer of MCI CommunicationsCorporation, Gabbard also served as chairman of the board andCEO of Telecom*USA. He was one of the original founders andpresident of Digital Communications Corp., a Maryland start-upthat eventually became Hughes Network Systems, and holdsnumerous patents in the field of digital communications. Lawrence Ruisi is the former president and CEO of Loew’sCineplex Entertainment Group. While at Loew’s he was respon-sible for the strategic direction of the company, as well astheatre operations, marketing, financial manage-ment and investor relations. Mr. Ruisi has over 20years experience as a senior executive in theentertainment industry, including Sony, Columbiaand Tristar Pictures.

Northrop Appoints RonaldSmith, Susan L. Cote andMark A. Rabinowitz as VicePresidents

LOS ANGELES —Northrop Grumman Corpo-ration has appointed threenew vice presidents in itscorporate organization:Ronald Smith as vicepresident of corporatecompetitive excellence;Susan L. Cote as vicepresident of corporatecontracts and pricing; andMark A. Rabinowitz as vicepresident and assistanttreasurer. In his new position, RonSmith will lead thecompany’s continuingeffort to drive processimprovement and enhanceperformance across thecorporation. He was most

recently vice president of Six Sigma for NorthropGrumman’s Space Technology sector. Smith joined Northrop Grumman Space Technologyin 1982 and has served as director of electrical

processes and products in engineeringas well as several other technical andmanagerial positions related to thedevelopment of electrical communica-tions hardware for satellite systems. Heearned a bachelor’s degree in electronicengineering from California PolytechnicState University, San Luis Obispo, withpost-baccalaureate studies at CaliforniaState University, Long Beach.

Ron Smith

Susan Cote

Mark Rabinowitz

http://www.colem.co.uk

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EXECUTIVE MOVES

Susan L. Cote, in her new role, is responsible for maintaining aneffective risk-review process, providing corporate-wide policy,direction, training and oversight of contracts and pricingmatters and ensuring that all of the company’s sectors meetacceptable performance standards in these areas. She mostrecently served as vice president of contracts, pricing andprogram business management for Northrop Grumman SpaceTechnology. Cote joined the company more than 15 years ago in the con-tracts department of the Defense Support Program. She hasworked on NASA, U.S. Air Force, commercial and classifiedsatellite programs. Prior to joining Northrop, Cote held variouscontracting positions within the Air Force. She holds abachelor’s degree in political science from Principia College inIllinois, and a master’s degree in public administration from theUniversity of Arizona. Mark Rabinowitz, in his new role as corporate vice presidentand assistant treasurer, will be responsible for the developmentand implementation of Northrop Grumman’s capital deploymentstrategy including the execution phase of merger, acquisitionand divestiture transactions as well as capital deploymentanalysis and recommendations to address credit profile,dividends and share-repurchase activities. He is also respon-sible for the company’s banking relationships and managementof the company’s borrowing, investing and its public debt. Hehas been corporate director and assistant treasurer of bankingand capital markets since 2003. Rabinowitz joined Northrop in 1982, and previously served asdirector of contracts and pricing at the Airborne GroundSurveillance and Battle Management Systems business area ofthe company’s Integrated Systems sector in Melbourne, Fla. Heearned a bachelor’s degree in economics and government fromCornell University, and attended the Program for ManagementDevelopment at Harvard Business School.

Navy Admiral Murrett Nominatedas NGA Director BETHESDA, Md. — The National Geospatial-IntelligenceAgency bid farewell to its director, retired Air Force Lt. Gen.James R. Clapper Jr., who departed on June 14 after almost fiveyears at NGA’s helm. Clapper was the first civilian head of the agency and also itslongest-serving director.

NGA will operate for the next few weeks under the leadership ofLloyd B. Rowland, NGA acting deputy director. Rowlandpreviously served as the NGA business executive and recentlyassumed duties as the acting deputy director. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense that Navy Rear Adm.Robert B. Murrett has been nominated for appointment to thegrade of vice admiral and assignment as director of NGA. Murrett is currently serving as director of Naval Intelligence,N2, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Pentagon, Wash-ington, D.C.

Boeing Names Jamieson Senior VPof Engineering, Operations &Technology CHICAGO — Jim Jamieson has been named Boeing senior vicepresident of Engineering, Operations & Technology, expandinghis previous responsibilities as Boeing senior vice president,chief technology officer, and head of the Boeing Technologyorganization. While continuing his executive oversight of Boeing’s Informa-tion Technology, Phantom Works and Intellectual PropertyManagement organizations, Jamieson will now also be respon-sible for leading efforts to improve the efficiency and effective-ness of Boeing’s engineering, operations and technologyfunctions, including the technology planning, program manage-ment, quality assurance and supplier management functions. In this new role, Jamieson will continue to report directly toBoeing chairman, president and CEO Jim McNerney and serveon Boeing’s Executive Council. As part of this organizational change, several other newassignments have been made to further reinforce the focus ofthe Engineering, Operations & Technology organization onachieving functional excellence across the enterprise. Thisincludes assigning Bob Krieger, president of the PhantomWorks advanced R&D unit, as Boeing chief technology officer,reporting to Jamieson.

Lockheed Names Mark Valerio toHead Special Programs Organization DENVER — Lockheed Martin Corporation named on June 8Mark Valerio vice president and general manager, special

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EXECUTIVE MOVES

programs for its Space Systems Company. Valerio succeedsThomas J. Scanlan, who is retiring June 30.

Valerio will lead one ofSpace SystemsCompany’s largest linesof business, whichcomprises more than2,200 employees,focusing on sensitivenational security spacesystem developments. “Mark Valerio is highlyqualified for thisassignment. His careerwith Lockheed Martinspans 26 years, includ-ing significant programmanagement experiencein first-of-a-kindprograms for a wide-range of customers,”said G. Thomas Marsh,Space SystemsCompany’s executivevice president. In his previous role,Valerio was responsiblefor integrating pro-cesses and best prac-tices across the entirespecial programs line ofbusiness. He also hasserved as vice presidentand deputy of the Space

Mark Valerio

Based Infrared System program, and he led the design, develop-ment and delivery of Lockheed Martin’s first three A2100satellites. SM

http://www.globallinktv.com

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NEW PRODUCTS

Hughes Grants License to MTI toManufacture IPoS CompliantKu-band Satellite Terminals GERMANTOWN, Md. — Hughes Network Systems, LLC hassigned an Intellectual Property License Agreement with Micro-electronics Technology, Inc. of Taiwan. Hughes said theagreement grants MTI rights to manufacture the IPoS-compliantHughes HN7000 series terminals, comprising the broadbandrouter (indoor unit or IDU), the outdoor unit (radio or ODU) andthe antenna assembly. IP over Satellite (IPoS) is the first global standard to be ratifiedby the world’s major standards bodies; TIA in North America,and ETSI and ITU in Europe. Pradman Kaul, chairman and CEO of Hughes, said IPoS is theonly air interface specifically designed for efficient delivery ofbroadband satellite services and offers the best means toexpand satellite’s addressable market worldwide.

Globalstar Offers Seamless SatelliteData Coverage from Alaska to Chile MILPITAS, Calif. — Globalstar said on June 28 its independentgateway operator in Mexico, Globalstar de Mexico, is expandingits simplex or one-way data coverage throughout all of Mexicoand to areas of northern Central America. With the enhancements, Globalstar simplex data customers willnow be able to seamlessly access the company’s satellitenetwork from Alaska and northern Canada southward to partsof Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and the Pacific coast maritimeregion of South America. Globalstar said the capability to offer simplex data service andsolutions throughout Mexico and the surrounding region is theresult of additional hardware being added to the ground stationor satellite gateway operated by Globalstar de Mexico. Thesatellite gateway is used to provide Globalstar customers withaccess to ground based public telephone and data networks viathe Globalstar satellite constellation. The new applique also paves the way for Globalstar de Mexicoto complete the deployment of over 13,000 simplex modems thatare to be used in Enciclomedia, a major educational project. Thecompany and its customers have already installed close to 3,500simplex data modems in elementary schools, primarily located in

the central region of the country, and is continuing to installunits in schools throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and southMexico.

Freescale Supplies Hughes withASICs for Next-Generation SatelliteBroadband Modems AUSTIN, Texas — Freescale Semiconductor said it has lever-aged its semi-custom ASIC design capabilities and analog/mixedsignal expertise to deliver an advanced satellite broadbandASIC solution to Hughes Network Systems, LLC. Freescale said Hughes is using the ASIC in its HN family ofhigh-performance satellite broadband terminals. The HNterminals, used in the provision of HughesNet services, deliverhigh-speed data, voice and video services over satellite toenterprises, government agencies, small businesses andconsumers around the world. Based on Freescale’s standard-cell ASIC methodology and 90-nanometer (nm) CMOS technology, the satellite broadbandASIC solution combines wireless and analog technology fromHughes and Freescale. The ASIC device supports DVB-S andDVB-S2 standards, ACM and CCM modes. The device isdesigned to perform QPSK, 8PSK, H8PSK and 16APSK demodu-lation and decode (LDPC / BCH) functions. Key functionalblocks include: DVB-S2 demodulator, DVB-S2 FEC, synchroni-zation processor, legacy mode (DVBS) demod and FEC, stream/adapter output interface and I2C interface.

Quake Global Introduces New IridiumSatellite Data Modem BETHESDA, Md. — Quake Global, an authorized IridiumSatellite value added manufacturer, has introduced a new, small-size low-cost modem taking advantage of Iridium’s global short-burst data (SBD) service. Quake Global said its new Q9612 is aimed at the emergingmachine-to-machine (M2M) communication market, providingworldwide data links for asset tracking and monitoring applica-tions. The small unit, which is about the size of a deck of cards,runs on 9-18V power, for easy integration into a wide range oftelematics applications. The product has passed all certificationtests, and beta units have been under trial by customers.Production units will begin shipment in July.

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The Q9612 is a natural extension of our broad lineup of satellitecommunicators, bringing to customers the unique benefits ofIridium’s global coverage and low-latency SBD links, said PolinaBraunstein, CEO of Quake Global. “The Iridium-based productis ideally suited for a wide range of market sectors, includingautomotive, transportation, construction machinery, oil and gasproduction, supply-chain management and enterprise resourceplanning.”

