Specialists in the closed-type joint stock company “Turkmen khemrasy” which was charged with the task of commercializing the payload of the national communication satellite launched “a range of communication systems to transform a radio signal and transmit it through a satellite” in June, the news outlet “Turkmenistan: golden age” reports.
In the meantime, according to the media outlet, “many types of services” can be transmitted and retransmitted. For instance, the Institute of Seismology seeks to use high speed channels to establish hot links with other seismic stations.
Turkmenistan’s ministries and agency will also have access to satellite communications services. It has not been specified what equipment was installed or how it might facilitate commercializing the satellite.
Let us recall that back in March 2017 the state information agency TDH reported that “Turkmen khemrasy” had assembled teleport equipment for rendering various services of space communication wideband internet access etc.
In a comment to “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” an expert in communications and the Internet said that satellite Internet is not designed to be widely used by residents.
“It makes sense to widely use the satellite internet only in areas where for some reasons “the last mile” solutions are not available”.
The satellite Internet is extremely slow (particularly due to low data transmission speed), with a high ping, i.e. the delay in response from a particular website or service. .
In simple terms, it is like using a telephone with a voice delay of several seconds. Anyone who has faced this situation understands how inconvenient it can be first you need to say something, pause until the interlocutor listens to your message, then wait for a several seconds delay to be able to hear his voice.
The situation with regard to the Internet is much more complicated.If the voice between pauses can be fully transmitted and after listening to the message, the interlocutor will understand what was said, the same procedure is more complicated when it comes to the Internet since the transmitted packages have their own lifecycle of a few seconds and can be lost during long receive-transmit times via satellite.
Therefore today satellite data transmission channels are suitable only to transmit the so-called “slow” or technical data, which does not require prompt delivery and the same prompt response, for example, a seismic station”, — the expert said.
Let us recall that the Turkmen Alem satellite was launched on 28 April 2015 with the intention of leasing unused frequencies to other providers.
The state-run media outlets occasionally report on the launch of new broadcasting channels from the satellite.For example, in November 2017 it was reported that the broadcasting of eight Bulgarian TV channels was launched from the satellite.
However, as of today they are not being broadcast, according to the website Lyngsat.
In December 2017 it was reported that about 1,3 billion manats would be invested to develop Turkmenistan’s airspace industry.
These funds, inter alia, are envisaged to design another artificial satellite and launch it.