IPstar satellite broadband

[george]

Thais to put NZ net access in orbit

23.10.2003

By CHRIS BARTON IT editor

Thai firm Shin Satellite is to invest $15 million on an Auckland-based satellite system that promises to provide fast internet access anywhere in New Zealand.

A pilot of Shin's first-generation IPStar service is available now using ground station equipment in Sydney and the Intelstat 804 satellite. But the service will get a significant boost next year when Shin's IPStar-1 next generation satellite is launched.

The new satellite, part of a US$350 million ($581 million) investment by Shin, will have three "spot beams" over New Zealand giving fast internet access for consumers using an 85cm satellite dish of 1 Megabit per second (Mbps) - eight times faster than Telecom's Jetstream Starter service.

It also will provide 45 gigabits per second of bandwidth - about the same as the Southern Cross cable link between Australia and New Zealand after its launch in 2000.

Regional manager, international, Teerask Sawekpun said Shin expected to sign a contract this month for the teleport gateway equipment for the new service.

He confirmed IPStar was a bidder in the satellite-based "region 15" of the Government's Probe project to provide broadband to all New Zealand schools, but said the investment in New Zealand would proceed regardless of whether it was successful in the tender.

Shin was aiming to provide customer satellite dishes and equipment costing US$1000 ($1660).

The New Zealand teleport is one of 18 gateways in 14 territories planned for what IPStar is calling "the largest broadband satellite in the world". IPStar gateways operate now in Australia, Thailand, Myanmar and Taiwan.

Ericsson, which will manage the networks in Australia and New Zealand, demonstrated a clear video conference call from Auckland to Wellington over satellite at 384 kilobits per second.

Ericsson business development manager Ray Mason also showed streaming video over the internet at 700 kilobits per second and handed off good quality satellite voice calls to a mobile and cordless phone.

Shin Satellite's NZ representative, John Humphrey, said the service could provide access speeds of up to 4Mbps downstream and 8Mbps upstream.

Shin has yet to say who will be its retail partners in New Zealand but, Humphrey said, the new service offered the potential to reduce bandwidth costs by between 40 per cent and 80 per cent.

----Shin Satellite

* Subsidiary of Shin Corporation, Thailand's largest telecoms group.

* Listed on Thai stock exchange.

* 2002 profit of $58m on revenue of $225m.

* Market value $392m.

* Controlled by the family of the Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra.

* Has three satellites in geostationary orbit covering India, Asia, Australia and NZ.

[tomy]

all this and thailand still are the worst broadband internet there is. monopoly keep the thai people in the dark.

[Guest IT Manager]

It would definitely be a bonus to see them make Ipstar work before foisting it off on a bunch of sheep and a long white cloud.

Their current service sucks. I think the launch of Thaisat 4 is something I will view with interest since many customers are off-line so much of the time and there is nothing approaching the nominal speed available.

[SeaVisionBurma]

keep the...people in the dark.

Surely you mean - "pull the wool over their eyes"?

Come on, it can't be that baaaaaad.

I think ewe are all being a bit negative about all this.

[phazey]

Ahmen to that.

Until TC-4 Launches, and TC-earthstation sort out their variable power spotbeams, we are all waiting with baited breath.....

./P

Ps SVB: you wont get far with those sheepish comments, as the shepherd says at the end of the day "get the flock out of here!"... (and that pun was by shear luck!)

[KevinN]

I think that IP sucks,,We have had IPTV which is dial up sat return and the sat works about 10% of the time so we are paying for sat service and using regular dialup service,, I had the same system in the states because I could only hookup at 14400 due to old phone lines and the one way sat gave me very good service.

I have had cscoms ISP ever since I came to thailand and got pretty good service til they merged with loxinfo and it went to #### in a hurry after the hookup.

We have some friends close to Khao Kho that have no phone service so they got IPSTAR and are lucky to use it 5 hrs a week. about the same as we get with IPTV but we pay 1500 per month and 9000 up front and they payed 20000 and 3500 a month.

And as has been stated when you have to deal with a monopoly,the consumer will always take it in the shorts.

[croftrobin]

I live in Buriram province and can not get a fixed line - I had IPStar installed 6 months ago and have had no major problems with it at all.

I 've had about 4 short outages of about 1 hour each during this period.

Its a 2 way connection and all ,my computers connected to it are in use over a 16hour period in a day.

I am very pleased with the service and the speed

Just my 2 bahts worth!

[Guest IT Manager]

I have had cscoms ISP ever since I came to thailand and got pretty good service til they merged with loxinfo and it went to #### in a hurry after the hookup.

We have some friends close to Khao Kho that have no phone service so they got IPSTAR and are lucky to use it 5 hrs a week. about the same as we get with IPTV but we pay 1500 per month and 9000 up front and they payed 20000 and 3500 a month.

And as has been stated when you have to deal with a monopoly,the consumer will always take it in the shorts.

Hi

I now have 4 customers on IpSTAR. While the line is essentially slow, 2 of the clients have no phone so it really is their only choice besides smoke signals.

There are several tips to fixing ipstar when it plays the prick adn if they need assistance with the signal management outside of the witless morons in Control Centre they can feel free to call me.

PM me for details. No charge by the way but I do want some information from them which they are able to email to me as part of the deal.