Hughes’ New Broadband SatelliteSolution Optimized for SmallerNetworks GERMANTOWN, Maryland — Hughes Network Systems, LLChas announced the introduction of a new broadband satelliteplatform, the HX System, a cost-effective solution for smallernetworks that provides high Quality of Service (QoS) andemploys the most efficient implementation of the DVB-S2industry standard with Adaptive Coding and Modulation(ACM). Hughes said the HX System is compliant with IPoS (IP overSatellite), the first global satellite industry standard approvedby TIA in North America, and ETSI and ITU in Europe. The HXSystem utilizes advanced bandwidth management techniques,enabling operators to provide their customers with a highquality of service while maximizing satellite efficiency. Optimizedfor smaller networks, the HX design builds upon a solid andfield-proven foundation, leveraging many of the features andfunctionality of the widely deployed Hughes broadbandsatellite technology — with over 900,000 terminals shippedworldwide, according to Hughes. The HX System supports high uplink channel rates, up to 3.2Mbps, enabling operators to provide bandwidth intensiveapplications such as: Cellular backhaul, Maritime, Upstream oiland gas exploration and Video conferencing.

Radyne, Raytheon and GeneralDynamics Troposcatter ModemUsed in First Ku Band Link PHOENIX — Radyne Corp. said on June 22 its TM-20Troposcatter modem was employed successfully to establish anindustry-first 20 Mbps Ku band Troposcatter, or “over-the-horizon” communications link. Ku Band operation enables troposcatter communications to be

achieved using a single antenna in contrast to legacy large dualantenna systems. Ku band operation also enables the develop-ment of mobile combined troposcatter/satellite/line-of-sitecommunication systems. In contrast, current field-deployablesatellite/troposcatter systems require up to six transportvehicles while the system demonstrated is entirely contained onone vehicle. The TM-20 represents the first significant advance in over-the-horizon technology in almost three decades. The use of modernsignal processing techniques and a patented channel-directed-equalizer provides for link performance and configurationflexibility previously unheard of in Troposcatter systems. TheTM-20’s compact and power conserving design is ideal formobile and flyaway installations, Radyne said. The successful demonstration was conducted in conjunctionwith Radyne troposcatter partners, Raytheon Co. and GeneralDynamics.

Loral Skynet Launches New Suite ofSatellite-Based Contingency Services BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Loral Skynet, a subsidiary of LoralSpace & Communications, has launched a new suite of satellite-based Contingency Services designed to help businesses andgovernment organizations minimize Internet Protocol (IP)-datanetwork interruptions caused by large-scale natural disasterssuch as hurricanes, as well as protect against the everydayoutages that frequently occur in multi-path terrestrial networklinks. Loral Skynet said the new Contingency Services capability isthe most comprehensive of its kind, providing world-classcontinuity and emergency restoration network solutions. Theseservices assure the survivability of terrestrial networks via anautomatic and seamless transfer of IP-data traffic to satelliteconnections. Skynet Contingency Services include:

• SkyReach Ensure: A business continuity networksolution designed to provide pre-planned, continuousnetwork connectivity for all vital business and governmentfunctions. • SkyReach SAVER (Satellite Access by VSAT for Emer-gency Recovery): An emergency restoration networksolution designed as a disaster recovery option where a

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Iridium Satellite Partners Offer Hurri-cane Equipt. and Service Packages BETHESDA, Md. — With the U.S. hurricane season officiallyunderway, Iridium Satellite said on June 12 many of its partnershave introduced special emergency communications equipmentand service offerings.

rapid response mechanism is built into a network tominimize downtime and loss of production.

New Global IP VSAT Phone for Ser-vice Providers

private channels including VTM, Kanaal2, JIM, VT4, VIJFtv,Vitaya, and KanaalZ.

Alexander Oudendijk, chief commercial officer of SES Astraby signing-up both the Flemish public and private channels,TV Vlaanderen has a strong base for further growth. “We areconfident that Flemish viewers will appreciate the benefits ofthe Astra satellite system as the most attractive receptionmode for digital TV.”

TV Vlaanderen Launches Full DTHBouquet Via Astra

BETZDORF, Luxembourg — TV Vlaanderen has taken furthercapacity on SES Astra’s prime orbital position 19.2 (degree)East to accommodate the official launch of Belgium’s firstdirect-to-home (DTH) bouquet.

In addition to the channels of Flemish public broadcaster VRT,the bouquet of TV Vlaanderen now consists of all Flemish

TBC-Telematics BusinessConsultants, jointly withViper Networks, is launchingduring the summer ‘06 a newGlobal IP VSAT Phone

solution for satelliteservice providers andsatellite carriers. ThisUSB Global Phonegives more optionsfor clients who needto call the PSTN fromIP VSAT terminalsanywhere in theworld.

The main advantages of this VSAT Phone are: make calls toany fix or mobile lines in the planet from any VSAT anywherein the world; global IP roaming with no charge and numberGlobal Portability with voice quality; pre-paid services withrates starting with $ 0.01 per min. (average $ .03 per min. maincities in the world); calls between Viperphones are free (VOIPCall); receive calls from a US or European numbers at nocharge anywhere in the world; activation and account set upvia Internet browser in 3 minutes anywhere in the world;wholesale price start with less than $40.00 per unit; pay onlyfor the minutes used; no monthly fees, contracts or hiddencharges.

The service is current available worldwide for carriers andsatellite IP service providers. Further information available viaemail at [email protected] or call: + 1-949-552-6871.

How it Works

http://www.lnr.com

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Iridium said it is ideal for backup communications to replaceland-based, cellular and radio telecom services often inoperabledue to winds and flooding. In addition, unlike most othersystems, Iridium is interoperable with all other emergencycommunications systems, including UHF and VHF radios, aswell as others. The following emergency response and business continuitysolutions from Iridium partners are available to first respondersand commanders, businesses, governments and citizens: Blue Sky Network (BSN) offers solutions for respondingorganizations that allow them to maintain real-time knowledge ofresponders and assets. BSN provides global satellite logisticssolutions for two-way linking and managing remote transporta-tion assets. Using its interactive Web portal, “SkyRouter,” withdetailed mapping, BSN links enterprises to personnel and assets

anywhere on Earth over the Iridium satellite network. Its FederalAviation Administration (FAA)-certified data and voice prod-ucts enable users to customize features including safety andevent reporting.

Toshiba Expands High PowerC-Band GaAs FET Product Line

SAN FRANCISCO — Toshiba America Electronic Components,Inc. (TAEC) announced on June 13 the availability of new C-Band gallium arsenide field effect transistors (GaAs FETs),which the company claims are the industry’s first in eachfrequency range, and have the highest output power nowavailable from a single device for that range. SM

http://www.miteq.com

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July-August 2006

COVER STORY

Satellite Manufacturing at the Crossroads

Boeing will build three high-powered Geo-Mobile satellites forMobile Satellite Ventures that will create the world’s first commercialwireless communications service using both space and terrestrialelements. (image from Boeing)

by Virgil Labrador

When David Cavossa, the executive director of the SatelliteIndustry Association (SIA) presented the SIA’s annual

“State of the Satellite Industry Report” at the recent ISCeConfrence it did not sound too good for the satellitemanufacturing sector. While all the other sectors of the industrywere consistently posting healthy annual growth numbers, itwould appear from the SIA’s figures that the manufacturingsector is in decline.

The figures of course, were quite deceiving, as Cavossaexplained, because they only count satellite manufacturingrevenues that after the satellites were actually launched. So thefigures for 2005 were actually reflecting satellites ordered in 2002--one of the worse years for the satellite manufacturing sector.As Cavossa clarified, 2005 was actually one of the best years forthe manufacturing sector with about 22 satellites ordered, so themanufacturing revenues wee sure to pick up in the next fewyears.

Without a doubt, the satellite manufacturing sector has turnedthe corner. Space Systems Loral (SS/L), is probably indicative ofthe turnaround that the manufacturing sector has experienced.Emerging from bankruptcy of its parent company, SS/ L scoredfour major contracts in 2005 (including the fifth XM Radiosatellite which it wrested from rival Boeing, who built the firstfour XM satellites) and so far this has landed four contractsalready just the first half of this year. “Both in terms of numberof satellite wins and dollar amounts, SS/L is now the marketleader in the satellite manufacturing field,” according to its VP ofSales and Marketing , Arnold Freidman.

SS/L managed the turnaround according to Friedman byretaining its best engineers even during the downturn. “This is aknowledge business. It’s a very complex product. I think thestability of our workforce and of our management is a key factorin our success,” said Freidman.

Meanwhile other US manufacturers such as Boeing SatelliteSystems announced recently one of the largest contracts to datewith the order of three of its high powered 702 series satellites byMobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) for its hybrid satellite andterrestrial global wireless communication services.

Another noteworthy development is the rise of smallermanufacturers. In 2005, Orbital Sciences Corp. scored fourcontracts for the smaller satellites that they manufacture. Also,CAST of China, Melco of Japan, NPO M of Russia and Israel

Aircraft Industries have been making a serious dent in the sliceof the satellite manufacturing pie. Countries such as Vietnamand Venezuela have recently ordered satellites spurring demand.Venezuela’s decision to go with a Chinese manufacturer isindicative of the increasing demand for alternativemanufacturers.

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COVER STORY

Excerpts fom Interview with Boeing SatelliteSystems, VP for Business Development JimSimpson

Q. It has been reported that Boeing is abandoned the commercialsatellite sector to concentrate on the government sector. Is thistrue?

Well, not quite. We’ve thought all along that there is synergismbetween the government and the commercial sector. You can lookat it like we are a microcosm of the macro Boeing which has thecommercial sector with the aircraft business and a governmentsector with the IDS (Integrated Defense System). The objective isfor the businesses to complement each other, so that if there is adownturn in the commercial side, then it can be complemented bythe government sector and vice versa.

Frankly, two of our product lines the 376 and 601 series ofsatellites have effectively reached the end of their life from acommercial perspective. The only satellite we have viable rightnow is the 702 series and that satellite’s niche is in the higherpower class anywhere from 12 -20 kw. So what you’re seeing isBoeing is focusing it’s commercial strategy on where our niche is.That means we are not going to be bidding on every FSS or BSSsatellite that comes out in the commercial market .

Q. How are you finding the demand for your high-poweredsatellites?

We have been extremely encouraged by the activities in the mobilesatellite area which really drive the kind of power and processing

requirements that we have for our 702 class of satellites. Inaddition to that in 2004 we were awarded the DirecTV satellite,which the High Definition TV application really requires thehigher power and bandwidth that we are able to provide. So wesee the HDTV continuing to evolve as well as Digital AudioRadio services and we are also very excited about the broadbandactivities that has happened such as the Anik F2 satellite thatwe deployed last July. We are also about to deploy theSpaceway F3, which is truly a router in the sky and that’sanother incipient business which we feel we have a stronghandle on with our higher power satellites.

