At the end of my column last month, I suggested that everyone should get out on the water to enjoy the fantastic summer weather! Well, team e3 did just that last week when we dashed around the bay of Palma chasing the fantastic yachts competing in the Superyacht Cup! It’s always a treat to see these beautiful yachts up close and under full sail. Several members of the office staff at team e3 thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to see a few of our clients in action.
It also turned out to be an unexpected opportunity to catch up with old friends as, apart from drifting alongside Rupert from Pinmar and chatting with photographer Chris Scholey at the start line, we almost ran down some swimmers in the middle of the bay, only to discover they were our friends Brad Robertson from Save the Med and Nick from Medical Support Offshore! It’s surprising where you bump into people (not literally!), and we decided to jump in and join them for a dip and a chat.
On the technology front, there has been a not unexpected upheaval in some 4G/5G service plans from some operators with the advent of 5G. Also, the new and much hyped Starlink LEO service from SpaceX has taken another step forward.
4G/5G Roaming Monthly Data Usage Limits Upheaval – what is really happening.
Several mobile data operators have introduced new data usage limits on personal SIM cards this last month, some as low as 25GB per month. Over the last few years some yachts have been sold very low cost, supposedly “unlimited” services and have recently received emails from their providers to say that their service is now being restricted to 25GB per month.
There have been various social media posts stating that this is because of a new EU Roaming Directive, which affects all services. This is incorrect, as the restrictions have in fact been imposed by the service operators, and they have only applied them on their personal SIM plans.
It is important to clarify that the EU Roaming Directive does ??? dictate any maximum amount of GB in roaming, as it is there to safeguard the interests of the consumer. It has just been re-cast, with no change to the user, and it has been extended for 10 years.
Service operators ??? apply a Fair Use Policy for roaming data if they want to. This has always been the case. But some companies have decided to use the extension of the EU Directive as an excuse to “limit the roaming on their unlimited personal SIMs”, as roaming wholesale prices between operators applies per GB, and high usage on ???????? unlimited SIMs has proven to be expensive for them, particularly now with the advent of 5G and the speed with which data is now consumed.
At e3 Systems, we have been providing mobile data SIMs for over 20 years. As a result, we have a significant user base using hundreds of terabytes of data each month.
We provide commercial plans for yachts. These plans are similar to those used in large office blocks, for example, which are used by many people, as on a yacht, with no data use limitations.
Uniquely, we can do this in the yacht market due to our scale.
If you have been supplied with a roaming service designed for a smartphone for personal use which you have been told is unlimited at very low cost, then it is probably now subject to data limitations.
If you need to replace it, either with a Pay as you Go service, or with a fixed price service with NO LIMITS to data usage, speed or length of commitment then contact us and we will explain all the features of our BIG DATA EUROPE service.
? e3’s BIG DATA EUROPE service is a ?????????? yacht grade plan, not an off the shelf smartphone SIM card designed for ???????? use.
? We are an ?????????? ???????? reseller and provide full network support.
? We are also very happy to answer any queries and doubts you have about data plans.
? Our services can be ordered and managed online.
Satellite Communications – A Monthly LEO Update
We are moving swiftly towards the commercial launch of the first LEO constellations that have been in development over the last few years. For the first time in our experience as specialists in satellite communications, we are receiving questions about the new LEO constellations, which are prompted by the press coverage and accessibility of the Starlink project, which is being launched by SpaceX by Elon Musk. Most of the questions are about Starlink.
As there are so many updates every month about the new LEO constellations, I have decided to provide a regular Monthly LEO Update as part of my column, to answer these questions, provide news about LEO constellations and explain the pros and cons between the projects.
The two constellations closest to commercial launch are OneWeb and Starlink. The others which we are monitoring are Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, Telesat’s Lightspeed and China’s Galaxy Space. Telesat could be the next to go commercial, but they have halved the number of satellites planned due to the increases in costs. Even with this reduction, providing a commercial service is not expected before 2025 at the earliest. Kuiper is years off a commercial launch, possibly between 2026 and 2029 but, being Amazon, it is extremely well funded. Galaxy Space has sixty satellites in space with a target of 1,000, but it is based in China, so we have no information as to their commercial target.
What is a LEO satellite constellation?
A LEO satellite constellation is a group of small satellites working together as a system. Unlike a conventional single geosynchronous (GEO) satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global coverage, so that at any time, everywhere on Earth, at least one satellite is visible. Satellites are typically placed in sets of complementary orbital planes and connect to globally distributed ground stations. If they are over the oceans, they use inter-satellite links.
Some basic facts
A LEO service is fast, and the latency is low. The latency is the lag between requesting something and getting it back. This is great for traders or online gamers. High bandwidth with no data limits at very low cost is the holy grail. We are being tempted with that by the prices Starlink announced for their land based residential and RV beta test systems, as a result Starlink have had 400,000 subscribers sign-up on-line in the last 12 months. None of the other LEO services have published any prices. The land based residential prices for Starlink are subsidised whilst in its beta phase to entice a large number of people to test and load the service. Also, this is for the fixed service. The prices for their maritime mobile service were announced in early July and, not surprisingly, they are some 40 times higher. I will explain why.
The LEO cost per bit to provide connectivity for mobility is considerably higher than that for LEO fixed residential. The satellites over the oceans are more expensive as they must relay the connection from one satellite to the next before it can reach a ground station. These satellites have laser intersatellite links which are costly. The cost per bit to operate a LEO network is significantly higher than GEO due to the huge cost of the whole constellation when compared to just one GEO satellite. We are talking about figures in the range of $300 million vs $10 billion. GEO satellites are also making major progress with software defined payloads able to adapt to market requirements while already in orbit.
Apart from the cost per bit, the main weakness of LEO is the drop in performance caused by the density of users. In the last year Starlink has sold about 400,000 residential antennas, so let’s assume about 200,000 are in the USA. A number of those users in the USA have now said, on social forums, that the original 100 Mbps they experienced has now dropped to 20-40 Mbps, and that has occurred over only one year. In comparison Viasat, which provides a GEO residential service in the USA for 500,000 users still provide a consistent speed of 100-150 Mbps.
If the capacity of a LEO network needs to be increased, another layer or constellation of satellites needs to be launched, or the existing ones replaced by higher power satellites. Starlink have already planned to do this with a target of 42,000 satellites but do not have FCC approval for any more than 8,000. To increase the capacity of GEO satellites, you launch another GEO satellite. As already mentioned, it is considerably less expensive to launch another GEO satellite rather than repopulate a LEO constellation, especially with rocket launch prices having significantly reduced over the last 5 years.
Starlink is currently providing their service on a beta test licence, where almost anything can be done. As of 1st July, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted approval to Starlink for a Mobility licence. A Mobility licence has responsibilities. Mobility often destroys the efficiency of the service, and it can cause adjacent interference with other satellites. This is sacrosanct and must never happen. For those that follow this on social media, this is the concern that other satellite operators are voicing. An operator will lose their licence completely if this happens. Starlink have said their system is not ready to be used on the move, even though they have FCC approval. Starlink have announced a maritime antenna which is larger with more gain and it will reduce the risk of adjacent satellite interference. As expected, it is 10 times the price of the residential antenna, and you will need two. However, it is only rated at IP56, lower than conventional maritime antennas and not designed to withstand a gale at sea. It is not yet available in the Med. If the small residential RV antenna continues to be used on the move it could cause serious issues for Starlink with the FCC, but how it will be policed is yet to be seen.
There are many other points that need to be considered if you plan to use a LEO service. I will cover these over the next few months and will include: being an early adopter, with regards to the reliability of service when the owner is on-board and the need for backup connectivity; the quality and design of the antenna; coping with mast shadow; switching and integration into the IT system on-board; the ability of your on-board network, including your wi-fi, to handle 200-350Mbps; the provision of technical support, if the service is not supported by an integrator. Starlink support is provided by Starlink in LA who are not familiar with the special needs of yachts and your own onboard systems.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information. We will be at the Monaco Show so if you would like to meet, please let us know. In the meantime, have a great summer.
Roger Horner – e3 systems
e3 VSAT or SUPER DATA
+34 971404 208
