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VSAT versus Terrestrial Alternatives |
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Businesses give many reasons for using VSAT networks. Among them include transmission quality, privacy, versatility, and cost savings. VSAT technology for many types of communications needs compare very favorably with several terrestrial alternatives. The following chart provides an overview of these technologies.   Transfer interrupted!different set of requirements.As companies compete for an increasingly savvy customer looking for value (quality and service), information technology and communications networks are becoming tools to achieve business goals. Today's networks must support the need to improve customer service, increase per site revenues and reduce costs (all driving net income growth) - in the most cost-effective manner possible. Further, network managers want virtual 100% availability. They need to easily expand the network when they acquire, move or add new sites to the restaurant chain. In addition, they require network flexibility - ease of migration from existing legacy systems as well as addition of new network applications as the restaurant offers additional services to its customers. The following paragraphs discuss several communications technologies, as highlighted in the above charts, and their ability to meet these objectives: Dial-Up Networks Traditionally, it was recognized that dial-up facilities had two major advantages: facilities were available everywhere and the service was inexpensive. The first assumption remains true. However, dial-up networks are no longer the least-cost alternative for many businesses. One dial-up line may be cheap; but one single line does not support all the applications required today to meet the above business objectives. It requires multiple lines/modems to support frequent shopper programs, order processing, and file downloads to remote sites - not to mention a critical requirement like store security which should not be sharing a line with other applications. The other traditional assumptions about dial-up networks are still valid. It is slow - certainly not the best solution for customer service applications. It requires dealing with multiple vendors across multiple telephone company territories. More importantly, a business cannot train its employees over dial-up lines. ISDN Network managers who realize they have outgrown their analog dial-up networks often look first at ISDN (Integrated Digital Services Network). ISDN does provide faster data transmission, quicker credit authorization time and better customer service. Unfortunately, ISDN facilities are not available everywhere. Similar to dial-up networks, procuring and maintaining an ISDN network does require dealing with multiple telephone companies and carriers. This complicates both initial network implementation and ongoing network maintenance; trouble-shooting a network problem may entail dealing with numerous providers. In addition, ISDN today is not capable of supporting those value-added revenue-producing applications like broadcast audio and video. Frame Relay Frame relay technology does have several advantages - it is very fast, it can handle large amounts of data, and since it is now tariffed most network costs are readily apparent. However, businesses still require high-speed local loop access to frame relay services; these charges are not included in the published tariffs and can greatly impact the total service cost. Frame relay is not a low-cost solution. As with ISDN, frame relay's geographic reach is limited - it is not available everywhere. In fact, according to some recently published articles, frame relay is only available in 50% to 70% of selected RBOC's territories in the U.S. Network managers considering frame relay also need to examine the network availability and performance guarantees (where available) in the tariffs. Some carriers commit to 99.5% network availability (excluding the local loop of course); the guaranteed data delivery rate is also less than 100%. VSAT Networks VSAT networks offer the best of all the previous alternatives with none of the disadvantages. Like ISDN and Frame Relay, VSATs provide fast data transmission for POS (point-of-sale) applications to improve customer service. Unlike ISDN and Frame Relay, a VSAT can be installed anywhere the business has a site. In addition, VSAT networks offer "one-stop shopping" - a single vendor for equipment, service, installation and maintenance of the entire network. VSAT networks offer superior flexibility and performance. Adding a site to the network is quick and easy - ideal for businesses that open, move or acquire new sites in their chain. Higher levels of network availability are obtained. Notably, the inherent nature of VSATs as a broadcast medium supports those business objectives to improve customer service and quality. Reliable data broadcast, audio broadcast for in-site music, and video broadcast for sales training are all available on one single platform. VSAT costs have dropped significantly over the past few years. VSAT network prices compete very effectively against terrestrial alternatives, including dial-up. In addition, the costs are predictable and stable. |
