Satellite dishes made of wire mesh first came out in the early 1980s, and were at first in diameter. As the front-end technology improved and the noise figure of the LNBs fell, the size shrank to a few years later, and continued to get smaller reducing to feet by the late 1980s and by the early 1990s. Larger dishes continued to be used, however. In December 1988, Luxembourg's Astra 1A satellite began transmitting analog television signals on the Ku band for the European market. This allowed small dishes (90 cm) to be used reliably for the first time.