DirecTV to Market Two-Way Broadband Internet Access
The new service is the satellite broadcast industry's biggest step yet in its efforts to compete with the cable industry's fast-growing high-speed broadband services, delivered by cable modems. DirecTV has marketed DirecPC for several years, but was hampered by a slow backpath, delivered by traditional telephone lines.
The new service ditches the phone line and offers customers two-way broadband Internet access using a separate antenna beaming broadband content to and from one of DirecTV's ku-band satellites. Upstream speeds will vary between 128 kbps and 256 kbps , while downstream will be at speeds over 40 mbps, supporting bursts up to 400 kbps per user. The service will also be offered with a DirecDuo antenna system, allowing consumers to receive both DirecTV and DirecPC on the same antenna.
The service will be marketed as a stand-alone offering as well as an integrated service with DirecTV through current DirecTV retailers with pricing, availability and service plans to be announced later this year. A program enabling existing DirecPC subscribers to upgrade to two-way capability by adding additional equipment will also be announced at a later date.
While only about 50,000 consumers in the US currently receive Internet access via DBS, that figure is expected to mushroom to 3.9 million by 2004, according to Michael Goodman, sr. analyst with Boston-based media research firm The Yankee Group. "Over the next couple years we expect to see Internet access delivered via satellite to be a viable solution particularly in rural areas," Goodman says. "Services such as DirecPC will see more competition with cable modems and DSL in urban areas."
Edited by Tom Butts