OneWeb Satellite Broadband Service: Big Win in Alaska?

By

Broadband cloud satellite provider OneWeb has signed up its first reseller in Alaska.  The company may have a winning combination of features to give it a big chunk of the market in the 49th state and in other rural areas.

Alaska Communications has signed a non-exclusive memorandum of understanding (MOU) with OneWeb – whatever that might mean.  According to the joint press release from Alaska and OneWeb, the new high-speed, low latency broadband service will be available in 2019 to "every Alaska home, school, business and community center."

If there's a state that defines "rural access headaches," it's Alaska. With a population of around 750,000 people and the lowest population density per square mile in the U.S., there are a couple of major cities and a whole lot of wilderness in between, with few major roads.

Compounding matters for traditional geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) communication satellites tasked with providing broadband services, Alaska is far north of the equator, at the edge of coverage.  Since radio signals are traveling at a significant angle and through more atmosphere, satellite dishes further north have to be bigger for reliable reception, on the order of two meters or so, and need more powerful electronics.  In comparison, broadband satellite service to the "Lower 48" can be supported by a relatively small dish of a meter or less in size, easily installed top of the roof or side of an apartment building.

OneWeb's constellation uses hundreds of low-flying satellites constantly circling the world, insuring around-the-clock coverage.  Since OneWeb satellites fly directly overhead at a few hundred miles above the earth, anyone on the ground will be able to use a smaller antenna of around a meter or less in size,  

Smaller satellite antennas mean lower transportation and installation costs, with the ability to not only serve fixed locations such as a town or house, but to also deliver services onboard planes and ships – b oth key transportation links in Alaska – as well as ground vehicles.

Finally, any existing broadband satellite customer will gain benefit from OneWeb's low-latency service.  Traditional GEO satellites parked 22,000-plus miles above the Earth add a couple hundred milliseconds of delay moving signals back and forth from ground to satellite and back, followed by routing through a centralized satellite gateway.  OneWeb's low-flying satellites are expected to add under 20 milliseconds of latency to a typical connection, with signals relayed more quickly between satellites when possible rather than routed through a centralized gateway and back into the traditional telecommunications network if not necessary.

Softbank's investment in OneWeb also creates ties between it and Sprint.  Remote communities without cellular phone service may become new Sprint customers by using the OneWeb network for cellular backhaul network, negating the need for fiber.

OneWeb's first satellites will be launched in 2018, with the final total to be at least 650 or so satellites for a production network covering the entire globe.  While OneWeb's initial pitch was to deliver broadband services to everyone everywhere, the company has more recently fine-tuned its initial marketing efforts towards paying customers in the first responder community, commercial and military aviation, and mobile operators. 



Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

Contributing Editor

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

What Is Attribute Based Access Control?

By: Contributing Writer    12/5/2023

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) represents a paradigm shift in managing access rights within complex and dynamic IT environments. Unlike traditi…

Read More

Raising Value: The Strategic Gains of Embracing Bundled Result

By: Contributing Writer    12/4/2023

Where the concept of value is not just a price tag but a carefully crafted now. In a world brimming with options, the art of planned bundling has aris…

Read More

Tech Innovation in iGaming

By: Contributing Writer    11/29/2023

iGaming is one of the fastest growing industries on the internet. For those who may not be aware, iGaming refers to online casinos, online slots, poke…

Read More

8 Underrated Features of Your Mobile Device You Probably Didn't Know About

By: Contributing Writer    11/21/2023

It is easy to get lost in all the new phone releases when multiple happen yearly. Consequently, most new functions go unnoticed because people do not …

Read More

Navigating the Launch: A Step-by-Step Guide to Bringing Your Product to Market

By: Contributing Writer    11/15/2023

Embarking on the journey to bring a new product into the marketplace is an exhilarating adventure that blends the thrill of innovation with the meticu…

Read More