Satellite > HughesNet Satellite > SpaceWay III ready for launch Aug 14th

SpaceWay III ready for launch Aug 14th

Any guesses what these "exciting new service plans and options" might be? Are they likely going to be for Hughes enterprise customers only, or will they include residential?

FWIW, I was talking recently with someone who is a supplier to HN. He was given a tour of the NOC in Germantown and was told that the Spaceway 3 was going to allow them to provide much better service, service that would rival dsl. He isn't a communications expert, and didn't really know what they were talking about, but got the impression that they were pretty excited about it.
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Upstate NY DW 7000S AMC3 (87deg) 1290 MHz/ to Apple Airport(802.11g)/ Mac OS X 10.4

reply to randyvsatus
Yeah well just remember, wildblue threw all that hype out there about how SB (spot beam) was suppose to rival land lines and how it would make gaming, vpn's and voip possible over the internet. It not only didnt happen but couldnt no matter how bad they wished it could. The one advantage of SB is cheaper equipment which should funnel down to cheaper equipment prices for the consumer but I think that will be about all you can hope for in the long run.
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HughesNet small buissness $99 package / AMC9,83west/990Mhz./.98 dish/2 watt radio/HN7000s modem/ 4 computers on a linksy's wired network

Hopefully there will be something good out of Spaceway 3 we all hope anyway.

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reply to nissan552
What are the chances of Hughes “moving” existing subscribers to the spot beam Spaceway 3?? The major reason I have a Hughes system is the portability I now enjoy. We have had great/reasonable service for 2 years now and used it from Canada to Mazatlan and Washington DC to the Pacific ocean.
I’ll have to cancel my Hughes subscription if I am spot beamed like the other guys as the system becomes pretty useless because of our lifestyle. I’m sure there are a lot of RVers out there that have similar thoughts. As the cell phone technology advances it is an option I would consider.
BTW, thankx guys, I’ve learned a lot about my system here. We couldn’t have done it without the support here.

There is a very good chance that those with auto point mounts will continue on ku band birds. Maybe somewhere down the road they will convert accounts over to ka.
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1.2M Dish |4 watt|iDirect|||Qwest DSL|7168 / 896 Kbps

reply to zeddlar
From what I understand, I don't think either of wildblue's birds really compare to spaceway 3, technologically speaking. There is more to spaceway 3 than just spot beams and ka band.

Of course, since this is Hughes, that doesn't mean you'll actually see any better performance.
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HN7000S ProPlus Dynamic IP,93 West, G26, 1433 Mhz

reply to randyvsatus
So what does this mean for already subscribed users? Anything?
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I am on the PRO plan

reply to randyvsatus

What did SpaceWay I and II do for anyone on HughesNet?

Didn't they Take SpaceWay II and use it for DirecTV??

I bet thats what they do with SpaceWay III!

reply to randyvsatus
Quote article - "The SPACEWAY 3 satellite is the first in the world to switch and route broadband traffic on board, enabling single-hop communications between satellite terminals, eliminating the requirement for traffic to be routed through a central hub earth station...will deliver a wide range of new high-speed communications services for IP data and multimedia applications to North American enterprise, consumer, and government customers."

We'll see after it flies, if all goes well.

reply to randyvsatus
A bit of background:
SpaceWay I & II (both ka band birds) were always the property of DirecTV Group and designed for HDTV broadcasting when the original internet plan for them was abandoned.

When DirecWay was sold to the company that took DirecWay public as Hughes Communications, Inc., SpaceWay III was sold to them as the only full blown ka band bi-directional bird of the three. SpaceWay 1 didn't have any two way capacity, but SpaceWay II had a test transponder for bi-directional ka band and was used by HughesNet to initially test the concept as part of their separation agreement with DirecTV. - Confused yet??
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1.2M Dish |4 watt|iDirect|||Qwest DSL|7168 / 896 Kbps

reply to randyvsatus
First off, there's absolutely no chance whatsoever that any current HughesNet Ku-users will be arbitrarily switched to Spaceway anything. Your outdoor hardware - as configured - is completely incompatible. This goes for mobile as well as fixed users.

What they're launching is essentially an orbiting RF switch, as opposed to the traditional bent pipe approach used in all that came before. There will be a central NOC or NOCs, and there will be horizon to horizon coverage such as you're accustomed to with Ku-band. Let's call that Earth Coverage (EC). But there will also be spot beam coverage over selected geographic areas. You can pretty much bet on those spot beams illuminating major commercial centers (business and enterprise customers). Let's call that Narrow Coverage (NC).

Under the bent pipe concept, the uplink frequency determined whether a transmission was 1) received at the satellite via EC or NC, and 2) returned to earth via EC or NC. With a smart system like Spaceway, the customers' transmissions include a destination address. Rather than the uplink freq, it's this address that tells the orbiting switch how/where to send that transmission back down to earth. For business/enterprise customers that pay for the capability, they can communicate directly. Up to the satellite, straight back down to the intended destination address. The signal path does NOT include either a NOC or the Internet. Single hop.

For those that do NOT pay for that capability, the orbiting smart switch acts as a traditional bent pipe relay. Up to the satellite>down to a NOC>out to the intended address via Internet>back to the NOC via Internet>up to the satellite>down to the original sender. Double hop.

HughesNet mobile users can almost certainly migrate to Spaceway, and still conduct business as usual. Hardware changes will be required to become fully Ka-compatible. But becoming a Spaceway customer will not inhibit your mobility as does the current Wildblue spotbeam concept (WB essentially has no EC). Truthfully, I can see no practical reason for existing Ku-users to "migrate", unless you're simply the Class A type who can't live without the latest and greatest.

There is typically between 100% and 400% redundancy on orbital systems. There's at least one backup for nearly everything except solar panels and propulsion motors. They can sustain multiple onboard equipment casualties without any long-term interruption in service. That said, Randy's point is has validity when interpreted to the extreme. In the event of a catastrophic event, there currently is no immediate orbiting backup. It's possible that unused space on SW1/SW2 could be temporarily employed. But again, expect that sort of service to be extended no farther than to the business/enterprise customers.

Very obviously - until the thing is in actual operation - all claims about performance are just that; claims. As usual, expect business/enterprise to be the Spaceway priority. I think it's pretty safe to say that consumer/residential customers will get entry level service, entry level performance. Like everything else in life, ya gets what ya pays for.

//greg//
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HN7000S/1.2Ghz Tualatin/1GB PC133 - W2K Pro/SP4 - G11/1410H - RSL screwed up since March 16th - NAT67.44.28.61 - DNS66.82.4.8 plus rollovers - Firefox 2.0.0.3 - SSL proxy switch - TrendMicro AV/firewall

Hughes is working on the assumption that it can gradually move its current customer base off the conventional Ku-band satellites and onto Spaceway 3, thus removing these hefty transponder-lease payments from its balance sheet as the contracts expire. To switch from the current system to Spaceway 3, all Hughes customers will need new equipment that is operable with Ka-band signals.

»www.space.com/spacenews/archive0···406.html

"Spaceway 3 will offer customers data throughput speeds up to eight times as fast as today's two-way satellite broadband systems, Hughes says."

If this is true then we'll all fap in about 5 minutes. Talk about the howls on this board when that happens. Unless with this new speed they bump the fap up 1gb a day which would seem more fair.
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Hughesnet | DW7000 | Pro Package | Windows XP SP2 | AMD Athlon 64 3000+ | 1GB RAM | ATI Radeon 9550 256MB | 250GB HDD

reply to Rick_C

reply to bumwolf

8 times speed!!

reply to grohgreg

Re: SpaceWay III ready for launch Aug 14th