iBEAM's free dish deal has already lured several large ISPs into its access partner program—at that price any ISP with a broadband subscriber base has nothing to lose by giving iBEAM a long, hard look.

by Lisa Phifer VP Core Competence, Inc. [April 5, 2001]

As demand for Internet radio grows, that big sucking sound you hear is bandwidth, being guzzled by the megabit. Throw in video, and the river runs dry. As George Carey, Managing Director of ISP Operations at BroadView Networks put it, "Streaming TV sounded promising, but it turns out that each channel requires 1.5 Mbps. Who can afford to deliver that to a large group of users?"

That's why Carey enrolled BroadView in iBEAM's access partner program. iBEAM frees up terrestrial bandwidth by delivering high-volume, latency-sensitive content over satellite. Broadcast delivery is more efficient and yields better quality than point-to-point streaming over terrestrial links. And, better yet, iBEAM receivers are supplied at no cost to access partners.

Global delivery by satellite
iBEAM bypasses Internet congestion by broadcasting streaming audio and video to its "last mile access" partners. Using a satellite network as the delivery mechanism, iBEAM selectively feeds "popular" content to distributed MegaCaster servers, located at ISP POPs.

Ron Pritchard, iBEAM national sales director for access partners, said its service is totally transparent to the end user. "For example, if the user goes to MTV.com, instead of the stream being served from MTV's site, the user is redirected to an iBEAM data center," Pritchard explained. "We look up where user is coming from and what they're requesting, then redirect them to the best server to deliver that content—preferably, one located at the user's own ISP."

iBEAM now broadcasts over 60 million streams per month to more than 200 edge networks, ranging the gamut from large RBOCs to universities to regional ISPs. Access partners are not limited to ISPs—they can be anyone who offers last mile delivery. "Today, we serve North America. We have one or two POPs in Northern Mexico, we're all over the US, and we have 8-10 large installations in Canada," Pritchard said.

However, iBEAM is just starting to develop an international presence. A data center was recently opened in London, and new centers are planned in Frankfurt and Hong Kong. "These will be separate satellite footprints, capable of delivering the same streaming content," Pritchard said.

Free, to a good home
"The way our network is set up, we provide all the hardware," Pritchard said. "We maintain, manage, and monitor the satellite downlink, server, and software—what we call a MaxCaster."

The access provider supplies rack space, power, and roof space for a one meter dish. iBEAM will help secure rights the roof space if the ISP doesn't own the building.

"In some cases, we make a site visit for dish placement, but usually this isn't necessary," Pritchard said. "We'll ship the equipment to the site, then come out and install the satellite dish and server pieces. This takes a day and is totally non-intrusive."

iBEAM performed a site survey, then hired a contractor to install the dish at BroadView's Horsham, PA data center. Carey said "iBEAM sent their own person out to do the server install and coordinate with the contractor to make sure the signal was good. They spent quite a bit of the day tweaking the signal, from what I recall."

The iBEAM MaxCaster is no thin server—it requires a minimum of seven rack units. Carey said iBEAM put in a big Extreme Networks switch with a gigabit Ethernet port and then tweaked the system.

"They even put in their own little UPS with an IP for remote reboot," Carey said. "The server and switch get their own IPs. iBEAM asked for eight IP addresses—I think we actually gave them sixteen."

Access providers also identify subscriber source IP blocks to enable intelligent redirection. iBEAM asks each provider for an analog phone line to dial into the MaxCaster.

"Minimal management is performed over the terrestrial Internet," iBEAM's Pritchard said. "We use dial as our backup, to reboot the server."

But Carey found this requirement negotiable. "They did ask for an analog line, but we just said we'll plug one in when needed," Carey said.

Get out of a jam
Offloading traffic is the primary motivation for an ISP to partner with iBEAM. "By putting us in, they're serving more content locally," argues Pritchard. "ISPs save on bandwidth because every stream we serve off satellite they don't have to pull from their upstream provider."

Another benefit is improved delivery quality for latency-sensitive streams. "If someone buys into DSL and then finds that streaming media quality is poor, they're going to assume the problem is in last mile, even if it isn't," Pritchard said. "Satellite delivery significantly reduces buffering delay."

In addition, iBEAM offers each access provider an Edge Guide—a list of content being served off the MaxCaster. ISPs are free to use this co-branded guide to promote content to end-users. However, this promotional activity is optional.

"ISPs don't have to use the Edge Guide if, for some reason, they don't find it appropriate," explained Pritchard.

BroadView considers iBEAM a no-cost, value-added service. For example, Carey said BroadView might give a client iBEAM access for free if they sign up for DSL access. "But we don't expect to derive direct revenue out of it," Carey added.

BellSouth, another iBEAM access partner, echoed this sentiment. "Our association with iBEAM will give both our dial-up and our broadband customers a superior Internet experience," said Cristina Van Hoff, Senior Manager, BellSouth Strategy and Business Development.

Is there an opportunity for ISPs to turn iBEAM services into revenue streams? Pritchard admits that the Internet pay-per-view model has not been all that successful to date.

"We do have a product that allows content providers to authenticate users, then redirect them to iBEAM," Pritchard said. "If the last mile access provider promotes the event, they can potentially share in the pay-per-view revenue." In this case, iBEAM will facilitate the business relationship between content provider and ISP.

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