Welcome to Netcom News

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This is where we post news from satellite and related industries, projects that we are working on, pictures of some of our unique and custom installations, etc. We will update this page from time to time so check back to see what's new. 

Our sincere thanks to all of our customers throughout the years. We appreciate your business. We strive to be the best LOCAL satellite retailer in the area. Wishing you and your family the best this Christmas and in the new year. 

Sincerely,

Mark, Dan and Chad

Our Vivint distributor helped us promote our Vivint Smart Home Products by working with us to secure a live working demonstration display of their most popular products. Be sure to stop by and see for yourself how easy and inexpensive Vivint Smart Home devices are to operate. 

We started the Q1 DirecTV Commercial Upgrade

50 Mbps download speed Internet service. Our rural customers have wanted internet speeds as fast as their “cabled” friends. We’re proud to announce that these speeds will be available in our area in the next few weeks! 

We have been testing the Unlimited Silver 25 service for several weeks and are consistently getting download speeds of ~ 40 to 49 Mbps! 

The official launch of service will be any day now! 

Mark Jackson, owner of Network Communications and Down To Earth Satellite Systems, announced today they have been chosen by Viasat to beta test the new ViaSat-2 satellite internet platform. On December 5th, 2017 the ViaSat-2 satellite had successfully arrived in geostationary orbit at 69.9° west longitude. Within days of reaching its geostationary orbit, the Viasat team was successfully transmitting data to and from the ViaSat-2 satellite, as well as streaming content providing an early demonstration of the satellite's power and flexibility.

Viasat has successfully completed a number of key performance tests on the ViaSat-2 satellite and end-to-end network, including demonstrating downstream speeds of over 100 Mbps to production consumer terminals. Mr. Jackson states “the average speed of current satellite internet providers is 5 to 25 Mbps. This will be a gamechanger! Soon customers that live outside city limits will truly have high-speed internet service. Possibly faster than their cabled neighbors in town.”

The satellite ground network and other networking technologies are performing better than initially planned as measured in successful alpha testing. Mr. Jackson said “The satellite will continue to undergo testing during the beta service period with selected Viasat retailers like us installing and using the new service. Viasat will be using our site performing tests as well.”

The ViaSat-2 satellite is scheduled to enter commercial service in February 2018, where it will enable the delivery of advanced residential, enterprise, government and in-flight internet services. The ViaSat-2 satellite system is expected to significantly improve speeds, reduce costs and expand the footprint of broadband services across North America, Central America, the Caribbean and a portion of northern South America, as well as the primary aeronautical and maritime routes across the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe.

Compared to ViaSat-1, ViaSat-2 is expected to double the bandwidth, with more than 300 Gigabits per second (Gbps) of total network capacity, as well as provide seven times the broadband coverage.

“We are excited and look forward to the consumer launch of this product in February” Mr. Jackson said. 

• Network Communications is located at 1028 N Kingshighway in the DTE Satellite offices. Mark can be reached at 573-334-2400.

We were hired by our local ABC affiliate to sell and install a new 3.8 meter antenna for their new  Heroes & Icons channel on 3.2 

While in  California to see my granddaughter Kaitlynn's high school graduation, we  stopped by Viasat Inc. Viasat is the parent company of Exede. Their  world headquarters is located at  6155 El Camino Real in Carlsbad, CA.  We stopped by on Memorial Day, May 29th. They were closed - except for  the essential workers - but it was a real treat to see their campus!  

Five U.S.  commercial radio networks who operate their own satellite systems have  now been up and running on the new AMC-18 at 105 degrees West Longitude  for several months. The five satellite delivered radio services have been broadcasting from AMC-8 satellite for many years are Learfield,  Orbital Media Networks (OMNi), Premiere Networks, Skyview Networks, and  Westwood One.  AMC-8 been at 139 degrees West for many years. AMC-8 has exceeded its design life and is not being replaced by an equivalent C-band satellite at the same location.

We were hired by Scheper Communications from Woodson, IL Illinois to repoint several antennas at mid Illinois and mid Missouri radio stations. Because we have been in  this business since 1982, we are one of only a few companies that are  have the knowledgeable and experience to work on C-Band (real) satellite antennas! Network Communications came through for our customers again!

01/22/2018 Update on this project: We still haven't been paid by Scheper Communications for work done on this project. Two of the six mid Illinois stations paid their portion of the bill. The others, well...