Intelsat Leading Effort to Slow Satellite Interference
Intelsat is ramping up efforts to slow satellite interference, as growth in satellite services worldwide has led to increased problems for operators, company executives said. Customers are complaining of interference more than any other issue, and complaints will likely continue to increase as satellite device sales and fill rates move higher unless something is done, CEO Dave McGlade told reporters.
The company is using public appeal and industry agreement to help slow down instances of satellite interference. Intelsat receives hundreds of complaints each month, said Chief Technology Officer Thierry Guillemin. “From a numbers standpoint, it’s still manageable, but the concern is the trend.” The company couldn’t provide specifics on revenue or customers lost due to the trend.
Previous attempts by Intelsat to address the problem, such as free training sessions for its customers, were largely unsuccessful and the company hopes a larger, industry-wide effort will help. Intelsat has reached agreements and will meet monthly with 17 operators, including SatMex, SES, ArabSat, Jsat and Telenor, to discuss progress in preventing interference. Intelsat is also working with Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group (SUIRG) on the problem. Intelsat and its interference prevention allies hope an industry accord will avoid the need for regulatory body involvement. “This is something that hasn’t been done and we want to start from a technology and community agreement,” said Guillemin. “We don’t want outside enforcement.” Together, the companies will share data to more quickly identify the sources of interference.
Intelsat is working closely with SUIRG’s Video Committee and its chairman Martin Coleman to take on interference from news gathering, the U.S.’s largest source of interference. Coleman hopes news gatherers and equipment manufacturers will adopt carrier identification technology that will tell satellite operators who and where the interference is coming from through a carrier ID embedded in each transmission signal. While the technology has been around for about three years, the industry has been slow to use it because it requires equipment upgrades. Even if carrier ID does catch on, it will only stop 10 to 20 percent of the interference since illegal carriers and military carriers will continue service without ID, said Coleman.
The vast majority of interference is accidental and is often customers interfering with other customers using transponder space on the same satellite, said McGlade. The three largest sources of interference are satellite news gathering, VSAT networks and communications-on-the-move, Guillemin said. Sources of interference can differ from region to region. VSAT interference, he said, is a larger problem in the Middle East than in the U.S.