While satellite Internet access is -- for those who've used it -- often considered the access of last resort, in some places, it's all there was to begin with. Recently, Hughes Network Systems brought some extra power to telecom provider Lintasarta in Indonesia by offering its JUPITER system, a system that means a new high-availability satellite system in play in the region.
By bringing in the JUPITER system, reports note, Hughes will give Lintasarta the necessary backbone to bring out a new source for meeting enterprise managed services demand. With the JUPITER system, Lintasarta is set to get a system gateway and up to 5,000 terminals, which will operate in the C-band satellite spectrum. The gateway and terminals together will form a network that provides high-bandwidth connectivity in the region, and give Lintasarta a little more to work with in the field.
The JUPITER system itself offers a new Internet protocol over satellite (IPoS) air interface, which offers better and more efficient bandwidth delivery. High-throughput terminals also offer the best chance of having enough bandwidth on hand, and the entire system runs even better thanks to the JUPITER System on a Chip (SoC) that drives the terminal, providing 100 Mbps of throughput for every terminal in the system.
Hughes' vice president for international sales and marketing, Ramesh Ramaswamy, noted “Today's announcement is further testament by leading operators around the world of the compelling benefits of Hughes' JUPITER technology for both conventional C- and Ku-band, as well as high-throughput Ka-band implementations. We are proud to work with these valued partners to expand the availability and performance of their enterprise managed service offerings throughout their service regions.”
Having spent several years using satellite Internet myself, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how Lintasarta thought it could get anywhere with such a system. While it's been a couple of years now since I last dealt with Hughes, my memory of it was a system that barely offered enough bandwidth for a couple dozen YouTube clips in a month. Netflix was right out, unless I was updating my DVD queue. However, since this is seemingly devoted to offering managed services, the bandwidth Hughes offers might be sufficient to carry on. After all, we're not necessarily talking about streaming video—video conferencing could be in the picture—but also things like authentication, databases and data recovery services, and satellite Internet access could be sufficient for such things.
If this move works as well as some believe that it will, then Indonesian businesses may have a great new source of access to managed services. That's a point that could help drive a few operations forward, and ultimately, make Indonesian business that much more powerful and able to function as part of an engine for overall economic growth.
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson
