It’s not the Web that’s slow but the connection, according to leading satellite vendor Hughes Network Systems Inc. The company’s $2,000 system may be too expensive for all but the most enthusiastic surfer, but introduction of a network-based system in the US last year, and in Europe before the spring, should make the cost acceptable to business. The Germantown, Maryland-based company has been pushing satellite connections in the US since 1995 and now believes it has an arguable case for DirecPC, a system that can download files at up to six times faster than conventional ISDN. While a V34 modem will take over one and a half hours to download the 10Mb of Microsoft Corp’s bulky Explorer and ISDN will do it in about 25 minutes, DirecPC claims only five minutes. The price is comparable with ISDN, but anything up to six times faster, claims the company. Marketing in the US, however, has suffered from the company’s associating DirecPC with its DirecTV satellite television channeling and putting the system into television rental shops. The system comprises a 22 by 30 oval dish, 16-bit AT board, and software that connects the computer’s Winsock TCP connection to a commercial ground station. Prices have been kept artificially high as many of the geostationary satellites were launched by telecommunications companies who didn’t want to compete with themselves. But the situation is changing with privatization. Hughes owns its Galaxy satellites so it can bring the local price down to a more competitive level.
