[Satellite News 03-23-10] In an attempt to take a leadership role in dealing with interference issues, satellite operator Intelsat is launching new efforts to invite more satellite industry leaders to take an active role in developing solutions to the problem.
    Interference, which is having more of a negative impact on signal and bandwidth efficiency as end-user applications become more complex, is an issue that the industry must tackle together, Intelsat Senior Vice President and CTO Thierry Guillemin told Satellite News.
    “While satellite operators are certainly starting to pay more attention to dealing with interference, the state of the global economy has taken some of the momentum out of dealing with the issue,” said Guillemin. “For some companies and regions, it is a matter of financial investment or devoting resources. For others, dealing with interference causes political issues. No matter what the obstacles are, this is an issue that affects the entire industry.”
    Intelsat CEO David McGlade acknowledged that the industry, as a whole, has been a little slow in realizing the long-term consequences of interference. “Satellite operators are now starting to get concerned over the trends on how interference affects the economic value of our service. As an operator, it is our responsibility to provide that economic value to remain competitive.”
    Guillemin asserts that one of the biggest culprits of interference is the lack of end-user training on the ground, which provides a customer service challenge for operators like Intelsat. “We offer training services for free. The problem is, our customers aren’t taking it. One of the most common reasons for that is that our customers are outsourcing their technical support. This sometimes leads to insufficient training and in situations like properly pointing VSAT antennas, lack of training can cause our customers to interfere with themselves,” he said.
    McGlade said these scenarios present difficult situations in addressing customers. “As a service provider, it is tricky to approach your customer and tell them that they are causing a part of problem. We want to communicate that we have their best interests in mind and that we want to provide them with the best service possible. That’s why we, as operators, have to come up with a more universal way of approaching this.”
    The best method for accomplishing these goals, according to McGlade, is to start with developing the technological tools, rather than with methods of enforcement. For Intelsat and 17 other operators, including MSS operators such as Inmarsat and regional operators in interference hotspots such as Arabsat, the answer may lie in the Isle of Man’s Satellite Data Association, established as a portal for operators to share their data in order to cut down on interference.
    Tim Craine, the director of space commerce for The Isle of Man government, said the facility will collect data on frequencies, power, satellite location and their coverage areas. “The objective here is to quickly and efficiently deliver information to operators as to the cause of interference. Just having that information can save operators a lot of time and resources and enable operators to develop solutions that will address the problem specifically,” he said.
    To deal with the next step of fixing the problem, the industry has collectively unveiled an array of solutions. In an effort to refocus the satellite sector’s approach to managing and prevent RF interference and establish the carrier ID concept, satellite operator SES announced it would adopt training services from Global VSAT Forum (GVF) and engage other operators on a series of specific initiatives.
    Carrier ID aims to embed uplinker location or contact information in the uplink signal to facilitate troubleshooting by operators. Its implementation, however, also involves the participation of actors from the entire satellite chain: from equipment manufacturers to operators and integrators. SES and the GVF also reported that regular working meetings have been held on these initiatives as well as presentations and speeches at numerous venues by the participating operators, including Intelsat, Telesat, Sky Perfect JSAT, Telenor, SatMex and several others to promote support for the initiatives.    
    To combat training issues, Guillemin said that Intelsat is stepping up its efforts to promote training incentives for technicians employed by its customers. “We endorsed a training and certification program with two industry-leading vendors: the Global VSAT Forum and BeaconSeek. We offer training to our satellite newsgathering customers through BeaconSeek’s SlingPath and through GVF’s program to educate VSAT technicians on proper equipment installation and operational parameters,” said Guillemin. “Our goal is to provide training to 1,200 engineers from our customer base within the next three years. We expect that this and other efforts will create an industry momentum for other operators to join in the training effort and that industry awareness of this problem will be raised.”
    For operator CEOs, time is crucial, McGlade said. “The longer we wait to take real action on interference, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to get this problem under control.”