IPSTAR in Action in Tacloban Immediately a Day After Typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. Typhoon Yolanda) Devastated the Area

Below are two of the pictures showing IPSTAR connectivity solution provided to the DSWD and PTV 4 response teams providing IP based communications link between the response team in Tacloban and their HQ in Metro Manila via Skype, Viber,e-mail and etc.

A day before the calamity happens, a team from DSWD arranged meeting with IPSTAR team and AZComm - one of the IPSTAR's service providers partners in the Philippines.

There in the meeting, everything, such as purchase of VSAT equipment, satellite and Internet bandwidths reservation, logistics and manpower was arranged.

As expected, all telcos' telecommunication networks infrastructures were totally devastated and none of them could provide help for the communications in the affected area for several weeks.

So, it's the IPSTAR connectivity solution that saved the very difficult situation in Tacloban since the first day until several weeks later after the devastating typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) hit the area.

It provided Internet service to the victim and the DSWD staffs, volunteers and emergency response teams from different organizations.

Few days later, other emergency response team from Broadcast Network like PTV 4, had also utilized IPSTAR connectivity service.

IPSTAR Emergency Response and Recovery Communications System Set-up

The Philippine government should consider Thaicom's IPSTAR technology for its National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC)'s disaster preparations.

Below picture shows IPSTAR Emergency Response and Recovery Communications System set-up which had been proven very effective in other countries, like Thailand, Myanmar, Japan and etc.

Everybody is hoping that the new Philippine government would be much aggressive enough to implement this kind of solution even before any calamities or disaster strikes the country.

Details of how the whole system works will be seen clearly by clicking the picture.

POC of Our MVV and Fixed VSAT at One of the Broadcast Networks in the Philippines

This is one of the Proof-of-Concepts (POC) we did to one the broadcast networks in the Philippines about two years ago.

Everything went well and our Mobile VSAT Vehicle (MVV) equipped with all the needed broadcast equipment using IPSTAR technology works as expected.

And because of that POC, we got a project from the person connected with another company who witnessed how our system works and was inspired of it. For about two years already, they still doing their business using our system with IPSTAR broadband technology solution,

We're expecting more will be coming through donors from Japan and Germany.

The plan is to donate them to the selected Local Government Units which are in the strategic location that could enable them to respond quickly in times of calamities or any disaster that will strike the country to provide communication links between the affected area and the outside world.

Solar Powered VSAT

Solar powered IPSTAR VSAT which was proven effective and efficient most especially in the very remote areas where any power source was not available.

Most of the remotes sites that has no power source opt to use this complete IPSTAR VSAT solution.

It's the same solution we had provided in one of the State Universities in the Philippines which was badly affected by the devastating typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. typhoon Yolanda) in Tacloban.

It was really a great help for people in that University which provides communication means to communicate with the outside world giving them updates of the status of the affected area even in the absence of the power source and the telcos basic services.

Apart from that donation in the form of Internet connectivity service, TC/IPSTAR had also handed financial donations to the Red-Cross and DSWD.

That's how helpful the IPSTAR Company was during that difficult times of the Filipino people. Hope the Philippine government will reciprocate it one day.

Some Ways to Secure Client's VSAT Outdoor Unit

The pictures below show some ways to securing VSAT outdoor unit of the client.

The first picture depicts a solution of the school to secure its VSAT outdoor unit from any curious student who might touch or move it accidentally or intentionally.

This is one of the best solutions for a crowded places where the VSAT should be installed. Other possible solution is to put the VSAT on top of a building or any stable structure that could hold it firmly.

The second picture depicts a solution that is best for site locations which normally floods during rainy seasons.

One of our clients put his unit on top of the structure where his water tank is setting on.

Other clients use 6 to 10 feet steel pole to extend the height of the VSAT from the ground to secure it from the flood and from any intentional or accidental touching or moving.

