USE OF VSATs COULD SURGE AFTER DISASTER, OFFICIALS SAY
VSAT industry could receive boost as result of damage to terrestrial communications systems in terrorist attacks on N.Y. and Washington, executives said. Interest in use of VSAT systems as backup traditionally has increased after incidents of natural disaster caused damage to primary fiber networks serving affected area, they said, and typically there was scramble for redundancy for terrestrial systems in their aftermath, said David Hartshorn, secy.-gen. of London-based Global VSAT Forum: “As soon as the walls start crumbling, the phones start ringing.”
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U.S. needs to be able to continue to do business and know that its communication infrastructure is going to perform flawlessly, Spacenet Vp-Mktg. Fritz Stolzenbach said. He said Spacenet had seen “a significant jump in interest” since attacks: “Nobody wants to profit from tragedy, but when those disasters befall our nation, we do get approached… VSAT is a tool that ensures that our normal way of business is not compromised. [Since the tragedy] we have been approached by corporate and government entities that are specifically looking to [ensure] that. Folks are in search of redundant solutions that they know are going to work.”
Spacenet credited VSAT’s rapid deployment ability as one of chief features that made system effective backup: “If something happens in short order, it’s a pretty simple enterprise to get a nationwide VSAT system set up [quickly].” Flexibility also is among major advantages to using VSAT as backup, sources said. VSAT has flexibility to handle any type of traffic including voice, video and data, in any combination or permutation, both digitally and analog, they said. VSATs can be applied to many communications infrastructures including banking, stock exchanges, distance education/training, telemedicine, ISP backbone, offshore and/or onshore oil and gas, automotive networks, retail gas stations, disaster recovery, rural telephony, lotteries, security, intelligence, military.
Damage to terrestrial communications systems in attacks has brought with it “a heightened awareness,” Hughes Network Systems (HNS) Vp-Corporate Mktg. Arunes Slekys said. He said ruggedness of equipment was its greatest attribute in emergency or heavy- damage situations. In hurricane Andrew, many landline communications links were disrupted in Fla., but Slekys said “Walmart was still using our VSAT system as its primary communications link… The [satellite antennas] can withstand hurricane force winds. The satellite itself is impervious to terrestrial weather.” HNS VSATs also were used as primary communications system for many companies in 1989 after earthquake hit San Francisco, Slekys said. Cal. and Pa. already have initiatives in place to use VSAT in emergencies.
Forum’s Hartshorn said VSATs best served point-to-multipoint customers, and no communications system in use anywhere in world could compete with fiber when it came to point-to-point heavy traffic: “As soon as fiber optic gets laid in, the economics of fiber dictate that VSAT will be pushed out [and used only] in operations that it’s optimal for -- point-to-multipoint or redundancy.”