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SPACEWAY 3 Launches
22,300 miles high, 95 degrees West longitude

Hughes Networks Systems' SPACEWAY 3 satellite is heading to its geostationary transfer orbit position after being launched yesterday from Kourou, French Guiana. One of the larger satellites ever built, the company says the new bird should ease their capacity crunch. According to Hughes:
quote:
The SPACEWAY system was designed and developed by Hughes as a next- generation, Ka-band broadband satellite system, the world's first commercial satellite to employ on-board traffic switching and routing capability. Combined with many other advances in satellite technology, such as 10 Gbps overall capacity, fast packet switching, and dynamic beam forming, the SPACEWAY 3 satellite ushers in a new world of bandwidth-on-demand satellite services with true site-to-site, single-hop networking of high-performance ground terminals.
Of course, the satellite won't be fully operational until the first quarter of next year. There's some interesting conversation in our HughesNet forum focusing on the technical specifics of the new bird and what kind of benefits (if any) HughesNet customers will see.
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88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Increased speed & caps?

Doubtful, in which case this mean squat.
Done_Posting
Shoot to kill
Premium Member
join:2003-08-22
Toledo, OH

Done_Posting

Premium Member

What's new?

Can anyone here tell me how SPACEWAY 3 compares to the older model satellites, in terms of capacity? If it's a significant boost in throughput, why wouldn't there be an increase in broadband speeds or caps?

Thanks!

- Tate
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7

Member

Re: What's new?

I"m gonna guess, similar latency, similar FAP.. Basically more bandwidth to oversell, and well... I'm not excited.. If it is worth a hoot, a meteorite will probably hit the damn thing lol.

Raptor
Not a Dumptruck
join:2001-10-21
London, ON

Raptor

Member

But can it shoot laser beams?

I wish I had a 10 Gbps satellite...perhaps one day...

zoom314
join:2005-11-21
Yermo, CA

zoom314

Member

Re: But can it shoot laser beams?

said by Raptor:

I wish I had a 10 Gbps satellite...perhaps one day...
Ah yes, The DeathStar's in orbit, The DeathStar's in orbit.
The Antihero
join:2002-04-09
Enola, PA

The Antihero to Raptor

Member

to Raptor
"Would you also like a satellite that can scratch your ass with a laser beam from outer space?"

"They have those?!"

packetscan
Premium Member
join:2004-10-19
Bridgeport, CT

packetscan to Raptor

Premium Member

to Raptor
said by Raptor:

I wish I had a 10 Gbps satellite...perhaps one day...
I do hope "10 Gbps overall capacity" is per link and not the total capacity of the satellite.

Sircolby450
join:2005-11-26

Sircolby450

Member

Meh...

Satellite is still satellite. I don't care how fancy it is you can't get rid of the latency, which is why satellite will always just be a dial-up alternative and nothing more.
garmst
join:2000-09-17
New York, NY

1 recommendation

garmst

Member

Way more than nothing.

In the real of business, and emergency services for that matter, satellite communications is king. When a tornado, thunderstorm, hurricane or other natural disaster knocks out terrestrial capacity it the satellite that saves the day. Satellite is also a great secondary source of capacity for non-time sensitive data delivery. Not everyone uses their time playing games and needing low latency. And their are those places where any IP port in a storm will do out in the boondocks.

Thrudd
join:2004-06-21
Mississauga, ON

Thrudd

Member

Re: Way more than nothing.

The sat system is only useful if you can get a ground station up and running and get the sat to listen to you.

I'm not so sure one big garbage can in the sky is such a good idea compared to a dozen or so soup cans with half the capacity but higher survivability.

Remember it has to be there to be useful and one loose wing nut can kill a sat when you need it most.

Glaice
Brutal Video Vault
Premium Member
join:2002-10-01
North Babylon, NY

Glaice

Premium Member

Latency

Let us know when they have killed the 300+ ms latency problems all satellite broadband systems have.

PolarBear03
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
Premium Member
join:2005-01-03

1 edit

PolarBear03

Premium Member

Re: Latency

said by Glaice:

Let us know when they have killed the 300 ms latency problems all satellite broadband systems have.
Until they can figure out how to make 22,000 miles into 22 miles, it ain't gonna happen my friend.

Jerm
join:2000-04-10
Richland, WA

Jerm to Glaice

Member

to Glaice
Umm try LEO sats... 22,000 miles is only required for geostationary orbit, while low earth orbit wouldn't need nearly as far of a round trip

brooklynman4
join:2004-09-07
Brewster, NY

brooklynman4

Member

Re: Latency

They only last 10 years so i think it was time for an upgrade.

hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium Member
join:2005-06-29
Florence, SC

hayabusa3303 to Jerm

Premium Member

to Jerm
LEO sats have problems them seleves.

1. you are going to have launch ALOT of sats. like with iridium system.

2. as in Leo it will orbit decay and burn up on hitting the atmosphere.

3. COST TOO MUCH.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Jerm

Member

to Jerm
said by Jerm:

Umm try LEO sats... 22,000 miles is only required for geostationary orbit, while low earth orbit wouldn't need nearly as far of a round trip
With low earth orbit you would need many more satelites.
HughesNet0
join:2007-09-19

HughesNet0

Member

Spaceway results

You won't start to see the results of the new Spaceway satellite until the beginning of 2008. The new download speeds are supposed to be comparable with DSL and cable. I'm anxious to see how this will affect the fair access policy which is most people's number 1 complaint.