X-band and HTS: Exclusivity

XTAR has one customer and one customer only: the military or government user. Why is that important? With a lot of talk recently about HTS, we feel it is important to highlight how we are different, especially from the user’s experience. This post is third in a series of four which examines key ways in which HTS and X-band differ according to the needs and requirements of that military/government user.

The men and women we serve are focused entirely on completing their mission. Their ability to communicate is a big part of determining mission success or failure. A dropped signal, unavailable access or interference are not just nuisances, they can be a matter of life or death.

To support missions of this level of importance, XTAR focuses exclusively on this type of customer; the government or military user. Newer technologies, including HTS, have designed one solution in an attempt to serve two markets: government and commercial. XTAR’s singleness of mission has allowed us to cultivate a deep understanding of changing requirements and design the most appropriate features.

For example, XTAR has the ability to shift beams to areas of interest to our users. XTAR’s steerable spot beams allow us to center our capacity in areas where the military operate. In addition, we are able to adjust transponder settings to best serve user applications, optimizing performance. These benefits are available to our users with the equipment they already have and processes they already use. As we mentioned in a previous post, this isn’t always the case with HTS.

But having the right features is meaningless without reliable access. For XTAR, leased access is guaranteed access. This means that a military or government user will NOT lose signal to a commercial user nor will they get kicked off by a higher priority user –we have no higher priority user. In addition, the chances of accidental interference are reduced by leasing X-band – our 4° spacing with the nearest neighbor means less adjacent satellite interference and we have fewer users overall – those we do have are better trained.

Last, but not least –XTAR does not have internal conflicts between commercial and government sides of the business. We have just one side to our business and it is fully dedicated to supporting military and government users. When communications are crucial, having a single mission just makes sense.

The reliability, flexibility, efficiencies and exclusivity of X-band make it an ideal choice to meet the requirements of today’s government and military user. Yet, there are many misconceptions surrounding this frequency band, especially as new technologies and approaches emerge. Check back with us next week for our final post in the series as we dispel the myths surrounding X-band.