St. Paul, Minn.
     Satellite Internet access is not just for individual users anymore. 
Two new services that will use satellites to connect LANs to the Internet 
will roll out this summer.
     DigitalXpress, a relatively new company, will roll out its XpressNet 
satellite-based Internet access service this August. The service will allow 
network managers to link LANs in far-flung locations to the Internet at 
512K bit/sec.
     Satellite-based Internet ac-cess services can offer users a reliable 
connection, but costs can be an issue, said Fred McClimans, president at 
Current Analysis, Inc., an Ashburn, Va.-based consulting firm. You may be 
able to get Internet access to a LAN in the middle of a desert somewhere, 
but you will pay a premium, he added.
     New DigitalXpress customers will pay about $1,500 to get started. The 
service requires users to purchase a receiving dish and an integrated 
receiver decoder device. In addition to the one-time equipment cost, users 
need a dial-up land line connection to Franklin Telecom's Internet Passport 
service, which costs $29.95 per month.
     Additional monthly fees in-clude a $50 charge for sending traffic 
upstream through the satellite and a usage charge of $39.95 for every 100M 
bytes of traffic sent through the satellite. As the World Wide Web moves to 
graphics, animation, video and sound, the megabytes and bucks could add up.
     Satellite pioneer Hughes Network Systems (HNS) is expected to give its 
DirecPC Internet access service a face-lift this summer.
     HNS currently offers a LAN-based Internet access service, called 
DirecPC Network Edition, but it is limited to NetWare LANs. This service 
supports Internet access speeds of 400K bit/sec. HNS plans on releasing a 
Windows NT version by fall, said Andy Wohl, senior director for business 
development at HNS, broadcast products and services division.
     Although DirecPC's service is less expensive than XpressNet, the price 
tag is still significant. The one-time equipment investment is $399, which 
includes a receiving dish and an ISA card. Software costs $1,125 for a 
five-user LAN and $1,500 for a 10-user LAN. DirecPC Network Edition charges 
$24.95 for every 64M bytes of traffic sent over the satellite.
     Like XpressNet, Network Edition requires users to have a dial-up 
connection to an ISP.