Fast forward to today. As adults, we may not have gotten to see the forces of good vanquish the bad guys, but we do know why we need those emergency alerts and why it was probably for the best that they were tested frequently.

An untested alarm is always off. Testing that emergency broadcast system was an essential part of preparing for a real-life emergency – confirming for the government that the systems and tools that it would use to notify the public of a pending emergency would function when they needed it.

Today, the EBS has been replaced by the Emergency Alert System (EAS), but the function is still the same – notify the public of natural disasters and weather emergencies that may be coming their way. It also functions to enable the President of the United States to address all Americans within 10 minutes should the need arise.

This is an incredibly important service. A natural disaster or other emergency situation could be considerably more damaging and deadly if it strikes an unprepared population or location. By warning people of impending danger early, they can evacuate, prepare themselves or otherwise work towards mitigating the damage to themselves and their property. The EAS accomplishes this by notifying Americans about emergency situations through television, radio and messages to their cell phones.

But what about the people who don’t have access to those?

Country roads aren’t information superhighways
If you live in a major metropolitan area, having access to more television channels than you could ever watch, high speed broadband Internet access and radio stations of every conceivable format is something that you probably take for granted every single day. But for many Americans, they’re simply not available.

America is home to many geographically isolated territories, and many states in the union have large rural areas. In many cases, these rural areas and isolated territories simply don’t have access to the vast array of television channels, high speed Internet access and cellular networks that their fellow Americans take for granted every day.

You only have to look at the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) own terrestrial broadband reports and numbers to see how different urban and rural areas are when it comes to communications services. According to the FCC, “…over 26% of Americans in rural areas and 32% of Americans in tribal lands lack coverage from fixed terrestrial 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband, as compared to only 1.7% of Americans in urban areas.”

It’s a similar story if you look at the combination of what the FCC considers broadband and mobile LTE coverage: “…93.4% of the population, are covered by both 25 Mbps/3 Mbps fixed terrestrial service and mobile LTE with a minimum advertised speed of 5 Mbps/1 Mbps…In rural areas, 73.2% of Americans are covered by both services, as opposed to 98.3% of Americans in urban areas…”

While this certainly can impact the quality of life, connectivity and communication options available to these individuals, it can also have a much more significant and dire consequence – it can keep them from receiving the emergency notifications that many of their fellow Americans can receive via two or three different sources.

If you think this is a problem that only impacts a few states, you’d be sorely mistaken. Simply try to get a radio signal, a cable package or high-speed broadband Internet in a rural valley on the coasts and you, too, could be left disconnected. But, what can they do about it?

A case study in connectivity from Alaska
When it comes to geographically isolated, rural areas in America, few places can hold a candle to the country’s largest – and arguably most naturally beautiful – state. Of Alaska’s 737,438 people, approximately 239,319 live in rural areas.

With the state being geographically isolated form the contiguous United States, featuring harsh climates and having a large population living in rural areas, it should come as no surprise that basic radio, television and Internet access can be difficult there. But that hasn’t kept Alaska from finding a unique way to ensure that everyone can still be notified in emergency situations.

Utilizing satellite connectivity and omnidirectional antennas, the State of Alaska delivers public access television and other services directly to their citizens. This isn’t just for entertainment, however. When emergency situations happen, the news or entertainment content that the station is currently displaying is preempted by emergency alerts.

The combination of satellite connectivity and omnidirectional antennas are key to this program’s success. The satellite service enables the transmission of a signal to practically anywhere on Earth – including into the most remote and rural places on the globe.

Alaska is considered the 47^th most connected state in the United States by highspeedinternet.com. Satellite is the best and most efficient way to deliver connectivity to a place where a percentage of the population has little access to the same communications services that are available in more urban areas across the country. But this isn’t just about delivering communications services to people in rural areas, it’s about giving them fair warning and information about emergency situations and natural disasters. Which means that satellite is effectively helping to keep Alaskans in rural parts of the state safe.

And if it can work in Alaska, a state with 30,000 brown bears (that’s more than one bear for every eight humans that live in rural Alaska), it can work in other rural areas across the country. If Alaska Public Broadcasting is evidence of anything, it’s that every American deserves a warning when disaster could strike, and that there’s no reason why any American can’t get one.

The post Emergency alerts via satellite the only solution for disconnected rural areas appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

• Ken Mentasti, Director of NextGen Systems Development at SES Networks
• Will Lewis, Senior Legal Counsel at SES Networks
• Mike Blefko, Vice President Business Development at SES Space and Defense

During our conversation, we discussed the FCC approval, the real impact that it will have on the O3b constellation, why this is so important to SES, and why government users should consider the impact of the next generation global fleet, called O3b mPOWER, set to launch in 2021. Here is what they had to say:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): The FCC recently gave SES its blessing to expand the O3b equatorial system to a global system. What does that mean? How are these two things different?

Will Lewis: Effectively, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave us market access and the ability to serve the United States using additional satellites in the space above the United States. Currently, we have 16 Ka Band O3b MEO satellites in equatorial orbit that are authorized by the FCC. This most recent grant gives us the ability to expand that number dramatically.

That’s the first important takeaway from this announcement – an expansion in the number of satellites in the O3b constellation.

What could be even more impactful in the long run is that this grant gives SES the authority to deploy MEO satellites in two different orbits – equatorial orbit and inclined orbit.

That means the O3b satellite constellation could be expanded to deliver coverage from the equator all the way to the poles. This will enable global coverage – the ability to deliver MEO-enabled, high throughput, low latency connectivity virtually anywhere on Earth.

Ken Mentasti: The O3b satellite constellation is evolving, and a new generation of MEO satellites that offer more customization, flexibility and bandwidth than the previous satellites are going to be launched in the near future. This signals a major paradigm shift. The launch of these new satellites and the expansion of the constellation – as enabled by this FCC approval – essentially means that thousands of highly flexible global beamformed beams offering configurable bandwidths and routing will soon be available to deliver connectivity for satellite customers – government or otherwise.

GSR: What motivated SES Networks to pursue expanding the O3b constellation and making it a global system? What is driving demand?

Ken Mentasti: Demand for the O3b satellite constellation has been extremely high. In fact, it will soon outpace the available coverage and bandwidth that exists today. A large part of that is due to a demand for real time applications across all of our market segments. There is incredible demand for high throughput connectivity – ranging from aeronautical and maritime connectivity to services supporting mobile network operators and government customers.

Ultimately, it comes down to what MEO offers – high capacity to practically anywhere on the globe with low latency and with incredible reliability. It comes down to being able to deliver connectivity in places that GEO, fiber or microwave can’t service or can’t service as well.

Mike Blefko: While I cannot speak on behalf of the USG, the services that the O3b constellation offers to our military end users greatly expand the mission capabilities at austere remote locations.  Delivery of terabyte-sized files in a few hours, simultaneous viewing of multiple HD video feeds, 4GLTE over last mile communications links and enterprise utilization of cloud-based applications are the differentiating services enabled by MEO satellites.  All this at a total cost of ownership that is significantly less than historical VSAT services.

GSR: What will a global O3b constellation mean for government users? What capabilities will this give them that they wouldn’t receive from an equatorial system?

Ken Mentasti: Multiple HD video feeds from a single platform can help the military with ISR and intelligence gathering by disseminating actionable intelligence and information to the government user. The applications are almost limitless. In fact, many applications don’t even exist yet that can take advantage of the bandwidth we’ll be capable of delivering. This kind of bandwidth can become a driver of future innovation by eliminating limitations.

The expansion of the O3b MEO constellation can enable global Ka band coverage that can be flexibly allocated globally that has the capability to route traffic wherever and whenever the government needs it. These new satellites will apply the latest and greatest security and encryption. Their steerable beams will be key for risk avoidance and for avoiding interference. And the size of the constellation will give it baked-in resiliency.

All of these things are essential for government and military applications.

Mike Blefko:  The current MEO O3b constellation of 16 satellites that will grow to 20 in 2019 has provided our government users with unmatched throughput (600×600 Mbps) at low latency (<150msec). The next-generation O3b mPOWER system in 2021 will increase this throughput by 10 fold over a gateway-less architecture.  Truly ‘anywhere to anywhere’ connectivity will unleash another satellite industry paradigm shift to make the untethered user more capable, more effective, more productive, and more empowered.

GSR: What is the timeline for the launch of the O3b global satellite system? How long before this is available for government users?

Will Lewis: As is standard with FCC approvals of NGSO systems, SES is required to launch at least half of the 26 additional satellites within six years to maintain the approval.

Those new satellites would all be the next generation of our MEO satellites — O3b mPOWER — with advanced technologies, higher throughput, additional flexibility and increased bandwidth. In addition, the satellites are authorized to operate for both Ka and V band. The initial O3b mPOWER launches are targeted for 2021 and are expected to be for equatorial satellites.

