13.1 Introduction

The provision of end user services, including broadband, via satellite is now a reality. Technological advances over the last 3 4 years have contributed to a significant reduction in costs for delivering a wide range of services to the end customer. A number of unique features that satellite brings to the market, such as wide area coverage, the ability to broadcast and multicast and distance independent cost, have made the use of satellite a more attractive proposition for a large number of existing and emergent network providers. Furthermore, satellite has established itself as the dominant transport technology in delivering direct to home digital TV services in the UK and elsewhere. Costs for space segment, while still high, could start falling and demand is still buoyant for certain types of capacity and services. This is despite some notable failures in certain market sectors.

This chapter addresses the access capabilities of satellite. It does not go into depth on the more traditional services that satellite have been associated with, except as an initial positioning statement. It then goes on to describe the options for access, performance of IP services over a satellite path, discusses emerging technology that will impact on future service delivery, presents information on regulatory and spectrum aspects and closes with an brief overview of standards activities.

13.2 Background

Historically, two-way communications satellites have been used to provide trunk connections, particularly to countries that are difficult to reach, the...