Satellite internet connectivity has been available for some years
across much of Africa and has become established as a good option for remote
business locations (such as mines, lodges and farms) looking for reliable
connectivity in areas not typically serviced by fibre or LTE.
The launch of new satellite networks has brought this technology back
into focus but, has also reignited the debate around latency – an issue which
many customers still seem to associate with satellite internet services.
“We welcome the buzz surrounding new international entrants into the market, and we are confident it will translate into an increased desire among businesses to look closer to home for fast, reliable satellite broadband – especially now that we have addressed legacy latency issues,” says Dawie de Wet, CEO of Q-KON, the satellite engineering enterprise behind satellite internet service Twoobii.
Latency refers to any delay in information transmission times for data
– in this case, from the source to the destination via an orbiting satellite.
With these timeframes being measured in milliseconds – that is, thousandths of
a second – ‘delay’ is too big a term for what are exceptionally short periods
of time. Despite this, latency has traditionally been used by proponents of
other connectivity technologies as a stick with which to beat satellite
internet services.
Latency is a
feature of all broadband networks, including 5G and fibre. However, satellite
internet involves transmitting and receiving signals over much longer
distances. These can be from 500km to 1500km, in the case of Low-Earth Orbit
satellite constellations (or 1 000 to 3 000km for the ‘round trip’, which
is the measurement used for latency calculations) – these are the satellites
used by some high-profile international satellite internet service providers.
Twoobii’s
service uses Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites. These are positioned
further from the Earth, and orbit at a distance of 35 786km. This difference in height above
the Earth’s surface is reflected in the latency figures achieved by LEO
satellites (8 – 25msec) and GEO satellites (550msec, or just over half a
second). To put this in perspective, that’s approximately the time it takes a
person to say ‘hello’.
De Wet says outdated perceptions of latency have much more to do with people’s experiences of using less advanced computer applications which were not fully compatible with satellite communication links. Computer technology has of course moved on, and today’s PCs and laptop applications have no issues in receiving and transmitting voice, video and other data signals.
Today’s Smart Satellite networks, such as the
Twoobii-on-Flex service operated by Q-KON on the Intelsat Flex networks,
incorporate advanced data communication features which seamlessly integrate
user applications such as voice and video calls, effectively making latency no
more a factor with satellite links than it is with any other type of data
network.
De Wet says Twoobii is not positioning itself as a competitor technology to 5G and fibre, but rather as an alternative connectivity solution for situations where its unique advantages are applicable to the challenging situations often found in Africa. Twoobii is effectively busting the 3 major myths of satellite services, namely – it’s expensive, it’s slow and applications don’t work due to latency.
Twoobii is able to offer services over huge areas, and as it
is not affected by outages such as loadshedding, it offers unmatched
availability. This in turn makes it particularly suited to critical service
applications such as ATMs and retail POS. The service is also exceptionally
cost-effective thanks to its on-demand billing. Combined with Smart Satellite Technology,
this means that Twoobii will prove to be the ideal internet connectivity
solution for African enterprise users in off-grid areas.
To discover Twoobii’s satellite business broadband offering, visit: https://twoobii.com/
