Worldwide Satellite Magazine — November 2017 SatMagazine Comms in Africa Cover photo is courtesy of Yahsat. Publishing Operations Senior Contributors Authors Silvano Payne, Publisher + Senior Writer Tony Bardo, Hughes Chris Forrester Hartley G. Lesser, Editorial Director Simon Davies, Spectre Jo de Loor Pattie Waldt, Executive Editor Richard Dutchik, Dutchik Comm. Hai HU Jill Durfee, Sales Director, Associate Editor Chris Forrester, Broadgate Publications Simon Payne, Development Director Karl Fuchs, iDirect Government Services Semir Hassanaly Donald McGee, Production Manager Bob Gough, Carrick Communications Catherine Melquist Dan Makinster, Technical Advisor Ryan Schradin, SES GS Kerstin Roost Ray Powers, Technical Writer Koen Willems, Newtec Hank Zbierski Advertiser Index Table of Contents ABS Global Limited ............................................................... 17 ViaSat’s Dankberg Testifies Before U.S. Senate Committee ............4 Advantech Wireless .............................................................. 11 Teledata’s Mobile Backhaul Gets Newtec Product Support ............6 Arabsat Satellite ........................................................ cover + 3 Preventing Herd Collisions with Trains .............................................8 Comtech EF Data .................................................................. 15 Jordan’s First Satellite — JY1-SAT — Completes Build .................12 Spacecom Returns to SpaceX for Two Satellite Launches .............13 CPI Satcom Products ............................................................ 19 The Advice is… Sell Off Nigcomsat-1R ...........................................14 Dubai World Trade Center — CABSAT ............................... 47 Eutelsat Procures NOORSAT ..........................................................15 HILTRON Communications ..................................................... 9 Orbit Communications is Providing a Foundation for EuroSat ......16 MC FUARCILIK Ltd. Stl. / Medyacity (Global SatShow) ....... 29 Yahsat Announces the GITEX Student Winners ..............................18 MITEC VSAT / Alga Microwave .............................................. 2 Helicopter SATCOM Delivered by IAI/ELTA...................................19 ND SATCOM GmbH ............................................................... 7 Connecting Africa Through Satellite Communications ...................20 NorthTelecom LLC .................................................................. 5 Pacific Telecommunications Council — PTC ........................ 27 Connecting the Unconnected by Satellite: .....................................22 Satnews Publishers Digital Editions ..................................... 41 From Mobiles to Money by Jo de Loor, Semir Hassanaly + Kerstin Roost Superior Satellite Engineers — SSE ..................................... 13 The Forrester Report: Broadcasting’s Hot Topics @ IBC ...............26 by Chris Forrester Future HTS Satellite Output Section Design ..................................32 by Hu Hai Successes to Remember and Future Endeavors .............................38 Mobile Satellite Users Association Uplink .......................................42 by Catherine Melquist “Extreme Service” in the Satellite Industry ....................................44 by Hank Zbierski Flying Better and Safer by Satellite .................................................46 SatMagazine is published 11 times a year by Satnews Publishers, 800 Siesta Way, Sonoma, CA, 95476, USA — Phone: (707) 939-9306 / Fax: (707) 939-9235 © 2017 Satnews Publishers We reserve the right to edit all submitted materials to meet publication content guidelines, as well as for grammar and spelling errors, or to move articles to an alternative issue to accommodate publication space requirements, or remove content due to space restrictions. Submission of content does not constitute acceptance of said material by SatNews Publishers. Edited materials may, or may not, be returned to author and/or company for review prior to publication. The views expressed in SatNews Publishers’ various publications do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of SatNews Publishers. All rights reserved. All included imagery is courtesy of, and copyright to, the respective companies and/or named individuals. 