Any solution for as long as it won't create blockage of the line-of-sight (LOS) between the VSAT antenna dish and the satellite in the sky, would be acceptable.

After gathering all the needed facts about the site location through site survey and interview, our team could recommend the best solution to securing the VSAT outdoor unit.

POC OF IPSTAR BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTIVITY VIA SATELLITE FOR PGMC

Another successful Proof-of-Concept (POC) of IPSTAR broadband Internet connectivity via Thaicom-4 (a.k.a., IPSTAR) satellite for the Philippine Gaming Management Corporation (PGMC).

After about few days of setting up all the needed equipment, such as GPRS, POS equipment of PGMC and the needed routing activities, and the common schedules of all the teams involved (IPSTAR, EDGECOMM, INC. and PGMC teams) finally, the most awaited POC results had been achieved.

As highly anticipated, we had proven to the client that our connectivity solution via satellite will really work.

We are now waiting from PGMC's advise on the schedule of when to start the deployment of the initial 20 plus sites in Luzon area.

Good news, we also had confirmation from our technical team that Coron, Palawan, Philippines is well covered by our IPSTAR satellite spot beams.

So, our concern about other sites in Palawan is now confirmed solved.

If PGMC will win on the bidding from PCSO for the connectivity of the lotto franchise in the Visayas and Mindanao areas, then more sites will be added on the said initial sites, hopefully, starting this year also.

Digital Life Solution for Education

Good news for the education sector of the country covered by Thaicom 4 (a.k.a., IPSTAR) for Thaicom PLC's innovative technological solution is now ready for deployment.

Digital Life product highlight are summarized into three categories, such as Capability, Efficiency and Reliability.

Reliability means that, even if the terrestrial networks fails, Digital Life solution is always connected. Lost contents due to rain will be recovered when rain is gone. It's reliable because of it has OTA support feature.

Digital Life technology solution is efficient and it has a lower risk to congest other Internet services and lower risk to overload VDO/Web servers because VDO contents are stored locally. It's compatible with any Internet applications.

It's capable of the following: On Demand VDO which cause no impact to the Internet speed, watch on preferred contents via mobile devices, support rating and interactives and etc.

IPSTAR MVV

MVV stands for Mobile VSAT Vehicle, and VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal.

It's one of TC/IPSTAR products that is being marketed in many countries in the the Asia Pacific where Thaicom 4 (a.k.a. IPSTAR) has coverage.

It's the same technology and solution that the Japanese and German donors are going to donate to the Philippine government.

Signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was supposed to happen last April 19, 2017. However, due to an unforeseen event that happened, the scheduled event was moved to another date which has to be announced yet.

IPSTAR MVV is a very important and useful technology which can be used in any event, especially in the area hit by any disaster or calamity, providing connectivity to the people and to the emergency response team.

It can also be useful for any broadcast network team to communicating its headquarters.

Broadcast network staffs in the field could take photos of the situation of the devastated area and then send it to HQ which in turns broadcast it to all its audience.

Alternatively, live video footage of the affected area and the actual situations of the victims could be streamed live to the HQ.

It could provide as high as 74 Mbps download and 12 Mbps upload using 1.8 meter antenna, 2-Watt BUC and an SCPC satellite modem called Romantis with the following details below:

UHP-1R1-SCPC : UHP-1000 DVB-S2 standard SCPC Router (QPSK, 8PSK), also supports STAR Mode.

IPSTAR POC at the Calasiao I Central School

It's one of the IPSTAR POCs in Pangasinan province and this time at Calasiao I Central School.

It was here that EDGECOMM, INC.'s team gived a detailed presentation of the IPSTAR technology using Gilat SkyEdge II- IP modem and its actual demonstration of how this VSAT system works with Internet connectivity, to more than 100 principals and ICT officers from different schools in Pangasinan province.

After all the POCs in the province of Pangasinan, it took us around half of the year to start commercializing our service.

