Satellite communications have often been seen as the niche cousin of telecoms. As mobile and internet usages exploded, satcomms fell behind terrestrial vendors, used only for remote locations and specific industry applications, due to prohibitive costs and bandwidth challenges.
But as more and more rockets have been heading into space in recent years, satellite companies are experiencing a resurgence, thanks in no small part to the growth of Low Earth Orbit constellations (LEOsat) and improved economics.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, TechInformed spoke with Intelsat RVP – EMEA Media and Networks Sales – Rhys Morgan to find out what is behind the comeback, and how it is benefitting enterprises.
Satellites have been experiencing a renaissance – what are the main reasons ?
More broadly “new space”, in whatever incarnation that is, has brought satellite back into people’s consciousness. The big connectivity providers and enterprises are thinking about where non terrestrial networks (NTN) fit in their mix.
A decade ago, the attitude was they needed to reduce the amount of satellite in their networks, because it was playing a niche role, either providing core international connectivity or backup services. It was seen as a legacy technology. The satellite industry was very slow to innovate.
But new entrants into the market have sped up the pace of change. It is on legacy providers like us to make sure we embrace this renewed interest and are well positioned to capture that.
One challenge that hampered satcomms was the economics – it isn’t cheap to put something up in space and operate it. How has that changed?
There are multiple elements within the supply chain which have evolved in recent years. Antenna technology is incredibly important. It still costs a lot to send an engineer to install a network in a remote location, such as an oil rig, but thanks to new flat panel antennas, you no longer need to send a specialist. These networks now auto-acquire.
Equally, the way we’re building and designing networks has changed. If you look at a cellular backhaul network 10 years ago, we would have designed an individual link to each town, which made it cost prohibitive.
Now, we can put a big pool of megabits and make them available, and using statistical models and other methods, we can share these across hundreds of sites, which brings the economics way down. Suddenly, it is a viable solution and doesn’t have to be the last option for people.
Where does LEOsat fit into this?
Bringing in OneWeb, which we are doing extensively, aims to offer a completely different service proposal to a site. Latency sensitive traffic can run from a LEOsat (low Earth orbit) but less sensitive traffic can run from our geostationary satellites. We are able to mix them and manage that connectivity for our partners, giving them a better service.
There is a lot of competition out there and that partnership approach is really moving the technology forward.
Which sectors are driving the increased interest in satellites?
Obviously, MNOs are a big part of our business. Our commercial aviation platform is really strong and we’re adding to it. Governmental partnerships are also important.
Take Africa for example, we have partnerships in South Africa, DRC and soon to launch one in Nigeria. In these cases, geostationary will act as the foundation and we will then add OneWeb on top of that in sites that require it from a latency of bandwidth perspective.
In the DRC there are more than 1000 sites using the platform, and we expect that to significantly grow this year. Managed service offerings are really resonating with our customers.
What are the key developments on the horizon for satcomms?
Virtualisation of networks is going to be key going forward – more and more software both on the satellites themselves, but also on the ground. That is now evolving at a rapid pace and will make the networks much more dynamic and easier to upgrade.
Virtualisation will give us better maintenance, better diagnostics, better data, and better visibility for our customers, which is vital to help demystify satellite services.
That will be a real game changer and once we have a fully virtualised network, which will probably be in around 18 months time, it will help expands the addressable market for companies like ours.
Rhys Morgan is Intelsat’s general manager and VP, Media and Networks EMEA
Space has been making headlines, thanks to more rocket launches and plans to send humans to the Moon again. What impact does this have on the comms industry?
Access to space is as low a cost as it has ever been. But nonetheless geostationary satellites are still quite expensive. For us, that means we need to combine Geo, Leo, and multi-orbit offerings, and focus on designing our networks well.
Data serenity is also important. The security of knowing exactly where traffic is landing is really important to our customers, as is control. But customisation is becoming increasingly important for enterprises and telco partners.
With the increasing interest in space, how are you capitalising on this momentum?
There is a lot going on in space, for better and for worse, and we are looking at application sets beyond telecommunications. One example is space situational awareness, which could be something as simple as putting cameras onto our satellites – and not just cameras looking down at Earth. This could help us track space junk or help identify faults on other satellites.
We are also looking at inter-satellite links, which could make it easier to communicate across all three orbits (GEO, MEO and LEO) using technology such as optical or RF (radio frequency) links. This could effectively create a data relay around the Earth.
We aren’t directly engaged in the Moon landing plans right now, but we have worked with NASA before. I can’t say it won’t happen again, but at the moment – and it is a terrible line – we are a little bit more down to Earth.
Read more here: 2025 Informed: the year ahead for telecoms
