Aviation and maritime customers at SATELLITE 2021’s EMEA + Asia Forum said the satellite industry needs closer collaboration with mobility customers to meet rapidly rising expectations.
Carnival Corporation Chief Experience Officer John Padgett, an SES customer, said the multi-orbit future is the right approach: “When I came into the cruise industry, there was this big debate about GEO or MEO, and I said ‘both.’ Each has characteristics that are beneficial to the guests and the operations. LEO in combination with MEO and GEO is a portfolio of capacity spanning the globe.” He emphasized that brands cannot use future LEO capabilities as a reason to delay improvement today: “I hate when people talk about things that are coming as a reason to delay to improve your guest experience now.”
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Padgett also said demand will only grow as ships fill up post-COVID — five years ago 70 Mbps was a game-changer on a 4,000-passenger ship; he now forecasts gigabit-per-second connectivity requirements soon.
Oman Air Development Engineering Manager Alia Al Qalam said airlines want practical proof, not theory: “We are really interested to see a more practical experience. We need to accelerate the satellite service provider, and hardware providers need to accelerate development, but if there are issues, they need to be solved quicker.” She added that post-COVID ROI requirements have changed the investment calculus: “We need to diversify and have ancillary revenue.”
Collins Aerospace Strategic Marketing Manager Nicole Grainger: “People will have higher expectations. We are judging our experiences on our latest experiences with Netflix.”
Global Eagle SVP of Aviation Connectivity Nancy Walker: “You need to partner with people that cross lines. You can say it takes a village to raise a child — it takes a community of providers working together in partnership.” VS