Fortunately, when it's started, it continued until this time and it has spread to other provinces in the Visayan region. One example is in Masbate, where EDGECOMM, INC. had installed almost a hundred sites for schools under DepEd.

We were surprised when one of the construction companies in Metro Manila has tested our service for about a month, now six of their sites are using our broadband Internet service using IPSTAR broadband satellite.

The owner of this construction company is very satisfied with our service.

IPSTAR POC at SAMPALOC NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL - PANGASINAN

This is one of the five POC sites in the province of Pangasinan where EDGECOMM, INC. was finally convinced of the capability and effectiveness of the IPSTAR technology and it's newly adapted Gilat SkyEge II-IP satellite modem.

The area, where the Sampaloc National High School is located was known to be a dead spot for both major telcos' coverage and everybody who're not familiar with satellite technology, thought that it would be impossible to get Internet connection there.

However, when the VSAT start operating, and the ICT person in-charged in that school start accessing Youtube video contents while everyone was watching, they were amazed at what they had seen, and it was then that EDGECOMM INC., President & CEO had finally decided to proceed with his connectivity business using IPSTAR satellite and Gilat SkyEdge II-IP.

Now, EDGECOMM INC., one of the service provider partners of THAICOM PLC., owner of IPSTAR technology, a satellite operator and telecommunication service provider based in Thailand, starts harvesting the fruits they had planted about three year ago.

So far, they are now providing, operating, managing, maintaining broadband Internet connectivity via IPSTAR broadband satellite using Gilat SkyEdge II-IP for their government and private clients such as, schools under DepEd, Mining, construction, resort and banking industries and many more are lining up waiting for the completion of the current POCs for the potential clients.

If the Philippine government is really serious about solving the digital divide issues in the country, then connectivity via satellite is the most effective, efficient, reliable and secured solution, and the fastest solution that could be deployed.

Economically, if IPSTAR satellite is used, then the cost issues will surely be addressed. It's the cheapest among all the available satellite capacity as of this writing. The main reason behind is that IPSTAR is a broadband satellite with a total capacity of 45Gbps, which is equivalent to about 20 conventional satellites which has a capacity of only 1 to 2 Gbps per satellite.

Connectivity for Banking Industries

In the Philippines, Internet connectivity is a very long-standing problem in every business industry. One of the sectors that is so affected by the problem is the banking industry.

It's so frustrating seeing ATM machines off-line not only in the big business establishments, but even at the airport. It's the very reason why central bank in the Philippines was giving it's directive to this business sector to provide secondary link on its existing connectivity to avoid or minimize this kind of problem - offline due to connectivity issue on its ATM machines.

Now, there's a solution which was proven effective not only in the Philippines, but also to other countries where IPSTAR has a coverage.

In the Philippines, it's used by UnionBank, and this client is very happy for it immediately resume it's service after a typhoon hit Bicol region and devastated the telecommunications infrastructures there.

It's the same technology used by the same bank when typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. typhoon Yolanda) devastated Tacloban.

The secondary link that banking industries needs to provide should be via satellite, like Thaicom-4, a.k.a., IPSTAR. It has a built-in security features (IPSEC) that will address security issues banking industries are concerned about.

POC for Internet Connectivity at HITACHI CABLE - Lima, Batangas, Philippines

It's a Poof-of-Concept (POC) at Hitachi Cable - Lima Batangas, Philippines. Of the three bidders, two of IPSTAR service provider partners had joined the bidding, but only one of them (EDGECOMM, INC.) had used VSAT; the other two, used IP radio for Internet connectivity for the client.

Each company was then required to demonstrate their individual Internet service to be offered.

Due the the new policy at the PEZA in Lima Batangas where the company is located, the third bidder took so much time to demonstrate their service for it took them so much time to produce the required documents.

However, it's about three months now, HITACHI hadn't sent us yet any notice of what had happened, or who won the bidding.