2 SatMagazine — November 2017 v InfoBeam ViaSat’s Mark Dankberg Testifies Before U.S. Senate Committee Regarding Spectrum We’re now building a third generation Broadband satellites need spectrum to design with nationwide-coverage, achieve these goals. U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), 1,000 times the capacity of the typical Chairman of the Senate Committee satellite in use today, and support for Our technology uses spectrum on Commerce, Science, and fiber-like speeds. And we’re designing extremely efficiently. Last year, we Transportation, convened a hearing even faster versions. helped the FCC open the 28 GHz titled, “The Commercial Satellite band for 5G mobile wireless while still Industry: What’s Up and What’s More capacity means better service. enabling growth in satellite broadband, on the Horizon,” on Wednesday, It allows us to keep up with the by sharing the same spectrum. October 25, 2017. growing demand for our services, provide even more customers at urban Yet, sadly, the FCC’s most recent One of the witnesses at this hearing quality offerings, and support the NPRM would take spectrum long- was Mr. Mark Dankberg, the Founder video-streaming services that Cisco allocated for satellite growth and and Chief Executive Officer of ViaSat. estimates will represent 82 percent of make it available almost exclusively His testimony follows... internet usage within a few years. for terrestrial wireless operations. This is the 47-52 GHz spectrum that Chairman Thune, We see the market work. When our we have been planning to use on our Ranking Member service is faster than the competition, satellites in the next five years. Such Nelson, and people choose ViaSat. This is true not a policy decision would pick winners Members of the just in the broadband sector, but also and losers — and stifle competition. Committee, I’m in the in-flight WiFi sector. The problem is not in accommodating Mark Dankberg, 5G — it’s in take spectrum away from co-Founder, Before us, in-flight WiFi was slow and competitive satellite services and Chairman and expensive, and hardly anyone used it. creating exclusivity by regulation. CEO of ViaSat. We have developed satellite-delivered Thank you for WiFi that serves every JetBlue flight There’s no technical argument against the chance to — free to every passenger and with spectrum sharing. Since there’s no testify on the enough bandwidth to stream video. technical reason, there’s no policy to U.S. satellite It’s so popular, there are often more prevent or limit competition, stifle the industry — and connected devices than passengers. ability to bring the best broadband the critical role In fact, we connect over two million services to American consumers and it plays in closing the digital divide, in personal electronic devices per month government users, and foreclose the connecting millions of mobile devices, on airplanes. And we have expanded ability to provide services we can’t and in our national defense. to United and American fleets. even imagine today. I’ve lived the American entrepreneurial We’ve invested heavily to serve In sum, the demand for satellite dream. Since ViaSat started in my Americans that others have left broadband is at an all-time high, house 31 years ago, we’ve generated behind. We built our own factory to we are providing a service that is billions in revenue, gone public, and allow us to do what no one else was comparable to urban offerings, and created almost 5,000 high-paying jobs. doing. And we’re actively exporting we’re uniquely suited to serving the this American satellite technology rural Americans that our competitors Just six years ago, we started redefining around the world. have left behind. The key to our ability satellite broadband when it was to continue to innovate and drive apparent that existing technology was ViaSat embraces the entrepreneurial developments in American technology not up to the task. We designed our spirit and competes with the largest is access to adequate spectrum. first satellite to extend urban-quality companies in the world. There are broadband services to rural America, now dozens of start-ups in satellite ViaSat is committed to serving all airlines, and even Air Force One. and space. We believe our success of America. We just the need the That satellite delivered 100 times played a role in inspiring others. And spectrum to do so. the capacity of a typical satellite and it is clear that advances in spacecraft today provides 25 Mbps speeds to and rockets depend on demand from Thank you for the opportunity to appear large parts of the nation. Our second commercial satellite operators like us. before you today to discuss these generation design, launched this year, important issues. I would be pleased to doubles that capacity, covers the But there’s a threat to the ability to answer any questions you might have. entire nation, and supports speeds of continue this American innovation and up to 100 Mbps. its ability to serve rural America. www.commerce.senate.gov/ 4 SatMagazine — November 2017 InfoBeam Teledata’s Mobile Backhaul Gets Newtec Product Support Newtec has announced that their The platform is also connecting to shift capacity to each site as Newtec Dialog® multiservice