Q. You built the first four XM satellites and everyone thoughtthat you will be getting the contract for the fifth XM satellite.What happened?

Boeing is at it’s best when we are building end-to-end typesystems where we effectively are breaking new frontiers insatellite development. The XM system we developed fromscratch and the extra power that we were able to provide themreally helped in their development. When the digital systemsmatured to the point where it becomes more of a commodity, thenit becomes more of a price-based activity and the features andbenefits that makes us unique aren’t as effective and thecustomer made a decision from a financial perspective to go withthe other company.

Q. Are there any regulatory barriers that you are facing?

I think it’s safe to say that we will not be competing for anycontracts in mainland China. Frankly, I think ITAR exists for areason. What we found that as long as we work very rigorouslywith the US government and we explain in great detail what weare trying to do, we’ve actually been quite successful in beingable to offer our systems wherever we want to. It’s been less ofa barrier than most people think.

Q. What applications will be driving satellite demand?

Broadband will eventually drive a lot of the satelliterequirements. What we’ve seen with satellite television wherethere is now a requirement to cluster a package with internet,telephony and television in one system and it may require ahybrid terrestrial and satellite solution but the bottom line is thebundling of those packages will become more and moreimportant.

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COVER STORYExcerpts fom Interview with SpaceSystems Loral, VP for Sales and Marketing,Arnold Friedman

Q. How do you see your company’sposition in the satellite manufacturingmarket today?

Both in number of contract awards and interms of sales dollars since our satellitestend to be larger than others—we areactually very dominant in the industry. Weare now the world’s leading provider of commercial satellites.

I expect the rest of the year to be very good. I see that our marketwill be very good for the foreseeable future and we will bemaintaining our leadership in years to come.

Q. What’s driving the demand for satellites?

The biggest part of our business is the FSS fixed servicessatellite market the satellites launched between 1995 and 2000 arenow starting to come up for replacement. So there is asubstantial replacement market. In addition to that there isgrowth in both television services and mobile radio services.That business segments are very strong around the world andwe see continued growth in the television and radio market plusin the mobile satellite business. In the U.S. the FCC agreed toaugment the frequencies with ATC which gave the opportunityto maintain the ubiquitous mobile coverage we have.

Q. Do you think there are too many players in the satellitemanufacturing sector?

We are able to get our sufficient share to be a very strongsatellite provider. And even with several manufacturers, we stillhave a dominant market share and we can’t drive what otherpeople do, we can just continue to perform. We also during thatperiod delivered nine satellites last year and we also won ninesatellites.

Q. Are you facing any regulatory issues?

We have worked very hard to meet the US requirements thatprovide open access to our customers within those guidelines.A customer like Asiasat is one that has been very vocal in thepast about export control issues and we are able to satisfy themand the US authorities. Basically, we just feel that in generalexport control is not an issue.

This development of smaller players competing against theestablished big three manufacturers in the US-SS/L, Boeing andLockheed Martin and Alcatel Alenia and EADS-Astrium inEurope, was underscored by key executives participating in therecently-concluded ISCe conference.

Despite increasing competition, the major players think there isenough business for everybody. So much so, that the muchanticipated consolidation in the industry which has been talkedabout for years never materialized. Instead of a one-size fits all,the satellite manufacturing sector is developing into a number ofniches that has room for both the major , more establishedplayers as well as smaller manufacturers. In perhaps anillustrative case in point of cooperation between major playersand the new emerging players, EADS-Astrium announcedrecently that it will be partnering with India’s Antrix to bid jointlyfor smaller satellite orders.

“I think there is a niche for a very non-complex, bent-pipesatellite system that is becoming more commoditized. Countriescapable of providing that type capability for a very low price willbecome attractive. That’s a marketplace where we have chosennot to pursue,” said Jim Simpson, VP of businessDevelopment of Boeing Satellite Systems.

Contrary to reports that is abandoning the commercial sector,Boeing assured that it is still very much in the hunt forcommercial opportunities, albeit its strategy is focusing on themarket for their high powered 702 series satellites (see interviewwith Jim Simpson in the previous page). According toSimpson a much improved 702 B series of satellites with moremodular functions will be introduced in 2009. So don’t count outBoeing yet.

The market is so bullish that even the regulatory barriers such asthe ITAR regulations in the US that control exports of sensitivetechnologies has been dismissed by manufacturers as a non-issue. The demand for satellites is such that regulatory barriersare easily surmounted.

The demand for satellites is being driven by broadband andother applications with increasing bandwidth and processingpower demands from satellites. The launch of WildBluebroadband service in the US and the IPStar broadband satellitein Asia last year proved the viablity and potential of broadbandservices. High Definition TV and Satellite Radio are also drivingthe demand for satellites. Still lto be seen is whether the muchvaunted “Triple Play” (voice, data, video) services will take offand further increase demand for satellites.

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July-August 2006

Virgil Labrador is Managing Editor ofSatMagazine and is responsible for all editorialactivitis of Satnews Publishers worldwide. Heis co-author of the book, Heavens Filled WithCommerce: A Brief History of the CommercialSatellite Industry. He can be reached at:[email protected]

COVER STORY

SM

“ Programs are already underway that are driving thedevelopment of new generation of mobile spacecraft, saidD.K.Sachdev, President of Washington, D.C.-based SpaceTelConsultancy. “ Broadband applications using two pathways:mobile delivery systems or through Ka-band satellites will be themain drivers for the satellite industry in the next few years,”headded.

This view is supported by International TelecommunicationUnion which recently published a paper entitled “Satellite andBeyond 3G.” The ITU noted that beyond 3G systems would leadto a convergence of services, including fixed and mobile service,telecom and broadcasting, as well as a hybrid of satellite andterrestrial platforms. These systems all required bit rates of up toseveral hundreds of megabits per second, resulting in a need formore spectrum and the perennial conflict between terrestrial andsatellite interests, according to the report.

It would appear that satellite manufacturers will be kept busy inthe next few years and a very robust future lay ahead for boththe big operators and smaller emerging ones as well.

http://www.cpii.com/satcom

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FEATURE

Mid-century style,which is in voguetoday, can include

outer-space elements such asfurniture from the Jetsons andicons like stars, rockets andartificial satellites. Our editor,Virgil Labrador, recounts in theSatNews book on the historyof the industry he co-authored, Heavens Fill withCommerce, that the iconicTelstar was known as much forthe first live intercontinentalTV transmissions as for an instrumentaltune of the same name by a group calledthe Tornadoes. Built by AT&T BellLaboratories and launched by NASA ona Delta rocket precisely 44 years ago thismonth, this small spacecraft began theage of commercial satellite communica-tions. A medium-earth orbit (MEO)satellite at an altitude of approximately11,000 km, Telstar had to be activelytracked by big ground antennas on bothsides of the Atlantic Ocean. Subse-quently, the geostationary Earth orbit(GEO) proved to be the most effective, inspite of its greater range that results inthe quarter of a second one-way delayand free space loss that increases by 20to 30 dB. The design and constructionof these GEO spacecraft has become thecornerstone of a formidable industry.

The international nature of ourindustry, including on the spacecraftmanufacturing side, was made clear atthe recent ISCe Conference in SanDiego, organized by Hannover Fairs.While the US is still a leading force inthe technology and applications areas,

Directions for Spacecraft ManufacturingBruce ElbertPresident, Application Technology Strategy, Inc.

Telstar 1 (courtesy of NASA)

European and Asian companies showedtheir accomplishments and growingmarket share. The ISCe Conferencehonored JSAT, a Japanese satelliteoperator, with its prestigious LeadershipAward. Previous recipients includeDIRECTV, News Corp and SES Global;the fact that an Asia company washonored is quite noteworthy. Reviewedbelow are key developments anddirections that involve spacecraftmanufacturers and operators worldwide

.

Spacecraft of TodayAny organization seeking to

purchase and launch a new spacecraftmust consider a range of possibleconfigurations and suppliers, includingones that were unknown as recently as10 years ago. Today’s spacecraftdesigns seem to fall into the following

categories, which match the size andcapability.

“Big Bird”These are the largest satellites

currently built and deliver up to 20 kWof power to support a diverse range ofhigh-capability communications pay-loads. Examples include the Boeing 702,Loral 1300, Lockheed Martin 2100AXand EADS Astrium/Alcatel AleniaAlphaBus. One of the first to puchaseand launch one of these trophy satelliteswas Telesat Canada with its Anik F2, aBoeing 702 with no less than threepayloads – C, Ku and Ka; the Kapayload, in fact, contains analog anddigital processing elements.

The benefits of a large spacecraftinclude the following:

Telesat F2 Satellite(Courtesy of Telesat

Canada)

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1. Higher transmit power capabil-ity across a wide footprint, useful for thebroadcast of digital content direct to theuser

2. More transponders, to reducethe cost per transponder as a means tomaintain an attractive business

3. More frequency bands at agiven orbit position

4. Complex payloads with digitalon-board processing and multi-beamantennas

These benefits bring with them thegreater cost of constructing andlaunching the satellite; operating costsare not much different since the space-craft has only one control system. Onthe other hand, the insured valued of abig bird is at the highest point. Satellitesof the big bird type often require a fairdegree of customization to accommodatethe various functions and frequencies.In some instances, the purchaser may beable to justify a requirement for as manyas two or three under the same contract,but this raises the financial bar signifi-cantly

“Six Pack”This is a

model first used byPanAmSat in theirpurchase of sixnearly identicalBoeing 601HPsatellites, each withthe capability of 48transponders and atotal power ofabout 7 kW. Such aproduction runallows the manu-facturer to pur-chase the neces-sary parts andsubsystems inbulk, and construc-tion and testing

can be run more like an assembly line.The satellite design is nearly standard-ized as a result, but this may not be anissue for the typical FSS/BSS operatorwho needs to replace nearly identicalsatellites as they reach end of life.

An additional economy resultsfrom the widest range of launch options,including dual launch by Ariane 5. Thisis also attractive from an insuranceperspective due to lower satellite value.The totality of these characteristicsmakes the six pack the most populartype of satellite, considering also thatmost manufacturers produce them. Loral,Lockheed Martin and EADS Astriumhave been successful at selling six pack

type satellites to FSS/BSS operators likeEchostar, SES Americom and Eutelsat,respectively.

“Economy Size”Our last category includes space-

craft with somewhat limited capabilitybut designed to meet a specific need atmoderate cost. A classic example is thedual-spin Hughes (now Boeing) 376,which was the most purchased space-craft in history. Several of these are stillin operation; however, the cost/effec-tiveness of this particular design hasbeen superseded by a number of thesmaller three-axis spacecraft producedby Orbital Sciences and ISRO.

In a bold move, PanAmSat relied onthe Orbital platform to replace a numberof single-band dual-spin satellites thatwere nearing end of life. Their approachhas been very successful and otherbuyers are considering this option whenthe requirements can be met with aneconomy size vehicle. Illustrated belowis the Horizons 2 satellite, which is ajoint venture of PanAmSat and JSATInternational. It soon will replace thedual-spin SBS-6 at 74 degrees WestLongitude.

Applications that Drive Re-quirements

During ISCe, a highly-experiencedpanel of satellite technologists gavetheir views on how they would address

Echostar IX BSS Spacecraft (Courtesy of SpaceSystems/Loral)

Horizons 2Satellite (courtesyof Orbital SciencesCorp)

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advancing requirements for better end-user communications. The panel was ledby DK Sachdev, formerly Senior VP ofEngineering and Operations at XMSatellite Radio and author of ArtechHouse book Business Strategies forSatellite Communications. The first tospeak was Stuart Cox, VP of AdvancedApplications at XM Satellite Radio. Inhis prepared remarks, he provided thefollowing success factors that contrib-uted to making XM into the world’sDARS leader:

• Own the technology and thestandard: drive the development of theend user device with proprietaryarchitecture and protocols• Accelerate the introduction ofbreakthrough technology andapplications

Mr. Cox described how his group ofXM engineers produced 100% of thedesign for all products, including therecently introduced combination satellitereceiver and MP3 player. Such is madepossible by the “big bird" spacecraft built by Boeing and that deliver

over 60 dBW ofEIRP across the continen-tal US.

The other threemembers of this panelrepresented leadingmanufacturers of largespacecraft. MannyDiMiceli, VP at LockheedMartin and programmanager of the MobileUser Objective System(MUOS), which will replacethe UHF Follow-on systemcurrently in operation forthe US Navy and otherDoD users, talked aboutthe vital need in govern-ment circles to push

technology ahead while maintainingservices to legacy ground equipmentand locations. MUOS will provide multi-beam communications using thewideband CDMA technology popular-ized for 3G cellular networks. Thespacecraft will support 9.6 kbps voiceand data services to handheld devicesusing a transponder-type satellite andground processing. It’s interesting thatthis is basically the same approach takenby MSV in their commercial ATC system.Mr. DiMiceli, who was also LockheedMartin’s IRIDIUM program manager,contrasted the new Navy handheldservice to that of the Iridium system,which provides 2.4 kbps telephoneservice. MUOS will give potentialthroughputs of up to 384 kbps andemploys “the lower UHF spectrum whichwill operate in the wide spectrum ofenvironments that the military might seeitself in.”

The MUOS spacecraft design is onthe high end of performance for GEOsatellites because it must carry not justthe W-CDMA payload with its new“waveform” but also a legacy payload to

address the needs of the current systemof users. According to Mr. DiMiceli, theGEO approach has the advantage thatyou don’t need to launch an entireconstellation at once, as was requiredbefore IRIDIUM could start service.Instead, with GEO, you can “build a little,sell as little… for communications, GEOhas a much bigger market.”

Michel Le Moine, VP and CTO atEADS Astrium, reviewed the newInmarsat 4 series satellites that facilitatethe Broadband Global Area Network(BGAN), supporting bi-directional datarates of typically 300 kbps into acompact unit smaller than a laptopcomputer. It was clarified that all of the L-band systems, including BGAN, require aclear un-obstructed path to the satelliteand in-building coverage would need tocome from terrestrial base stations.Inmarsat 4 is a specialized type ofspacecraft capable of providing morethan 230 beams and 630 broadbandchannels, which can be modified byground command to move beams andincrease power in a given beam. Mr. LeMoine also mentioned that EADSAstrium supplied 15 Eurostar 3000spacecraft that to FSS/BSS operatorssuch as Eutelsat. These are usuallypurchased like the six pack previouslymentioned, i.e., a cost-effective andtimely production of very similardesigns. EADS Astrium has moved intothe economy size vehicle through arecently-announced partnership withISRO. Mr. Le Moine explained that thisstrategy employs ISRO’s existingspacecraft vehicle combined withpayloads supplied by EADS Astrium. Topursue other big bird class opportuni-ties, EADS Astrium has teamed up withAlcatel Alenia in the development andproduction of the high-end AlphaBus,which would produce 12 kW of power ormore and contain a variety of flexiblepayload capabilities.

The MUOS Spacecraft (courtesy of LockheedMartin)

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FEATURES

EADS Astrium has special capabili-ties in processing payloads, Inmarsat 4and a video systemcalled Skyplex beinggood examples. Mr. LeMoine went further totalk about processortechnology underdevelopment that wouldcut power consumptionfrom 1.5 kW down toless than half a kilowattwhile reducing physicalsize to smaller than ashoe box. They are alsopushing a new genera-tion of active antennaarray composed stan-dardized elements thatreduce size and cost. Inanswer to a questionfrom the floor, Mr. LeMoine stated that thenumber of beams couldincrease from 250 onInmarsat 4 to upwards of500 beams.

Our final speakeron this veteran panel ofspacecraft technologistswas Marc Pircher, CTOof Alcatel Alenia Space,which produces theSpacebus 4000 vehicleoffering a range of 5 to12 kW. Mr. Pircherexplained that power inexcess of 12 kW will relyon the AlphaBus, beingdeveloped and offered inconjunction with EADSAstrium. Several pointswere made about theimportance of spacecraftmanufacturers meetingbuyers’ demand forgood hardware reliabilityand high service

http://www.ses-americom.com

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FEATURES

availability. The seller will need to proveon the ground that the spacecraft willwork and that risk will be acceptable toboth the buyer and insurer. Mr. Pircherstated that “we started years before” tobuild qualification models and addedthat the risk of a new spacecraft designis reduced by the fact that the best ofthe best are doing the work and testing;subsequent to that, downstreamproduction depends on good workman-ship.

From a technology perspective, Mr.Pircher reviewed how Alcatel AleniaSpace is advancing a flexible payloadarchitecture that allows a 15 year FSS/BSS satellite to adapt to the market as itcomes. The components that providethis flexibility include the following:

• A Traveling-wave Tube Amplifier(TWTA) in which the saturatedoutput power can be stepped from alow of 90 watts to a high of 150 watts,presumably without sacrificing DC-RFefficiency. This matches downlinkEIRP to rain conditions and band-width requirements.

• Frequency plan adaptation in theuplink and downlink, to changetransponder characteristics

• Steerable and power adaptivebeams, done first for the military inEurope and now to be offeredcommercially

One requirement introduced fromthe audience was the thought of puttingpacket switching on board the space-craft as opposed to the ground hub. Mr.DeMiceli pointed out that this involvesoverhead of as much as 30 to 40%,suggesting that the ground might be thebest location for this type of complexity.In response to a suggestion that satellitelife might be reduced to less than 10

years to facilitate quicker technologyintroduction, Mr. DiMeceli admonishedthat the “infrastructure” to design a newsatellite is costly and time consuming.His concern is that this would not leavesufficient time, particularly for the DoDwith it’s 15 year development cycle. Mr.Pircher added that construction in 20 to24 months is feasible but not possible ifa totally new satellite is to be developed.Another important point mentioned byMr. Le Moine is that financial analystscare about return on investment, inwhich case it’s more effective to dividethe investment value by 15 years ratherthan, say, five.

The previous comments from theCTOs of several major technologycompanies generally reflect the industryview. Thus, it is likely that had SpaceSystems/Loral and Boeing SatelliteSystems taken part on this panel, theywould probably have added more fuel tothis fire. For example, SS/L has beenvery successful at the six-pack business- Echostar just announced the selectionof SS/L for their next BSS satellite.Boeing has recently been concentratingon the 702, relinquishing both the six-pack and economy size to others.Orbital, on the other hand, appears to besticking to its economy-sized knitting,producing compact spacecraft asreplacements for many of the formerHughes/Boeing dual spinners.

Matching Product to NeedThe supplier side of spacecraft

construction is robust and technology isadvancing at a reasonable pace. Wedon’t see much in the way of new non-GEO activity; in fact, Sirius SatelliteRadio ordered GEO satellites from SS/Land appears to be moving away from itscurrent 24-hour highly elliptical orbit.For now, spacecraft manufacturing isvery much a GEO game, as outlined byManny DeMiceli of Lockheed Martin.

Spacecraft will continue to come inthree basic sizes that are designed forthe application and business model ofthe satellite operator. The objective ofmatching spacecraft design to the actualuser market is more at the center thanever before. Multi-beam satellites withprocessors are a larger segment butshould not dominate the launch manifestover traditional bent-pipe architectures.Demand for Ku band is strong with Cband fairly flat; L and S bands are highlyprized for mobile services to commercialand military users. And finally, Ka bandis definitely with us and likely to grow asa means to accommodate Kusaturation.

Bruce Elbert has over 30 years of experience in satellitecommunications and is the President of Application TechnologyStrategy, Inc., which assists satellite operators, network provid-ers and users in the public and private sectors. He is an authorand educator in these fields, having produced seven titles andconducted technical and business training around the world. During 25 years withHughes Electronics, he directed major technical projects and led businessactivities in the U.S. and overseas. He is the author of The Satellite Communica-tion Applications Handbook, second edition (Artech House, 2004).Web site: www.applicationstrategy.comEmail: [email protected]

SM

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CASE STUDY

The Wilderness Classroom Organiza-tion sent photos, video clips and data toschools around the world during its six-week Project Peru 2006

Project Peru 2006 was the Wilderness Classroom’s 8th onlineeducational expedition and

employed satellite technology tocommunicate with students and teachersfrom remote parts of the globe.Telenor’s Global Area Network (GAN)service allowed Project Peru’s fivemember international team to communi-cate with over 30,000 3rd to 8th gradestudents and teachers during their six-week canoeing expedition through thePeruvian Amazon. During the 2006expedition, Web site traffic increasedmore than 20% over 2005 usage.

The Project Peru 2006 team spentmuch of April and May 2006 exploring aremote section of the Peruvian AmazonRainforest by dug out canoe. Our fivemember team of scientists, writers,photographers, and educators traveledto the rainforest to gain a better under-standing of how plants, animals, andpeople survive in the low land AmazonRainforest. Our mission was to shareour findings with approximately 30,0003rd to 8th grade students in the UnitedStates who where in charge of directingthe adventure by deciding where andhow we traveled, what we studied, whichfoods we should try, and many otherthings. This interactive learningexperience would not have been

Telenor Used for Distance Learning Projectin the Amazon RainforestBy: David FreemanDirectorThe Wilderness Classroom Organization

possible without the Global AreaNetwork satellite communicationsterminal and service provided by TelenorSatellite Services.

The area we explored is the largestprotected flooded rainforest in the worldcalled the Pacaya Samiria NationalReserve. The reserve protects over fivemillion acres of flooded forest, and

during April and Mayapproximately 90% of thatarea is covered in floodwaters brought into thepark by the massiveAmazon River. Because ofthis we often went for dayswith out seeing landbecause there was two to10 feet of water coveringthe forest floor. “Camping”often meant hanginghammocks from trees.Most of the time weestablished our dailycommunications to theoutside world by setting upthe satellite terminal in afloating canoe becausethere was not land for miles.We found that tying thecanoe to one or two treesstabilized the canoe enoughto maintain a strong signal.The beeping sound that thephone makes when acquir-ing a signal made it easy forus to position the terminalin the canoe.

Communications for Video,Voice & Data

Our team used three of Telenor’sGAN applications to update our Websiteand to communicate with students andteachers, friends and family, the media,and our co-workers back in the United

Online chat from a shelter in Peru

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CASE STUDY

States. We used the 64 kbps dataservice for uploading photos, videos,and text which we would zip together toreduce the amount of time necessary toupload the files. Second, we used themobile packet data service (MPDS) tobrowse the Internet to get weatherreports and check e-mail. We also usedthe MPDS service to communicate withstudents and teachers using a chatroom. This is similar to instant messag-ing, and allowed us to answer students’questions in real time. We hosted one ortwo hour-long chats each week, and the$8 to $15 that we paid for each chatmade this a fun, easy, and cost-effectivemeans to reach thousands of studentsaround the world. These “live” chatsgenerated amazing excitement for thestudents when they found they werecommunicating with the exploration teamin “real time” from their classroomcomputers. Online chat from a shelter inPeru

Finally, we used Telenor’s voiceservice to call friends and family, andstay connected with the people manag-

ing the expedition. The ability to callyour Mother on her birthday is price-less, and easy to accomplish via Telenor.I am not sure what mattered to mymother more, a call on her birthday, orthe knowledge that if we ran intoproblems, we could call for help. Asthe expedition leader, the piece of mindthat comes with knowing that a phone isavailable in case of emergence isextremely important.

Emergency CommunicationsVia Satellite

We had a close call toward the endof our trip when Patrick, our film maker,put on his pants in the morning withoutchecking them for insects. We alwaysshake out our clothing in the morning tomake sure nothing has crawled in to ourboots, shirts, or pants during the night.One morning Patrick forgot to do this,and there was a Wandering Spider in hispants. After he had had his pants on forabout 10 minutes he felt a stinging onhis leg, he shook his pants, and quickly

stepped on the large spider the tumbledonto the floor. Using our satelliteterminal, we called our expeditionmanager in the United States and hadhim research the spider on the Internet.We were able to verify that it was aWandering Spider, and learn that itsvenom is over 15 times more poisonousthan a Black Widow Spider. Ourexpedition manager provided us thesigns and symptoms of a WanderingSpider bite which enabled us to monitorPatrick’s condition for several hours anddetermine that the spider had not in factinjected poison into him. Luckily, thispotentially life threatening situationturned out to be a false alarm, but theability to get immediate additionalinformation from the outside wasextremely helpful. Plus, if poison hadbeen released from the spider’s fangs,we had the ability to call in a float planeto air lift Patrick to a hospital.

Satellite CommunicationsEssential Part of FutureExpeditions

We could not have fulfilled ourmission without the ability to communi-cate from remote locations around theglobe, and Telenor equipment andservices do a remarkable job of keepingus connected from some of the wildest

Peruvian Tree Frog

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CASE STUDY

places on earth.

Next year we are launch-ing a seven-year program calledthe Trans-America Expedition.During this project we willeducate thousands of studentsand teachers about the impor-tance of protecting the worldsremaining forest by taking themon “live” expeditions through-out both North and SouthAmerica. During this program,I will lead teams of scientists,educators, and explorers acrossSouth America by canoe andcross North America bydogsled. We will travel over11,000 miles under our ownpower through some of themost remote places on earth.We can not imagine undertak-ing such a massive project without the rugged, reliable servicethat Telenor provides. SM

http://www.ptc07.org

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FEATURE

It was only in February that wecovered the European sat-radioscene, embryonic as it is, and

suggesting that 2006 might be the ‘year’for European DARS, and our words weremore prescient than we imagined. Butmuch has happened in the past half-year, with some good news and one ortwo items that are more negative in tone.However, much more is now knownabout the various would-be broadcast-ers that we felt compelled to return tothe topic.

It is worth remembering thatdespite the huge, and justifiable,success of satellite radio in NorthAmerica, Europe is a vastly differentkettle of fish. Twenty-odd sovereignnations, at least as many languages, anda strong public broadcasting ethos ineach market, let alone the fact that youcould fit many of these countries into acorner of Texas, or California, is aportfolio of challenges that neither XMor Sirius had to contend with.

Two names now dominate ourEuropean report, both having raisedtheir profile considerably. Washington-based Worldspace must take pride ofplace, as the older enterprise by far. InMay Worldspace said it had beengranted terrestrial re-transmissionlicences in Italy. Along with the “li-cence” Worldspace is permitted tomarket its service to pay-radio subscrib-ers. The permit covers the 1479.5-1492MHz band, and for the operation of thecorresponding hybrid satellite/terrestrialnetwork. Worldspace Italia is a majority-owned subsidiary of Worldspace’s

European Satellite Radio – Battle Lines GetDrawnBy Chris Forrester

European holding company, ViatisSatellite Radio. Worldspace Italia’sother partner is New SatelliteRadio (35%), an Italian companywhose primary shareholder isClass Editori, a leading Italianfinancial, media and broadcastconglomerate based in Milan.Class Editori have similar jv’s withCNBC and Dow Jones. These Italianpermissions make a major step forwardfor satellite radio in Europe.

Worldspace Italia says it antici-pates launching Europe’s first satellitedigital radio and data service to portableand vehicular devices next year, usingone satellite already in orbit, and aterrestrial gap-filler re-transmissionnetwork to be rolled out in all majorcities throughout Italy. The companyintends to start rolling out this comple-mentary network as soon as its installa-tion plan, currently under finalization, isapproved by the Ministry. At theservice’s maturity, subscribers in Italywill have access to approximately 50channels of sports, talk and commercial-free music programming. Italy willdemand about 120 terrestrial repeaters.

IF Worldspace can get its serviceon air – and it is a big ‘if’ with its cashfast running out, then this decisioneffectively bars its rivals from using thespectrum. Worldspace longer-term planscall for a service to be launched inGermany and Spain.

Noah Samara, Chairman/CEO ofWorldspace, said in May: “We lookforward to working closely with our

partner. Italy is an attractive market forus. Our research shows it to be one ofthe two top markets for satellite radio inEurope. Worldspace is the sole playerusing the only harmonized 12.5 MHzspectrum for satellite radio in Europe.We continue to believe that the marketfor mobile satellite radio service inEurope is larger than that of the UnitedStates, where XM and Sirius have beenhugely successful. Our strategy hasbeen to roll out a European service on asequential, country-by-country basis.”

The news, however, did little to liftWorldspace’s share price out of the $6doldrums – it has been as high as $14.75back in January. Kunal Madhukar ofBear Stearns, who tracks Worldspaceclosely, said in a May 10 note that whileItaly represents a “significant” marketopportunity (and it does), “Worldspaceis yet to finalise the business model andwould require additional financing tofund start-up losses”. He explains thatWorldspace’s cash burn rate is currentlyrunning at about $9m-$12m a month,mostly as a result of its Indian expan-sion. And even in this area, which isvirgin territory for pay-radio,Worldspace’s net additions were lowerthan expected. This, says the bank,brings their end-of-year estimate to just

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FEATURES

375,000 subscribers (from 400,000) inIndia, and with a 1.4% per month churnrate. Worldspace will burn its waythrough around $145m this year, whichis at the higher end of previous fore-casts, of which more in a moment.

Worldspace has also let go AndyRas Work, its COO since March 2002,and replaces him with a pair of joint-COOs in Greg Armstrong who willoversee sales, customer care, technol-ogy and distribution functions, whileAlexander “Sandy” Brown will beprimarily responsible for new marketdevelopment activities in Europe, Chinaand other new markets. Brown joins inMay (he was most recently CEO ofCNBC Asia-Pacific), while Armstrongjoined in June from Jupiter Comm’s,where he is EVP/COO.

Worldspace is sitting on cash andcash equivalents of $47m (at the end ofMarch) and probably less now. It alsohas, according to its latest FCC filing,“marketable securities” of $201.6m. Itburned through $27.2m during the first 3months of the year. Worldspace says ithas sufficient cash for “at least” the next12 months. They admit they will needadditional cash to fully launch theirbusiness in China and Western Europeand to fund the cost to modify andlaunch their spare satellite.

In other words, even Worldspacerecognises there are a few challengesahead. You might also think that with aGEO satellite in orbit, and another sittingon the ground awaiting modification, thefuture would look pretty good forWorldspace. Not so, claims, CelsoAzevedo, CEO of Madrid-based Ondas

Media. Azevedo tells us boldlythat Worldspace poses noserious threat to his Europeanplans. Moreover, Ondas saysthat satellite radio in Europecould over time prove to be asbig a success as in the USA. Ina recent article published bySpain’s El Pais financial newspa-per, quoting Eugenio Fontan, VPat Ondas, says that taken over a10 year period following launchit expects to have attracted morethan 30m subscribers. XM in theUS launched in 2001 while rivalSirius launched in 2002, and areseen as reaching 20m and 15msubscribers respectively on their10th anniversaries of serviceintroduction.

Ondas is looking to launcha 70-80 channel system in 2009,and bases its forecasts on astudy which shows that Europehas an estimated 238m vehicleson the road (and 190m in its 5country main markets), com-pared with 210m in the US, and470m people, compared with296m in the US. Ondas has a304m-target audience in its“principal countries” of opera-tion.

Ondas says it estimates asubscriber charge of some •12 amonth. Speaking exclusively tous recently Celso Azevedo saidhis company will be issuingRequests for Proposals tosatellite operators to gauge theirinterest in a European DARSsystem. Ondas already has RFPsissued to potential satellitebuilders. “There’s a lot happen-ing,” said Azevedo, “althoughthe news from the UK is reallycrazy.” Azevedo was referring to

“Samara is not known asthe Houdini of this

industry for nothing”

http://www.avltech.com

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FEATURES

the recent UK regulator Ofcom an-nouncement on L-Band (see panel). “Itis simply a bad idea. For example, thisbandwidth is covered by internationalagreement from the ITU. Congress in theUS decided that the FCC could notauction bands that were allocatedinternationally, yet the British think theycan operate unilaterally. Let’s say thatthe spectrum being used by SES Astraover the UK, beaming DTH signals intomillions of homes, were auctioned byOfcom. The UK had nothing to do withthis bandwidth allocation, because itwas internationally agreed to be arecognised Luxembourg filing. Ofcomcould auction this band tomorrow, and itwould be crazy, a disaster. Yet this iswhat they are proposing under theircurrent L-Band plans.”

about using the spectrum to some 600mEuropeans, the UK seems determined toscrew it up. What if every other Euro-pean country adopts the same proce-dure? It is a major blunder. How wouldthis decision affect Britain’s neighbours,the French, the Belgians, Dutch andIrish? The whole thing is ridiculous.”

His comments were echoed by theBrussels-based European SatelliteOperators Association, which said it waslobbying heavily in an attempt topersuade Ofcom not to see off the L-Band spectrum.

We last spoke to Azevedo a monthago, since when Worldspace hasannounced its activity in Italy. “It is nota licence to operate,” says Azevedo. “Itis a communication from the Italianministry, and depends on co-ordinationfrom the ITU, and other licence-applica-tions that may be given soon. It is not alicence, and is far away from a licence.But unfortunately our friends atWorldspace tend to ignore this andinstead give their own spin to the news.It is far away from a licence, and I couldonly ask that you be patient for our ownnews.”

Azevedo says that between now(June) and September this year there willbe various news announcements, some

of which will cover financial arrange-ments, which “are well on track”. Headded that the upcoming ‘operational’RFP which would concentrate onpartnerships with a separate operationalstructure looking at the core businessplan.

Meanwhile, the objections to theUK’s plan to auction off its terrestrial L-Band spectrum landed on Ofcom’sdoormat ahead of the June 9 deadline. Apolite, but firm, objection came from theEuropean Satellite Operators Assoc., viatheir Satellite Action Plan RegulatoryGroup (SAP). SAP argued that Ofcom’sproposals would not result in the mostefficient use of spectrum, and worse,would raise a “de facto barrier to S-DABentry in the UK”. Ofcom’s consultationperiod ended on June 9, and a speedydecision is now expected, certainly bythis winter.

The SAP submission argues,“Hybrid satellite-terrestrial systems areideally positioned to contribute to thedevelopment of innovative mobilemultimedia services to consumers inEurope, by their ability to achieveunequalled nationwide coverage fromtheir first day of operation. Among thevarious spectrum opportunities toaccommodate such development,considering a wide range of possibletechnologies and services, the 1452–

“Now, seemingly whenthere is at least onecompany that is veryserious about using thespectrum to some 600mEuropeans, the UKseems determined toscrew it up.”Celso Azevedo, Ondas

Worldspace Italian statement*

“WorldSpace Italia S.p.A. has received approval from theItalian Ministry of Communications to launch a subscriptionsatellite radio service in Italy. With this authorization, theMinistry has granted WorldSpace Italia the right to providea subscription-based satellite radio and data service toconsumers in Italy, and to use the frequency band 1479.5-1492 MHz for the operation of the corresponding hybridsatellite/terrestrial network.”

*May 8

Azevedo said Ondas was stronglyobjecting to the Ofcom proposals. “Ihave not talked to a single satelliteoperator, or country or interested party,who does not object to these proposals,not a single one,” says Azevedo. Hehinted that the only eventual winners inthis situation might be the lawyers,inevitably drawn in to argue the meritsof users of ITU-authorised spectrum,versus UK-licensed users, whether viasatellite or terrestrial, high-power or low-power. “This band was allocated some15 years ago by the ITU for BSS sounduse. Now, seemingly when there is atleast one company that is very serious

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FEATURES

1492 MHz remains the only ITU alloca-tion harmonised at global level for S-DAB, with the upper 12.5 MHzharmonised in Europe. Indeed, after thecommercial success of S-DAB servicesin North America (with already morethan 10 million subscribers in about 5years of operation), S-DAB services arenow developing in Europe on the basisof this allocation.” (read the full Ofcomdocuments at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2006/03/nr_20060331a )

and (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/1452-1492/).

Worldspace was another strongobjector, arguing strongly that thespectrum under review should bereserved for satellite use, and if auctionsare to be considered then Ofcom shouldinvite initiatives aimed at developmentof an S-DAB service in the UK.“[Worldspace} is currently developingSDAB services in Europe on the basis ofthe upper 12.5 MHz of the 1452 – 1492MHz spectrum allocation, and considersthat the UK market represents a majoropportunity that we look forward todeveloping as soon as possible, inpartnership with other UK-basedstakeholders. We commend and fullyagree with the timeframe offered byOfcom to award spectrum rights in L

band, which could pave the way for thecommercial launch of a UK satellite radioservice in the early 2008 timeframe,following the deployment of the esti-mated 130 terrestrial gap-filler networknecessary to complement the satellitenetwork in urban areas.”

Ondas Media was another objector,and told Ofcom it is taking steps to raisethe •1.6bn needed to put its plans intooperation. Saying it has “grave reserva-tions” about the Ofcom scheme, andstates the plan is counter to a widerEuropean responsibility. “Ofcom’s

ONDAS statement, June 1

“It is not a licence to oper-ate. It is a communicationfrom the Italian ministry, anddepends on co-ordinationfrom the ITU, and otherlicence-applications thatmay be given soon. It is nota licence, and is far awayfrom a licence.”

Celso Azevedo, CEOOndas

http://www.panamsat.com

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FEATURES

duties include promoting competitionand encouraging investment andinnovation. Ofcom is also obliged tocontribute to the development of theEuropean internal market, the promotionof the interests of European citizens, theencouragement of service and networkinteroperability, and suitable standardsfor freedom of choice for consumers.These Community requirements areparamount as they override Ofcom’sobligations with regard to spectrummanagement, where such obligations arein conflict with Community require-ments. Because Ofcom’s proposed

Ofcom made a ‘stakeholder’ presentationin London on May 22nd, and proposes sellingoff 40 MHz of spectrum , with “incrementalagreements already in place for broadcastingT-DAB use if required”, with Ofcom proposing toaward the spectrum without restrictions on use.Ofcom says the initial licence would be for a15-year period, determined initially by auctionand thereafter by fees based on either costrecovery or what Ofcom calls “AdministeredIncentive Pricing”. The simultaneous award ofall 40MHz of spectrum licences would betradable, and spectrum packages and auctionscan be designed to give bidders flexibility, saysOfcom.

Ofcom admits that the top 12.5 MHz of theavailable spectrum has an element of uncer-tainty over its terrestrial use. The Ofcomconsultation period closes on June 8, andsources suggest that objections have flowedinto Ofcom’s London office. The auction isproposed for Q1/2007 (probably in March), witha statement published this coming autumn ahead ofthe auction process. Current users operating within theband must vacate their frequencies by March 31st nextyear.

Ofcom supplied a comprehensive list of thetechnologies that could be used within the releasedspectrum, including DVB-H, T-DMB, S-DMB, DAB-IP,ISDB-T, MediaFlo, S-DAB, T-DAB, WiMAX, UNTS-TDDand 802.20-based services. (Readers wanting to knowmore can visit the Ofcom website at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/1452-1492/ )

Ofcom cited assorted ITU Resolution 528 agreements alongwith EU (2003 decision) and the CEPT Maastricht 2002 SpecialArrangements and ITU International Radio Regulations, asproviding authority for the EU to act unilaterally. “The two arrange-ments that are of particular relevance to this award are theMaastricht Plan and ITU radio regulations,” says Ofcom. Ofcomadmits that it has to provide interference protection for satelliteservices [which] potentially constrain terrestrial use [of the pro-posed frequencies] in the UK. IT quotes 5 filings in existence and afurther 120 filings “at an advanced publication stage, in the “top12.5MHz” of the spectrum on offer. Most of the UK, because ofthese limitations, is rated to have “low” transmission powerpermission and using “short range applications”.

Ofcom’s view of UK wireless opportunities

Technology Channel Width

Mobile mulitmedia DVB-H 5, 6, 7 or 8 MHz

T-DMB 1.7 MHz

S-DMB 1.7 MHz

DAB-IP 1.7 MHz

ISDB-T 6, 7 or 8 MHz

MediaFLO 5, 6, 7 or 8 MHz

Mobile audio S-DAB 12.5 mhZ

T-DAB 1.7 MHz

Broadband wireless WiMAX 3, 5, 5 or 7 MHz

UMTS TDD 10 MHz

802.20 1.25, 5 and 10 MHz

PMSE Wireless cameras 10MHz

London-based Chris Forrester, a well-known broadcastingjournalist is the Editor for Europe, Middle East and Africafor SATMAGAZINE. He reports on all aspects of theindustry with special emphasis on content, the business oftelevision and emerging technologies. He has a uniqueknowledge of the Middle East broadcasting scene, having interviewed atlength the operational heads of each of the main channels and pay-TVplatforms. He can be reached at [email protected]

actions are in conflict with Communityrequirements, Ofcom should reconsiderits proposals.”

In other words we are in for a fewmonths of uncertainty as far as the UK

Ofcom’s 1452-1492 MHz plans

SM

is concerned. Meanwhile, bothWorldspace and Ondas Media arepursuing their plans. It is going to be aninteresting summer.

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FEATURES

The idea to to have the option to obtain satellite bandwidthon demand for certain applica-

tions has been a long-standing requirementfor various segments in the market as broad-cast, emergency and disaster communications,business continuity and others.

Now with IP via Satellite thesolution to provide bandwidth ondemand in the global market has becomefeasible. One of the companies that areintroducing this new concept is On-Band.

On-Band provides IP-basedbandwidth on-demand and dedicatedsatellite network services. The companyhas VSAT hubs located in Sylmar,California near Los Angles and in theoutskirts of Cologne, Germany. The hubsare at Teleports with major connectivityto the Internet and to private lines tovarious customer locations. Theservices include network design,implementation and management. Theservices support VSAT, fly-away andother small aperture satellite terminals.VSAT terminals are usually deployed onthe roof or next to offices or stores whilefly-aways are packages of antennas andequipment used by Government andBroadcast customers that are packed inshipping cases that can be sent asbaggage on a commercial airline.

On-Band’s services are offeredthrough a network of Resellers includingservice providers, equipment manufac-

New Services - Satellite Bandwidth onDemand

By Bernardo Schneiderman

turers and system integrators whodeliver the service to the end user andmay offer sales, support and mainte-nance of the terminals as well.

By-the-ByteSM is On-Band’s globalshared-use IP service that is deliveredvia On-Band’s iDirect hubs at satelliteteleports located in strategic parts of theworld. On-Band arranges for spacesegment and terrestrial delivery circuitsto the Internet, as necessary.

What Make up By-the-ByteServices

• High-Speed Data/Internet accessto portable terminals on sharedchannels of 2x1Mbps

• On-Demand Availability (nobookings required)• Global Roaming (anyplace,anytime) with automatically report-ing, billing and clearing• Usage-Based Billing by volume ofdata transmitted -Monthly minimumand then by the Megabyte

For a small fixed monthly fee thatincludes a minimum monthly data usagevolume (varying with the type of planchosen), customers of the service areable to access any of On-Band’scommitted space segment resources.These services are connected to theInternet backbone and client only ispaying for the data they use – On-Band’s “By-the-ByteSM” service. The

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FEATURES

business model is similar to that em-ployed by many mobile phone operatorswith a base fee which includes some useof the network with additional use beingcharges on an “as used” basis.

The On-Band bandwidth on-demand, By-the-Byte, service is targetedat customers who require satellite-baseddelivery of mission-critical services ondemand, from fixed or frequently movedsites. On-Band believes that this servicesatisfies certain segments of the market,particularly military, homeland securityand broadcast customers, in establish-ing initial communications facilities fromremote locations. In addition, othersegments, such as insurance companies,financial institutions and large corpora-tions use the service for temporarycommunications or disaster recoveryand continuity of business.

During 2005, the company providedservices in the Pacific Ocean Region to aUnited States Government customer, andsupported Cisco Systems, FEMA, theRed Cross and other agencies during theHurricane Katrina relief efforts inLouisiana and Mississippi. Additionally,On-Band also tested with major interna-tional broadcasters for coordination andsupport communications includingtelephone, e-mail and file transfer fromremote news gathering sites.

One of the key aspects of the By-the-Byte service is the user’s ability toroam between satellites and regionswithout a requirement to schedule orbook capacity, paying only the monthlyfee and for any additional bandwidthused. This is achieved through invest-ments On-Band has made in customizingits proprietary usage and billing system

software. This software enables the On-Band network control center to auto-matically identify and authorize remoteterminals registered for the service,letting users log on or off at will. If a

Bernardo Schneiderman has over 20 years of experience

inSatellite Communications and is the President of TelematicsBusiness Consultants based in Irvine, CA. He can be reached [email protected].

www.on-band.com

SM

terminal is registered as a transportableunit, (including auto-deploy systemssuch as Swe-Dish, NorSat, AVL orMotosat), the user is also free to roamanywhere in the coverage areas of the

multiple By-the-ByteSM

footprints as authorized bythe satellite operators.

On-Band has estab-lished a standard specifica-tion for user-supplied remoteterminal modem/antenna/RFcombinations which are ableto support By-the-ByteSM

service of 1 Mbps inbound(to the hub) and 2 Mbpsoutbound (to the remote)anywhere within definedservice areas. Thecompany’s services aredivided into two areas –Green where a standardized1.8 meter terminal can beused and Blue where a 1.2meter approved antennasystem can be deployed.Smaller antennas have alsobeen used on the system invarious locations with the“hotter” satellite footprints.

Satellite Bandwidth onDemand will be expandingduring the next years withthe Satcom on the moveterminal providing solutionsfor applications that arecritical for HomelandSecurity and Satellite News Gathering teams.

Applications for On-Band Services

• Continuity of Businesso By-the-Byte Backup for primary terrestrial

serviceso Low monthly charges when used as

insurance for the networko A major insurance company is using the

service now

• First Responderso On-the-Go on the way to disasters for

planning and coordinationo By-the-Byte, By-the-Day and By-the-

Month Before, during and after disasterso Cisco, FEMA, various police and other

used the service after Katrina

• Broadcasterso On-the-Go on the way to SNG or remote

eventso By-the-Byte, By-the-Day and By-the-

Month Before, during and after SNG orremote events

• Governmento On-the-Go for on the move requirementso By-the-Byte, By-the-Day and By-the-

Month Before, during and after remoteevents

• Enterpriseo On-the-Go for on the move requirementso By-the-Byte, By-the-Day and By-the-

Month Before, during and after remoteevents.

o Aerospace/Defense Contractors are usingthe service to service airplanes down in thefield

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VIEWPOINT

Eleven years ago, at The CarmelGroup’s inaugural Five BurningQuestions conference in southern

CA, an anonymous attendee stated a“law” that has since proved itselfrepeatedly: If you do not attend certainconferences regularly (even if you readthe trades and talk regularly to peers),you will remain at least six monthsbehind the latest industry develop-ments.

That maxim proved itself yet againJune 13, when 23 top-level industryrepresentatives from Silicon Valley,Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington,DC, Denver’s cable and satellite commu-nities (to name but a few) — and manypoints in between — gathered in SanDiego for the 11th Annual Five BurningQuestions event, as part of the 5thannual ISCe conference, held at SanDiego’s Mission Bay Hilton Hotel.

Sessions ranged from the trademarkCEO session at day’s end, to thosecovering Content, Internet Protocol TV(IPTV), Broadband and AdvancedServices. The overall ISCe 2006 showfocused on military/government telecomapplications, as well as enterprisedevelopments. All were woven togetherby a “hybrid solutions” metric that alsostructured The Carmel Group’s full-daytrack (covering consumer entertainmentproducts and services). Within thatconsumer entertainment track, cable,telco, satellite and even electric utilityoperators and vendors were highlighted.

Content session panelists includedThe Outdoor Channel’s CEO Andy Dale;

USDTV’s CEO Steve Lindsley; and ToddGoodnight, Sirius Satellite Radio’s seniordirector of business alliances, productmanagement, for the consumer electron-ics division. The author served asmoderator. The major takeaway was thatmobile content is one of two key trendsthat has morphed toward “Killer Applica-tion” status.

IPTV session panelists wereMicrosoft’s director, marketing andcommunications – TV Division, EdGraczyk; SES Americom’s president,media solutions, Bryan McGuirk; BradSiebert, Intelsat’s director of businessdevelopment; NDS’ VP, market develop-ment, Ian Tapp; and Jeff Van Cura,Alcatel N.A.’s senior director, strategicsolutions. As moderator, NYC satellite

and telecom financier, Armand Musey,from Near Earth LLC, extracted numerouskey points from these five information-packed operators and vendors. Amongthose points was that the other “KillerApp” among today’s multichannelhybrid operators is IPTV itself, andspecifically what the telephone compa-nies do with it as they enter the competi-tive field filled by cable and satelliteoperators. Nonetheless, IPTV systemsintegration continues as a major chal-lenge.

Afternoon session panelistsincluded HughesNet’s GM, Paul Gaske;SES Americom’s Andreas Georghiou,chief commercial officer; Sling Media’sVP, market development, JeremyToeman; and Akimbo’s CEO, Josh

Among the highlights of ISCe 2006 were the annual ISCe awards presentedto leading companines such as Hughes Network Systems, JSAT and aLifetime Achievement Award for Joseph Clayton (not in picture).

ISCe 2006 InsightsBy Jimmy SchaefflerChairman, The Carmel Group

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VIEWPOINT

Goldman. Another respected industry veteran, HarryThibedeau, both moderated and reported a few recentdevelopments from his company, the National RuralTelecom Coop (NRTC), where he serves as manager,industry and technical affairs. The Broadband panelaudience left this session understanding that two-way internet broadband opportunities are expandingrapidly. These choices include the ability of providersand consumers to personalize the content theydeliver and receive, how they receive it, and whereand when. Infrastructure providers such as SES andIntelsat are building and launching ever-more-flexiblesatellites and payloads (e.g., more spot beams andnew spectrums, such as Ka-Band). In addition, thegrowth of broadband allows users such as SlingMedia and Akimbo more choices and businessmodels to work from, including having their applica-tions delivered by cable, satellite and telco operators,


39Back to Contents


VIEWPOINT

as well as installed into those ops’ set-top boxes.

Alan Young, CTO, SES Americom;Steve Kosac, VP, broadcast sales,Scientific Atlanta; Steve Condon, VP,marketing, Entriq; and Molly Freeland,manager, market intelligence, Intelsat,were the four panelists who made up theAdvanced Services panel. Moderatingduties were professionally maintainedby veteran industry consultant andformer PanAmSat exec, Steve Symonds.Worth identifying from this panel wasthe message that providing advancedservices cost-effectively today requirescareful attention to the assembly of acomplex eco-system of inter-operablehardware, software, and middleware,which ideally supports the entire rangeof cross-platform services (e.g., IPTV,broadband PC, and mobile).

The CEO panel featured Movielink

CEO (and former DirecTV co-founder),Jim Ramo; MovieBeam CEO Tres Izzard;and Buzztime president, Tyrone Lam.The session was also moderated by the

Jimmy Schaeffler is the chairman and chief service

officer for The Carmel Group, an eleven-year-old Carmel-

by-the-Sea-based consultancy, publisher and confer-

ence organizer that focuses on the global telecom and multichannel

industries. He can be reached at [email protected] and (831)

643 2222.

author. Among many subtle nuances, thekey takeaways from this session werethe intense competitiveness of today’spay TV/multichannel biz, as well as thecomplexity involved in dealing with thedaily and long-term technology, financ-ing, marketing, legal, regulatory, andmany other areas. All three executivesmentioned the challenge of obtainingtraffic for and an awareness of their newservices.

Of additional note was theWednesday night ISCe Awards Dinner,wherein HughesNet’s Pradman Kaulaccepted the 2006 company honor as

SM

“Innovator of the Year”; ToruMizoguchi, from Japan’s JSAT, acceptedhis company’s “Leadership Award”; andthe “2006 Lifetime Achievement Award”was presented to Sirius Satellite Radio’sJoe Clayton. Rounding out the eveningwere comments by keynote speaker EdHorowitz, SES Americom CEO. Of specialnote, Horowitz highlighted the need formore industry innovation and for theU.S. — and the companies that make upthe satellite and related industries’ cores— to push the U.S. government to createeasier access to the U.S. for youthfultalented immigrants (emphasis supplied).Horowitz concluded with his own newmaxim, “Immigration laws must beconstructed to allow the brighteststudents, teachers, engineers andscientists ready-access to this country.We need them. We always have.”

40Back to Contents


MARKET INTELLIGENCE

In the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Indonesia – and one weekfollowing the start of hurricane

season in the Gulf of Mexico – theglobal satellite communications industry,in co-ordination with the internationalemergency-management sector, hasdeveloped a comprehensive globalprogramme that facilitates effectiveprovision of fixed and mobile satellitesolutions to address natural and man-made disasters.

The global disaster-recoveryprogramme is being co-ordinated byGVF, the non-profit association of theinternational satellite communicationssector, and it includes complimentaryprovision of four vital services:

Access for emergency managers tothe GVF Certified VSAT InstallerDatabase;

Delivery of VSAT InstallationTraining to United Nations aid-agency missions;

Provision of GVF EmergencyNotifications for satellite solutions;and

Consultation on a UN disaster-recovery regime that eases regula-tory barriers.

The versatility of fixed and mobile

Global Satellite Industry Drives Disaster-Recovery Initiative in Support of EmergencyManagers GVF Co-ordinates Program Involving Installation Support,

Streamlined Regulations, and Emergency Notifications forDisaster Recovery ServicesBy David Hartshorn

Secretary GeneralGVF

satellite communications has long beenrecognised as effective for use indisaster relief and mitigation. But as aresult of recent natural and man-madedisasters in Indonesia, Pakistan, Sudan,the U.S., and elsewhere, the entirespectrum of emergency-managementstakeholders has begun coordinatingwith GVF to optimize delivery of satel-lite-based services for humanitarian andaid agencies, the United Nations (UN),non-governmental organizations,governments, and others.

As a focal point for the initiative,GVF has developed an online EmergencyManagement Portal at www.gvf.org thatprovides the disaster-recovery commu-nity with free access to critical informa-tion and updates on a wide range ofsatellite solutions, including the follow-ing:

• The GVF-Certified Installer Data-base: Contact details for hundreds ofGVF-Certified VSAT Installers are nowavailable to the Emergency Manage-ment sector via www.gvf.org. Thesetechnicians, all of whom have com-pleted the GVF’s rigorous CertificationProgram, are available to deploysatellite systems in every major regionof the world. The GVF CertificationProgram has been endorsed by theInternational Association of Emer-gency Managers (IAEM) and theSatellite Users Interference Reduction

Group (SUIRG), and the satelliteindustry has begun requiring installersto complete the training.

• State-of-the-Art Technology:Direct and immediate access to theworld’s leading suppliers of satellite-based emergency-managementsystems and services is provided viaan online One Stop Shop atwww.gvf.org. The GVF Members,which include 180 companies frommore than 80 nations, provide theentire range of satellite solutions:Bandwidth, mobile systems, VSATnetworks and equipment, fly-aways,ruggedised terminals, integration andinstallation, consulting, legal services,and more. GVF also posts emergencynotices to the global industry fordisaster-recovery requirements.

• Effective Regulation: Regulationsoften inhibit or prevent the industry’sability to rapidly provide satellitecommunications during and afterdisasters. To address this issue, theUN has co-ordinated the developmentof the GVF-endorsed TampereConvention, which is designed toenable expedited use of satellite andother types of emergency communica-tions within the framework of interna-tional humanitarian assistance. GVF,which has co-ordinated closely withthe UN on the Tampere Conventionfor nearly a decade, is providing

41Back to Contents


MARKET INTELLIGENCE

consultative services on how theprocess works and is promoting itsuse by governments, relief agenciesand industry – most recently duringthe UN’s International Conference onEmergency Communications(www.ICEC2006.com) held last weekon 18-20 June in Tampere, Finland.

As part of the global disaster-recovery initiative, the association willbe holding high-level Summits foremergency managers, who will meetsatellite-industry leaders and learn howto take advantage of state-of-the-artsystems and services. Two major GVFemergency-management events arescheduled for 2006; the first will be heldin conjunction with the InternationalAssociation of Emergency Managers’Annual Conference and EmergencyManagement and Homeland SecurityEXPO (see EMEX 2006 atwww.iaem.com) in Orlando, Florida on12-15 Nov. 2006. The “GVF EmergencyManagement Communications Sympo-sium” will provide state, local andFederal professionals with the informa-tion tools necessary to build communi-cations into their operational plans. TheGVF contact for this event is JohnFeneley, the GVF’s Canada Correspon-dent (Tel: +1 514 684 7026,[email protected]).

Two weeks later, GVF and JDEvents, the organizers of SATCON 2006,are collaborating on the 8th Annual GVFSatellite Summit, which will be held on 28November at the Omni Berkshire PlaceHotel in New York City… the dayimmediately preceding the SatelliteApplication Technology ConferenceExpo (SATCON). This year’s pre-showevent at SATCON builds upon thedialogue established during the 2005GVF Satellite Summit, where governmentofficials, executives of humanitarian &aid agencies, and telecom serviceproviders identified key priorities

needed to advance the deliveryof satellite-based disasterrecovery and emergency man-agement solutions. Entitled“Satellite-Based DisasterRecovery: Redefining the CriticalMission”, the 2006 high-levelSummit is being endorsed by theInternational Association ofEmergency Managers (IAEM),which represents more than 3,000emergency-management profes-sionals worldwide.

The Summit will address theincreasing demand from thesekey sectors for satellite systemsand services and examine howthe industry can more effectivelymeet user requirements. The GVFSummit will include leadingsatellite users as well as opera-tors, manufacturers, and analystsin hard-hitting discussions,revealing the latest commercialand market-access opportunitiesimpacting today’s internationalsatellite business.

Since last year’s tsunami inAsia, more than 300,000 peoplehave died from natural and man-made disasters. The relevance ofsatellite communications toemergency managers throughoutthe humanitarian and aid sectorshas never been higher, nor hasthere ever been greater recogni-tion of the role to be played bythe satellite industry. To join thisimportant initiative contact:David Hartshorn, GVF SecretaryGeneral, Tel: +1 202 390 1885 e-mail: [email protected]

SM

http://www.seatel.com

42Back to Contents


STOCK MONITOR

For real-time stock quotes go to www.satnews.com/free/finance.html

ADVERTISER’SINDEX

AAE Systems 7www.aaesys.com

AVL 31www.avltech.com

COMTECH EF DATA 9www.comtechefdata.com

CPI SATCOM 21www.cpii.com/satcom

Global Link 13Productionswww.globallinktv.com

L-3 NARDA 16SATELLITE NETWORKSwww.lnr.com

LORAL SKYNET 38www.thinkskynet.com

MITEQ 17www.miteq.com

PANAMSAT 33www.panamsat.com

PTC 2007 29www.ptc07.org

SEATEL 41www.seatel.com

SES AMERICOM 25www.ses-americom.com

Company Name Symbol Price 52-wk(June 30) Range

APT SATELLITE ATS 1.40 1.12 - 2.10ANDREW CORP ANDW 8.86 8.68 - 14.25ASIA SATELLITE SAT 16.85 15.91 - 20.55TELECOMMUNCATIONS(ASIASAT)BALL CORP BLL 37.04 34.16 - 45.00BOEING CO BA 81.91 62.01 - 89.58BRITISH SKY ADS BSY 42.49 33.59 - 42.96CALAMP CORP CAMP 8.89 7.11 - 13.90C-COM SATELLITE CMI.V 0.38 0.23 - 0.56SYSTEMS INC.COM DEV INTL LTD CDV.TO 4.50 1.67 - 4.65COMTECH TELECOM CMTL 29.27 25.67 - 45.65THE DIRECTV GROUP DTV 16.50 13.17 - 18.04ECHOSTAR DISH 30.81 24.44 - 32.41COMMUNICATIONSFREQUENCY ELECTRONICS FEI 12.98 9.90 - 15.00INCGLOBECOMM SYS INC GCOM 7.45 5.77 - 8.44HARRIS CORP HRS 41.51 30.91 - 49.78HONEYWELL INTL INC HON 40.30 32.68 - 44.48INTL DATACASTING IDC.TO 0.195 0.14 - 0.31CORPORATIONINTEGRAL SYSTEMS ISYS 26.83 18.63 - 29.74KVH INDS INC KVHI 11.66 8.77 - 12.08L-3 COMM HLDGS INC LLL 75.42 70.64 - 88.50LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP LMT 71.74 58.50 - 77.95NEWS CORP NWS 20.18 14.76 - 20.57NORSAT INTL INC NSATF.OB 0.64 0.60 - 1.47NTL INCORPORATED NTLI 24.90 20.75 - 31.00ORBITAL SCIENCES CP ORB 16.14 9.83 - 16.19QUALCOMM INC QCOM 40.07 32.98 - 53.01RADYNE CORPORATION RADN 11.38 8.59 - 17.85SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA SFA 42.98 26.73 - 43.90SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO SIRI 4.75 3.60 - 7.98SES GLOBAL FDR SDS.F 12.45 -TRIMBLE NAVIGATION TRMB 44.64 26.64 - 49.86WORLDSPACE INC WRSP 3.58 3.12 - 26.00VIASAT INC VSAT 25.68 20.12 - 30.83

XM SATELLITE RADIO XMSR 14.65 12.77 - 37.31


http://www.comtechefdata.com

http://www.aaesys.com

http://www.globallinktv.com

http://www.lnr.com

http://www.miteq.com

http://www.ses-americom.com

http://www.ptc07.org

http://www.avltech.com

http://www.panamsat.com

http://www.seatel.com

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