EDGECOMM, INC. is still hoping to win the bidding. It's CEO said that VSAT is the best solution to client's requirement because it could be deployed quickly and it would take only about two hours to complete the installation, and the Internet connection would then be ready immediately.

IPSTAR POC at BOLINAO PANGASINAN - 2014

Bolinao is one of the locations in Pangasinan we did our POC for DepEd connectivity projects for government schools - Elementary and High Schools.

Our great effort to restore the name of IPSTAR had encountered lots of resistance from those schools who had not had a good experience from one of our service provider partners who provided them bad service.

Knowing that IPSTAR technology is one of the best broadband technologies in the world, we have to prove to them, that it's not the technology that cause them the problem, but it's how the service was provided.

Fortunately, after the demo, the ruined IPSTAR name was restored. Thanks to Gilat SkyEdge II-IP modem, it helped a lot in our explanations. Thanks to our team and EDGECOMM, INC.'s team for the great job done.

CUTTING-EDGE BROADBAND SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY

IPSTAR and EDGECOMM, INC., one of its service provider partners in the Philippines is providing a cutting-edge broadband satellite technology for

anytime and anywhere connectivity. It could be fixed in a certain location for its communications need. Mobile units are also available for a certain specific requirement.

It's good for any remote locations which are not served or underserved by any of the major telcos. It's the medium of communication which central bank is referring to for it's policy for banking industries to have a secondary link. Primary link could be from any of the major telcos' fiber line link and secondary link should be via satellite.

It make sense, for during typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. typhoon Yolanda), all the telcos infrastructures in the most badly affected areas in Tacloban were all totally devastated. So, even a month after the disaster, people were still lining up in just one ATM in a certain bank to withdraw their money in Boracay area which was also lightly affected by the same typhoon Yolanda.

THAICOM INNOVATION DAY 6-7, JULY 2016

There lots of interesting innovative ideas shown during the Thaicom Innovation Day (6-7, July 2016) last year.

Some of them are already in existence, but some modifications had been made to fit the needs and some are really new. And one of my favorite is the Place and Play Broadband Anywhere as you can see in the picture below. It's a hybrid of the two known technologies: 3G Internet for the uplink or upload part and satellite (IPSTAR) for downlink or download. One important and interesting feature of this innovation is, it will use a light weight of whole component of the equipment and fully portable which is capable of receiving information at the speed of 45Mbps. With just one push of the button, it will automatically acquire Thaicom 4 satellite (a.k.a. IPSTAR).

It's an excellent product for rapid deployment. It's ready for service in just one and a half minutes (90 seconds). It's very useful for communication in emergency response after a calamity or a disaster.

For TV streaming using Android and iOS, it the has the following capability:

- Download via satellite with speed of up to 45Mbps
- Live
- Time shift (Max 2 hours backward replay of live program

So far, there's no information yet of how much it would cost to produce or to acquire a unit of this technology.

In my opinion, it would be much better if the 3G component would be out of the picture to make sure that even during or immediately after a natural disaster, like the case of typhoon Haiayan (a.k.a. Typhoon Yolanda) which badly devastated Tacloban and for about a month, there's no telecommunication infrastructure had left standing. Thus, for about a month or more, no 3G service in the affected areas in Tacloban.

Proof-of-Concept (POC) at UP Diliman and UP Manila

This was the day when EDGECOMM INC. team and WIT team were doing the POC and product & service demonstrations for their connectivity solution offered to UP Diliman and UP Manila team and some delegates from the USA who were collaborating for the project related to TeleHealth Center Services to be extended to the people living in the remote areas in the Philippines.

According to plan, and God willing, the project implementation will be in November, 2017. In the meantime, the UP team is still waiting for the results of the survey they're conducting to determine which of the UP campuses are in need of a connectivity via satellite using the latest and most advanced VSAT technology of THAICOM/IPSTAR and GILAT SkyEdge II-IP.