NEW WIRELESS SERVICE PROMISES FAST CONNECTIVITY

SKY Telecom has launched a fully independent wireless broadband access network designed to deliver advanced data and voice services to Maltese businesses. The network, titled SKYNet, allows for transmission speeds of up to 155Mbps in the 5GHz band.

John Dougall, SKY Telecom’s managing director explained that while ADSL and standard WiMax services had proved themselves for domestic use, requiring steady download speeds but with lower demands for uploads, business requirements are changing.

“Companies are increasingly looking to establish VPNs (virtual private networks) and to do more with their internet connections,” he said. “SKYNet has better latency and provides the same speed for uploads as for downloads.”

This is important for VPN services, in which data flows in both directions in what is essentially an extension of a company’s internal network other, remote locations over public infrastructure. Latency, Mr Dougall said, is a very important part of this.

Latency is the time it takes for a packet of data to travel from one point of the network to another. It is measured in milliseconds, and is typically gauged on a round trip from the user to the centre of the network and back. Lower latency – quicker data transmission – means faster applications.

SKY Telecom claims SKYNet typically achieves a latency of five to 10 milliseconds, compared to 40ms on ADSL connections, 100ms on 3G networks and 400-500ms on satellite links.

The SKYNet network is based on a series of cells, centred on base stations transmitting radio signals at 5GHz, point to multi point. These are linked to SKY Telecom’s central location through a point-to-point link, which means that the new network bypasses the existing land-based infrastructure completely. The company claims high reliability, at 99.99% availability. In other words, very little downtime.

Again, this is a vital factor for business-critical links. Equally important is cost and power consumption. “Transmission consumes just one watt,” Mr Dougall said.

Completely wireless, the system is easy and quick to install. It is also easy to relocate, with no buried cable tying it to a specific location. A SKYNet user can move around within a cell and maintain a connection; moving an office installation can take a matter of hours.
“One of the problems with the WiMax technology is that the upfront costs are high, both for the equipment the customer needs at his premises and for base stations. This poses a problem – but with the system we are using for SKYNet, the costs are much lower,” Mr Dougall said.

What SKY Telecom’s BWA network does not provide is a hand-off from cell to cell – which means that users cannot move from one cell to another while maintaining their connection. This is what distinguishes it from a celluar, mobile phone network. Mr Dougall points out, however, that with its low latency it is able to offer high quality, IP-based voice telephony.

“SKYNet is not a WiMax system,” he explains. It is what is sometimes called a Metropolitan Area Network (MANs), and a number of other thing as well. But it does provide the fast, robust connectivity essential for a wide range of converged services, powered by a carrier-grade IP backbone. It is thus able to handle new, innovative IP-based services as these develop.

Mr Dougall continued to explain that SKY Telecom continues to look at the possibility of launching a mobile phone service. The company has been looking at the possibility of launching an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) service for some time now but, he explained, has decided to see how the market develops.

“The telecoms market in Malta has been moving very fast, and has changed out of all recognition over the past few years,” he said. “Now, with a third mobile operator, Melita, on the market, the MVNO model becomes a lot more attractive. With only two operators, the risk is that the MVNO becomes little more than a reseller for one of the two network operators. With the third, this changes.”

13th February, 2009