Technical and Economic Feasibility of Integrated Video Service by Satellite

1.1 Current Standards Point-point video services, such as videophone, and point-to-multipoint video services, such as video conferencing,have been the subject of several overly optimistic technol-ogy forecasts. Though technically feasible, and to an extentoperational today, neither service has met with widespreaduser acceptance. Two of the reasons for the deficiency arecost and user unfriendliness. With the availability of wide-band fiber networks and the advent of high-power, intelli-gent satellites such as the NASA Advanced Communica-tion Technology Satellite (ACTS), it may be feasible to cir-cumvent these two deficiencies.This paper presents the results of a feasibility study ofusing modern satellite technology, or more advanced tech-nology, to create a cost-effective, user-friendly, integratedvideo service, which can provide videophone, video con-ference, or other equivalent wideband service on demand.A system is described which enables a user to select a de-sired audience and establish the necessary links in much thesame way one would establish a teleconference by phone.The paper is divided into five sections: