# Presentation: 085824

## Integrated Services

*Accelerating Tomorrow’s Networks **TM*

*Terrestrial and VSAT Data Networks*

## About Spacenet Inc.

- Founded 1981
- Owned by Southern Pacific, GTE, GE
- Acquired by Gilat Satellite Networks in 1998
- 300 employees, headquarters in McLean, VA
- Managed network services provider
- VSAT WAN connectivity
- Terrestrial and hybrid DSL/VSAT networks
- Value-added application services
- Network management
- Residential/SOHO ISP services by satellite
- Large and established customer base
- 100 enterprise customers (more than 40,000 sites)
- 32,000 residential customers

## Some of Our Customers

**Retail**

**Restaurant & Hospitality**

**Oil & Gas and SCADA**

**Lottery & Financial**

**Grocery**

**Freight & Shipping**

**Notes:**
Key Message:
  This just a sampling of nearly 100 customers using Spacenet networking services
 Many of these customers, Holiday & US Postal as examples, operate mission critical real-time applications that require truly comprehensive and guaranteed quality of service
 Spacenet has strong presence and is moving toward brand dominance in each of the identified vertical markets

## Spacenet’s Enterprise VSAT Business

- Spacenet supports more than 40,000 enterprise VSATs
- Customers come primarily from five verticals
- Retail (including gas and convenience stores)
- Restaurant & hospitality
- Energy/utility
- Finance
- Government
- Application-centric networks for businesses
- Common applications include:
- Credit/debit authorization, Point of Sale polling
- Multicast file/content delivery
- Interactive Distance Learning
- Internet/intranet, back-office (e-mail, web, file transfers)
- SCADA and remote monitoring or surveillance applications
- Full-time VSAT networks and part-time networks for failover/backup or burst connectivity
- Sometimes, VSAT is primary connectivity; in other cases, it is supplementary or backup to Frame Relay or other terrestrial

## Spacenet VSAT Networks

- Credit Card Processor

- Music Provider

- Spacenet Hub

- Back-Office Apps

- Training VideoCorporate Communications

- HQ/Data Center

- Remote Sites

- SatelliteIndoor Unit

- TrainingVideo

- Licensed Music

- Web-basedPOS

- Credit Authorization

- Internet/Intranet

- Web-basedE-mail

- Multicast Services

**Back-of-House Applications**

**Front-of-House Applications**

- Offsite Application  Host Facility

## Why Offer Hybrid Networks?

- Terrestrial offers several advantages over VSAT for data networks...
- Compelling pricing (especially in consumer networks)
- Low latency (better for some applications)
- Greater familiarity within the IT community
- ...although VSAT still retains several important advantages
- Ubiquitous availability
- Multicast support
- Control of the last mile
- Increasing DSL footprint, technology maturity are increasing customer demand
- Spacenet sees itself as a services provider, not just a VSAT operator
- Hybrid networks are a competitive differentiator
- Allows us to build on the customer relationship

## VSAT and DSL Data Networks

- COMPONENT A (DELIVERY)

- AGGREGATION
- POINT

- LEC CO

- REMOTE SITE

- Core Router

- Local Loop

- DSLAM

- DSL Router

- HUB

- Edge Router

- T E L C O   N E T W O R K

- COMPONENT B (NETWORK ACCESS)

- COMPONENT A (DELIVERY)

- REMOTE SITE

- Satellite

- IDU/ODU

- Hub RFT,
- Baseband Equipment

- ISP Network

- COMPONENT B (NETWORK ACCESS)

- Switch

- LEC CO

- Router

- O V E R - T H E - A I R   N E T W O R K

## Integrated Services Challenges

- “Thinking terrestrial”
- Choosing service mix (DSL, private lines, Frame Relay, others)
- Choosing a business model (how much infrastructure investment?)
- Facilities-based providers vs. reseller/ISPs
- Layer-2 vs. Layer-3 services
- Developing terrestrial know-how (VSAT is the hard part!)
- Creating a business case for where terrestrial fits into your offerings
- Majority-terrestrial networks
- Terrestrial gap-fill for VSAT (line of sight, building rights issues)
- Terrestrial and VSAT together for different applications or failover connectivity
- Dealing with the complexities of terrestrial installations
- Determining customer needs
- Creating marketplace-competitive offerings

## Hybrid VSAT/DSL Networks

- Spacenet Hub Facility

**DSL-Connected Sites**

- Customer Corp Headquarters or Data Center

- Dedicated Terrestrial Backhaul (Frame Relay or IPsec Tunnels)

**VSAT-Connected Sites**

- Transaction Processors

- ATM Interconnect with
- Facilities-Based Provider

- 3rd-Party Value Added Services Providers

## Spacenet’s Integrated DSL Offering

- Services for franchise/SME through enterprise needs
- ADSL services on the low end
- SDSL/IDSL services on the high end
- Dual-pipe solutions for special needs
- DSL services are routed back to the Spacenet hub for a seamless hybrid network
- Terrestrial and VSAT sites can share IP space, be managed as part of one WAN
- Allows for centralized firewalling/network management just as with VSAT
- Unifying the services:
- Same NOC/NMC handles trouble tickets for DSL and VSAT customers
- Customers receive one bill
- Orders are placed through the same fulfillment system
- Live prequalifications for both terrestrial and VSAT
- There are still differences:
- Terrestrial on-site maintenance doesn’t have the flexibility of VSAT offerings
- Different contract terms, different AUP/usage restrictions
- Enthusiastic response from customers

## Integrated Services – Moving Forward

- In markets where terrestrial is a factor, it must be addressed
- Some markets will always remain VSAT-centric
- When there is open competition on connectivity services, terrestrial has an important place
- Spacenet has not seen meaningful cannibalization of its VSAT market
- Most deployments are gap-fills on VSAT networks
- Opportunities for VSAT and terrestrial in primary/secondary configuration
- Some customers actually switch to VSAT once they experience the problems of large terrestrial rollout
- Success is dependent on developing the attitude of a “service provider”
- Are you a hardware-specific operator or a solutions provider?
- Successfully implementing one terrestrial platform opens the door to many other future service offerings
- Things like WiMax/EVDV and others represent future threats to VSAT data networks that will need to be addressed in time as well