Video And IPTV Look Good
The Asia Pacific region is still burdened by an oversupply of capacity and yet this is an accepted fact of life, rather than a reason for bold Asian entrepreneurs to steer clear of satellite-based activity altogether.
"More importantly, the fill rates of the larger, more competitive operators have remained stable for some time now," says del Rosario. "It is really the smaller, marginal operators that are causing the glut problem. The outlook is good for the region and even better for the large operators that carry video traffic."
Throughout the past few years, aggressive partnering is emerging as the tactic of choice when it comes to gaining market entry, according to del Rosario. "This is beginning to emerge as the model by which Asian operators consolidate compared to the outright financial M&A [merger and acquisition] activities that have taken place on the global operator level," he says.
The demand for agnostic networking solutions that can function flawlessly as traffic moves across a variety of advanced hybrid wireless and wired pathways is driving this trend.
"The most significant change has been the integration of satellite networks into larger hybrid networks. With advancements in satellite technology, particularly network efficiency, data throughput and support for real time applications, hybrid networks have made communications ubiquitous for customers across networks that combine satellite and traditional land lines," says Seah. "Until now, service providers needed to strike a balance between customer requirements and the cost of deploying landline infrastructure. True IP over satellite hybrid networks allow them to meet any customer requirements, regardless of location through the most cost effective means."
Still, government control makes consolidation perhaps more difficult. "Unlike multinational operators elsewhere, some satellite operators in Asia are directly or indirectly owned by government-related companies and some of them are not doing great financially," says Koh. "Although global satellite operators might be looking for merger opportunities in regional systems, particularly in Asia, due diligence will be slow and complex because of government involvement in the region."
As the markets in Asia change, for example, Irdeto is expanding its market segments to include IPTV and mobile TV, a shift that requires a different sales approach, according to Rayamaekers. "IPTV and mobile TV markets are more channel driven, hence the importance to attain the right positioning with key network vendors, system integrators and handset manufacturers," he says. "Irdeto is aligning itself with various APAC partners, such as Samsung and LG for mobile TV. In the coming months, our Beijing-based client device integration team will be expanded too to support future Chinese handset integrations to support local and regional rollouts."
Irdeto's customers include Austar in Australia, which is rolling out a significant DVR project. In Southeast Asia, Irdeto is partnered with ABS-CBN in the Philippines and CEC- VTC in Vietnam as well as Times of India and EETV in India. "In the IPTV market, during the past year, we signed up IPstar in Thailand, which will deliver in the near future via IPTV over satellite to Tier 2 Telco operators across Asia. We have been recently selected by Huawei as the incumbent conditional access provider for their worldwide IPTV rollout as well as ZTE, another major Chinese IPTV key network vendor and system integrator," says Rayamaekers.
3G Impact in Cities Only
The impact of 3G phone and advanced wireless broadband services is being felt all across urban Asia in particular. "3G has had little to no impact in rural, remote and underserved areas where satellites are the best fit," says del Rosario. "S-DMB in South Korea is an exception since mobile video to the handset services are being served using the satellite platform in urban areas as well. But over time, as terrestrial networks come on line, Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) should surpass S-DMB by a widening margin."
Seah sees 3G as a possible competitive threat for lower end VSAT equipment vendors. However, as 3G networks in particular continue to increase, there is an enormous opportunity for the satellite industry to provide backhaul networks.
"Cellular companies are discovering that in many cases, extending the edge of their coverage network can be accomplished more cost effectively utilizing shared satellite networks," says Seah. "IP over satellite allows easy network integration between various satellite, wireless and landline assets, and provides seamless, quality communications to customers regardless of their location or available network infrastructure."
Panuwattanawong sees no real competitors to broadband via satellite as IPStar obviously does not compete directly with ADSL in major urban areas. "3G is still not that advanced in the region. Our IPStar Trunking platform allows 3G to be extended into remote areas, so we see ourselves as complimentary to wireless services by acting as the second mile if the need arises," he says. "When WiMax is introduced, we will probably be the second mile to help extend networks further outside urban areas than ever before."
The December 2004 tsunami is another important consideration. Satellite technology can beam instantaneous alerts and warnings over a broad region. This part of the world will be well served in the future by all sorts of additional satellite capacity and robust satellite communications links along with satellite surveillance platforms. However, the effort to implement an advanced warning network remains a work in progress.
As for the mood surrounding the satellite sector in Asia as a whole, Asia seems less subdued. It is understood that only a limited number of satellite services will turn a profit and that not every business model can be guaranteed to go cash positive as the Asian satellite market enjoys perhaps a bit more freedom and less government oversight or regulation. Asians can now point to the sky and say that the region is starting to reap the benefits of satellite, both in terms of economic development and technological advancement.
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