Internet satellite provider InSat has signed a deal with Newtec (News - Alert) to provide and install Sat3Play hub and terminal hardware to deliver Ka-band service over Afghanistan. InSat plans to offer three services for Afghan telecom providers based on the Newtec gear.

Services to be delivered include IP trunking for large companies and government agencies, VSAT services for small and medium companies and broadband IP access servers. InSat will use the Ka-band Sat3Play solution with Avanti's HYLAS 2 Ka-band satellite scheduled to be launched in June 2012. 

A standard Sat3Play TP226 Ka-band two-way satellite terminal consists of a 75 centimeter dish antenna, an interactive LNB combining a low noise blockdown converter and a 2W transmitter, an IP modem with an 10/100 Ethernet connection, and an antenna pointing tool. 

Features include: DVB-S2 ACM;4CPM MF-TDMA adaptive return link; high speed data connecting including embedded TCP acceleration, HTTP pre-fetching, two-way encryption and pre-fetching; over-the-air software upgrades; low jitter; and microSD card and USB interfaces.   Throughtput performance for the terminal is spec'ed at 16 Mbps of unicast or multicast traffic upstream with up to 2 Mbps on the return channel. Power consumption is under 60W.

Point & Play, a patent-pending technology, is a self-installation system consisting of an antenna pointing tool combined with software embedded in the indoor modem; it does not require software to be installed on an end-user's computer. The technology is designed to enable easy antenna pointing within minutes, including correct satellite identification, satellite signal quality feedback, and correct satellite lock feedback.

Ka-band space segments will be provided by Avanti's HYLAS 2 satellite. The satellite is scheduled for launch in the first half of 2012 by Arianespace on either an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher. Built on Orbital's STAR (News - Alert) platform, HYLAS 2 has 24 Ka-band fixed spot beams and one steerable beam to deliver services across the Middle East, Eastern and Southern Africa and Europe. 

Avanti already has one Ka-band satellite on orbit and plans to launch a third. HYLAS 1 was launched in 2010 to provide two-way data services over Europe with a mixture of Ka-band and Ku-band transponders. HYLAS 3 is expected to be launched in 2015 to provide overlapping coverage with HYLAS 3 for the Middle East and Africa; it will be a "hosted payload" on a European Space Agency scientific satellite and have eight Ka-band beams with up to 4 GHz of capacity.