Kingdom of Bahrain

ARTICLE
Moving closer to delivering the home WiFi
experience to users on the move
Mark Richman, Director, Product Management and Mobility - Intelsat
The mobility sector remains one of the most
dynamic and growing opportunities for
broadband providers, driven by the demand
that end users want to remain connected at
all times. As maritime operators and their
crews and cruise line and airline passengers
experienced better and better connectivity
in 2016, the primary mobility trend for
2017 follows naturally – service providers
accessing more and more bandwidth to
deliver a WiFi experience that rivals that at
users’ homes.
This need for more mobility bandwidth is
driven by a shift in user expectations from
‘nice to have’ to ‘this needs to be a lot
better’. Initially, users were happy just to
exchange emails or read web sites. Now,
as more bandwidth becomes available and
services are upgraded, users also expect
to be able to send out large files, such as
business data or high-resolution photos and
video from their vacations. In fact, WiFi has
become so important to airline passengers
it has become the new “legroom” of
commercial airlines.
Similarly, cruise passengers expect to bring
their own device on vacation to actively
engage on social media while aboard the
vessel. For both airlines and cruise ships,
WiFi connections that can keep passengers
connected while onboard and allow them to
deliver as much data as they consume are
now THE differentiator in the marketplace.
For satellite broadband providers, this
creates an opportunity to begin meeting
these needs this year. High-throughput
satellites already in orbit have the available
bandwidth to satisfy end users connectivity
demands, especially when these satellites,
such as Intelsat EpicNG, have been
optimized to deliver connectivity in areas of
Intelsat EpicNG, have been optimized to deliver connectivity
in areas of high demand, such as highly traveled aero and
mobile traffic routes. Intelsat 29e and Intelsat 33e are in orbit
and ready to deliver high-throughput services today, and
scheduled launches in 2017 will deliver three additional Intelsat
EpicNG satellites”
high demand, such as highly traveled aero
and mobile traffic routes. Intelsat 29e and
Intelsat 33e are in orbit and ready to deliver
these high-throughput services today, and
scheduled launches in 2017 will deliver three
additional Intelsat EpicNG satellites to make
sure this connectivity is available when and
where network operators and end users
need it.
Another area where satellite will play a
critical role in the 2017 mobility landscape is
the connected car. Auto manufacturers are
excited about the potential of being able to
monitor vehicles and their systems remotely
and provide software updates via broadband
connections. What a game changer to think
that the car you buy today will get better
and better as new software features become
available.
The delivery systems that make this possible
will rely on hybrid connectivity featuring
both satellite and terrestrial technologies,
and the elimination of the need to bring cars
into the dealership for simple code updates
will save money and time for manufacturers
and drivers. And as more driverless cars
and trucks begin to take to the roads; those
same satellite-cellular networks will be used
to monitor those vehicles as well.
The automotive improvements are
dependent on advances in antenna
technology that Intelsat has been
supporting for several years. We saw
milestones and announcements around
the development of smaller, more efficient
antennas in 2016 that will have impact
across the mobility sector. That momentum
will continue into 2017 with productionready
units available over the course of the
year.
The next year promises to be, “Annus
Mirabilis” according to Runway Girl,
which means that it’s a year of expanding
opportunities for mobile broadband
providers and better experiences for end
users. The business challenge will be making
it easy for network operators to incorporate
this increased bandwidth into their
operations and deliver it in the right places
with winning business models. We know
that our customers don’t want to have to
buy megahertz and then determine the best
way to serve the end user.
That’s why we are working with our
ecosystem partners to make it easier to
incorporate high throughput technology
into their global networks. This is not just
about the right technology but also about
the ecosystem working together to make
it easier for our customers to focus on their
business while we handle the bandwidth.
Does your service provider offer you the
same?
32 January 2017