Starlink was certainly first to market with their LEO satellite offers offering a low cost solution with very attractive bandwidth speeds that for the first time ever allowed even residential consumers to have broadband internet access anywhere in the world. The Starlink network works in a fixed environment like a pole mount on a house and in a mobile environment on the move like a Starlink satellite mounted on the roof of an RV. This technology truly is transformational allowing people and areas that have never been able to have a robust internet connection to now be able to have the same access to internet services and all the applications associated with that as someone located in large metropolitan area with established networks in place.
Starlink’s initial focus certainly was on the consumer market, but they have expanded their offers now to include packages for both State/Local Government and Federal customers. Some of this has been done through partnerships with companies such as Intelsat. In addition to Starlink, One Web is another LEO satellite network that is focused more on the corporate and government markets. Unlike Starlink, the One Web network can be accessed through several different hardware platforms – Kymeta, Intellian, and Hughes just to name a few. One Web offers some additional benefits that allow customers with multiple units to have a “pooled services plan” that eliminates the need for a one to one satellite network plan per sat dish. They also provide live customer support, network blending options that combines satellite with LTE and 5g service, and static IP assignemnt. CCS is a reseller for both Starlink and One Web and we see applications for both.
CCS has been providing both Kymeta and Starlink terminals and service to our customers with most of these installs either being on a MERC mobile command center vehicle or trailer or a portable satellite system combined with one of our PERC Go Kits. The PERC allows these satellites to be connected via a WAN port and then have the sat network blended or bonded with the cellular networks provided by the PERC kit. A typical PERC unit will be equipped with a Pepwave BR2 dual sim dual modem router that when combined with a LEO satellite connection can provide bandwidth speeds in excess of 200 mbps! CCS also bundles other technology with these PERC kits including JPS radio interoperability servers, video streaming servers, POE switches, and much more to provide our customers to basically have a “mobile command center” in a portable backpackable case that can be deployed anywhere in the world.
A good deal of this LEO technology is still fairly new so CCS continues to test and evaluate all of these offers to determine which ones are the best fit for our customers. There will be some announcements made later this year about some more LEO offers so it is a very exciting time to be in the mobile communication industry! A good deal of this technology will be on display at the IWCE conference in Orlando, Florida at the Convention Center March 25 through the 28th. CCS will be in attendance with our friends at JPS Technologies and will have a great deal of this new technology on display.
Please contact us with any questions at info@ccscontact.net or 972-772-2721.