High-speed web connections via satellite

GERMANTOWN, MARYLAND, NOV. 13. For consumers in remote areas, the brightest hope for quickly joining the next Internet revolution is sky-high.A handful of companies are behind an aggressive effort to use satellites to beam down web pages at speeds dozens of times faster than standard dial-up connections.

Satellites, with their high capacity and nearly blanket coverage, could increase the stakes in the race toward `always on' Internet services for homes and businesses. That market is now dominated by cable and phone companies that use their lines to link consumers to the web at quick speeds.

Satellite Internet providers still see an open playing field. Many areas now lack the upgraded cable lines needed for two-way online access or are too far for the phone company to offer high- speed Internet services known as digital subscriber line service, or DSL, to American consumers. That leaves out millions of potential consumers living outside of major metropolitan areas.

``Many people cannot get DSL and cable where they are and satellite provides them with that option," said Mr. Sean Badding of the market research firm the Carmel group. ``It is very, very attractive right now for people in rural areas." The companies also are looking to combine Internet access with the already popular satellite television packages that offer hundreds of channels to viewers. ``It is a dynamic world we want to head toward," said Mr. Paul Gaske, general manager at the consumer division of Hughes Network Systems, the makers of the Direcpc Internet satellite service. At the Hughes facility in this Washington suburb, the company has developed a new two-way version of Direcpc to let users send and receive web content via satellite.

Consumers transmit information to an orbiting satellite that passes it along to the Germantown operations centre. The centre retrieves information from the Internet and sends it back to the consumer's dish antenna via satellite. From the dish, cables run to a special satellite modem hooked up to the computer. The existing Direcpc model is only one way and still requires consumers to use a phone line to send out material. The most popular Internet access plan costs an additional $49.99 a month.

Another dish called the Direcduo can receive both Internet and programming from Directv - the satellite TV service offered by Hughes. Prices have not been set yet for the two-way Internet service, which will be available by year's end.As time goes on, and through the use of bigger networks of satellites, companies hope to boost their speeds even higher. The only major prerequisite is a clear view of the southern sky.

- AP

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