Ku or Ka? Wide or Narrow? Clarity or… More on Intelsat’s maritime ambitions

In the second part of my interview with James Collett, Director Mobility Services at Intelsat, we talk more on coverage, capacity and confidence from the buyer’s and user’s viewpoints. There is also some de-mystification on the subject of Ku and Ka bands and even a view on why clarity matters more than mudslinging.

MI: Coming back to the user perspective, the traditional view runs along the lines of mariners like Inmarsat because it gives them a global coverage network. They can negotiate with the supplier on price and get it to a point where they are happy. But if I’m a spot trading shipowner can I use Epic and feel confident that I’m going to get the same global coverage?

James Collett: “I think the important question for shipowners is, can they can use Intelsat’s network and be safe that they have got coverage in the right places? Today we have a very extensive global Ku-band footprint based on wide beam technology. We’ve got our launch of Intelsat 27 early next year which will complete what we call our global Ku-band mobility platform.

“Let me put it in context of a major maritime VSAT operator with a mature customer base of offshore, commercial and fisheries customers and who would say that 3% of their requirements are not covered by their Ku-band footprint. The coverage improvement on Ku-band has been dramatic. Intelsat has particularly been focused on the mobility segment, and decided that we would incrementally improve our global Ku coverage. So I think we’re starting from a good place where we could put global Ku band in front of the typical shipowner, and it would cover 97% of their traffic requirements.

“Another prevalent sales objection for Ku-band VSAT is ’I need a path into next generation Ka-band’.  That’s where Epic comes in, because we’re not saying to the customer, you’ve just got to stick with today’s wide Ku-beams. We are delivering an overlay network which will allow them to derive a service which is a blend across two Intelsat networks. We’re already providing very fast services in our wide Ku-band beams, so you will either be able to go faster or you will have a more cost effective service when you have the benefit of Epic coverage.

“Our distributors and integrators will create packages that bring the benefits of Epic to the regions where they have most vessels, thereby delivering a cost per bit improvement in the right places. Our aim is to put the capacity where people most need it.

“So from a maritime user’s perspective his Intelsat service will look exactly the same whether the vessel’s in a wide beam or in an Epic narrow spot beam. More importantly though in the parts of the world where shipping densities are highest that Intelsat Epic NG spot beam could support much higher levels of aggregate traffic.”

But doesn’t that work only as long as all ships and all aircraft look at your coverage maps before they set out and go well we’ve got to go this way to stay in the footprint?

“With the Intelsat network, ships will sit in the wide beams ordinarily, and because they’ll be more dispersed in those beams, we can give them plenty of capacity. But where they’re all concentrated in the same area, we’ll have additional capacity in the shape of the Epic narrow beams. The two Intelsat Epic NG satellites we have announced are not the start and finish of the EPIC network – it’s a capability which we can bring to any new satellite.”

So would it be fair to speculate that the customer would be getting better throughput for about the same price as they might be paying for Global Xpress?

“The true metric is the cost of moving a bit from shore to ship or ship to shore. The design of Epic will have 8-10 times the throughput of a standard satellites, allowing for cost efficient high throughput transmission Customers will see higher performance through lower cost per bit.”

From what you’re saying, I wonder if the Ka vs Ku debate is getting to be a slightly pointless level of comparison?

“I think that’s a fair observation, and I don’t think Intelsat has never said that Ka-band isn’t a good solution. In fact, we fly some Ka capability today. By the same token the Epic platform will incorporate C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band payloads, and I think there’s enough evidence today that high throughput is not about the band but it’s about the way you deploy the network.”

The recent Panasonic white paper seemed to say the answer is it depends on what you’re using it for, how you’re using it, what you’re trying to do.

“What I took from that paper is that it’s not Ku versus Ka, its narrow spot beams versus wide spot beams. And once you put K-anything into narrow spot beams you get a huge throughput advantage.”

What I also can’t help but feel is that the whole Alan Gottleib vs Inmarsat debate is a diversion too. It doesn’t actually help the mariner or the satcoms buyer, the shipmanager, or the superintendent. I find most of what is being said redundant and pretty unhelpful.

“I completely agree. In my mind I bring it back to a couple of key things that will determine success in this area. Firstly, enabling more cost effective solutions for the shipowner and the shipmanager, where ultimately we as an industry are able to drive an increased spend on communication by really delivering value at the ship level.”

“And secondly I think the other big industry debate and what will govern success or failure, is engaging and enrolling distributors to be able to profitably market the creative solutions that are going to drive that utilisation. Ultimately if you can deliver value to the end user through a motivated and creative distribution channel, then I think you can be successful.”