Satellite links offer unparalled reliability

Satellite communication is known for its reliability advantages over terrestial connections. The main reason for this high reliability is because the networks are largely independent of terrestrial infrastructure.

Terrestrial infrastructure facilities are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. To consider the difference, a water main break, fire, ice storm, bridge or tunnel incident, accidents, earthquake or a downed telephone pole cannot possibly disrupt satellite communications. As a satellite network consists of only a satellite, teleport, NOC and VSAT terminal, the number of opportunity for network outages are significantly reduced. Compared to terrestrial networks, there are much less opportunities for a network outage. With terrestrial services (cable or DSL), network outages can occur at any point along the infrastructure. A complete satellite network can work independently of terrestrial infrastructure and maintain connectivity as long as the equipment can be powered.

Because it is difficult to make repairs in outer space, the satellite spacecrafts are designed with multiple layers of redundancy and multiple backup systems, resulting in uptime approaching 100%. There are even spare satellites already in orbit which are immediately available in the unlikely case of a catastrophic failure of a satellite.

Satellite operators like Intelsat and Telesat, operate their networks to the absolute highest level of redundancy and reliability. These levels equal or exceed even military specifications in the manufacturing, launching and operation of their satellite spacecraft.

All these factors make VSAT Systems and satellite networks in general, extremely reliable.

Reliability comparison: Terrestial vs satellite vs consumer grade satellite vs business grade satellite

Common services such as a DTH or Cable TV have an availability of 99.5% or a downtime of 43.8 hours per year. Although this number may seem high, there are 8760 hours a year and most of these outages happen in short bursts; therefore, it is not very noticeable to average users.

However, if the outage is caused by infrastructure damage from a backhoe, water main break or cable cut, the downtime may stretch to a few hours or even days.

The industry standard for most Internet services such as T-1 or DSL is 99.9% or an average outage of just over 8 hours. While this may seem acceptable, consider the impact of an 8 hour outage during peak-business hours to large businesses.

When it comes to comparing reliability of Internet access services, satellite links clearly prevail over terrestrial competition. VSAT Systems goes one step further, extensive investment in failover and redundant equipment makes our networks have 99.9921% availability. That's just over 41 minutes of downtime per year.