Telesat Reveals Ambitious Roll out of Ka Band Service in Canada

It looks like the folks in Canada will receive Ka band internet service before American's get it. Telesat announced this week they are rolling out service in April 2005 through Barrett Xplore, one of Canada's largest internet service providers. They provide service under the trade name Xplornet(formerly LincSat).
Details on the service packages and pricing for both residential and business customers will be made available over the coming weeks. If they are planning to have service available in April (two days from now) and making pricing available "in the coming weeks", when is it actually going to launch? It sounds like the sales department might have a touch of the "Alligator Mouth" syndrome. We'll see.... they say they are working hard to make it happen on schedule.
April 21, 2005 UPDATE: Well it appears Xplornet did get a bit ahead of themselves...now service is slated to begin in July 2005.

Satellite 2005 Convention in D.C.- InfoComm 2005

Attendance at the convention was up some 20% over last year, over 450 exhibitors were on hand and 6,000+ visitors......maybe the industry is in for a decent year after all. (stats courtesy VPO online)

One of the attendee's of the convention told me today that a "sales representative" of WildBlue claimed their Ka band setup will have a 4 watt variable BUC (transmitter)......for $300-$500 equipment cost? ....I don't see how they can do that. Hopefully WildBlue will clear this up soon by being a bit more forthcoming about the details of what they WILL be providing to consumers when the product is launched this summer.

Meanwhile, the NRTC has finalized it's agenda for the InfoComm 2005 Convention in Las Vegas starting April 25, 2005. The most significant news coming from NRTC from my perspective is that the CEO of Wild Blue, Tom Moore(as well as the COO, Ken Carroll), will be on hand to update everyone on the testing and roll-out plans for Ka band internet. Additionally, and somewhat surprisingly, NRTC will also update it's members on the progress of what I consider their "Backup Bag", an update on Broadband over Power Line...a project they are pursuing with Cooperative Research Network and launching May 1st....just in case?
Hope they aren't betting too heavy on BPL....the American Radio Relay League has managed to shut down three BPL tests around the country so far and seem to be ready to fight BPL until a filtering solution is agreed to....More as we learn about it..... see updates on Ka Band here: http://www.vsatus.com

Wild Blue first to offer Ka Band Internet in U.S.

Breaking News 2-28-2005:
"The only Ka game in town in the near future will be WildBlue who will begin service in June. Their Western Gateway is now operating and the other 4 are being installed. June should be a good date. Telesat has some capacity in the US but will not compete with their “customer” WildBlue." This quote came from a very reliable industry leader.There you have it. Any company offering Kaband service in the U.S. will have to come through Wild Blue it appears.
Wild Blue will offer 3 Ka Band internet plans: 512 kbps download speed - $49.95 per mo.; 1MB download speed - $69.95 per mo. and 1.5 MB download speed - $79.95 per mo. The upload speed has been stated by a WB official as ranging from 128 kbps to 256 kbps, but no word on whether that applies to all of the plans or not.