During the course of those six years, SES will be actively assessing the market for satellites in inclined orbit and will respond according to market demand.

To learn more about the ways that commercial satellite services are being used within the military, download the following resources:

• “A New Era of Connectivity” MEO White Paper
• MEO video: “Knowing makes all the difference”
• “High Throughput on the High Seas” White Paper

The post What the FCC’s approval really means for the SES MEO satellite constellation appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Don’t believe me, just look at where we are now from where we were in elementary school. In my case, that means going back to the 80s and 90s, when we saw the proliferation of the home computer running simple, command-based operating systems and running applications off of 5.25-inch floppy disks. I remember specifically when CD-ROMs were introduced and how revolutionary they were because of their ability to introduce “multimedia” to the personal computing experience.

Since that time, we’ve seen the emergence of computer networking, and the Internet, and the cloud, and social media, and solid state storage and mobile devices. Each one of these has completely reshaped our lives and how we live them.

Well, we’re starting to see something similar in space.

Although the pace of innovation may not seem as fast for satellite technology as it is for the technologies we’re using right here on Earth, some amazing developments are in the works – many of which are being driven by terrestrial technology trends and changes.

The increasingly data-heavy applications that we rely on everyday are driving a need for big, low latency beams capable of delivering the bandwidth necessary for them to run. This has sparked some amazing innovation in space, and commercial satellite customers on Earth are starting to take notice.

Let’s take a look at some of the headlines we’ve seen in the space and satellite news in early June, and we’ll undoubtedly see stories of exciting and innovative new advanced making their way into space – and subsequently getting embraced here on Earth:

US DOD Partners with SES to Secure O3b MEO Services
The military is increasingly reliant on IT solutions and advanced technologies in theater. Soldiers and warfighters are also increasingly expecting access to the same technologies and IT tools that they use at home, even if they’re deployed to the tip of the spear. But, as we discussed, these solutions – especially hosted applications and data in the cloud – require a large amount of bandwidth. Also, real time applications can be drastically impeded by large amounts of latency.

The answer could lie in a new generation of satellites from SES that incorporates today’s advanced high throughput satellite technologies, and are strategically positioned closer to Earth. The SES O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation is located half of the distance away from the Earth as traditional GEO satellites, enabling them to deliver powerful beams from closer by – greatly reducing latency. This makes the O3b constellation an ideal solution for delivering the applications, IT services and solutions the military needs at the speeds they require.

The military appears to agree. As this Satellite Today article states, the DoD has signed a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) that will make the O3b satellite constellations available to the entire military as a service. This means that any military organization or branch in need of high speed, low-latency connectivity now has a contract vehicle in place in which to get access to it as a managed service.

The timing of this announcement was perfect for the DoD, since the MEO constellation that they’re making available across the military also received some very good news this week.

SES, with FCC’s blessing, says O3b constellation can reach global coverage
Just this past week, the Federal Communications Commission approved the expansion of the O3b constellation from equatorial constellation to global constellation. This effectively gives SES the ability to build out its MEO satellite constellation so that it can cover more than 80 percent of the globe.

This is exciting news for customers or anyone else that wants access to high speed, low-latency connectivity practically anywhere on the globe. The expansion of the O3b satellite constellation will increase coverage area, ensuring fiber-like connectivity to anywhere military and government resources are deployed.

But increasingly powerful, high-bandwidth and lower-latency satellites aren’t the only exciting technologies that are making their way into space.

Orbital ATK, SSL and others are gearing up to make house calls to ailing satellites
Launching a satellite can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. If you spent a small fraction of that amount on something for your home – like an appliance – you’d want the ability to cost efficiently repair it should it break. That’s not a luxury that’s been afforded to satellite operators. At least – not yet.

This excellent Space News article takes a look at in-orbit refueling and repair programs being developed and implemented by companies like SSL and Orbital ATK. These programs will give satellite operators the ability to refuel satellites that are rapidly approaching their original end-of-life and buy them a few additional years of operation – allowing operators to get the most out of their investment.

In the future, they’ll also be looking to repair satellites with robots – a technology that could open the door for many cool advancements in the long run.

For additional information on HTS and MEO satellites, click HERE to download the white paper, “The Big Beam Boom.”

The post Big beams and repairs in space – a look at exciting space stories making the news appeared first on SES Space and Defense.