Cost-effective VSAT-based solutions have become available to every sector due to the convergence of critical technology trends and cost refinements.

Satellite Capacity Improvements:

Space segment is more abundant and affordable today, and satellites are generally more powerful, enabling the use of smaller – and more inexpensive - antennas on the ground.

Digitization:

Meanwhile, voice calls are now being digitized using digital signal processing (DSP). In the past, a telephone conversation coded in PCM required the equivalent of 64kbps; today with state-of-the-art coding algorithms designed to recognize and mimic human voice, toll-quality voice can be achieved with as little as 4.8 kbps. The end result: More than 2,000 telephone conversations can be carried on a single 36 MHz transponder, translating into very low space segment cost per line.

Modulation & Coding:

Additional space-segment savings have been realized through new modulation schemes and efficient coding techniques, which permit the digital information to be recovered more efficiently from the satellite.

Component Cost Reductions:

Hardware gains also have been made. Silicon prices continue to drop and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that perform the majority of the VSAT functions are economically feasible. They also bring the added benefit of reducing component count, reducing costs and increasing reliability.

This, in turn, has fueled higher adoption rates, which has led to greater economies of scale. These savings are also passed through to the end user in the form of lower terminal prices.

Equals Cost-Effective Solutions:

The end result is a cost-effective, rapidly-deployable solution flexible enough to address a wide range of applications that are self sustaining and, indeed, that help create new sources of capital.