VIA SATELLITE: Which launch service providers are you considering?
Williams: We don’t wish to take unusual risks with our launch program so we are likely to continue with established launch service agencies.
VIA SATELLITE: Will Hylas-2 allow Avanti to target any new markets?
Williams: We are fairly certain on where our money is coming from in the next five years. Consumer broadband is not only a vast market throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but also throughout other emerging markets and geographies. The unmet demand for broadband services already exceeds the planned supply for Ka-band. That will remain a great market for the foreseeable future. The enterprise VSAT market is well established, but it is still experiencing growth from the new service quality and price efficiencies of Ka-band. We are certainly seeing evidence that companies that have used enterprise VSAT before are considering doing more of it because it is now cheaper, so it is a market that will grow.
There is no doubt there is strong military demand. We have seen that in terms of public procurement announcements, particularly from the U.S. Department of Defense. Avanti is seeing a lot of interest from its military services around the world. That will be a very big market for us. I also think we are quite close to cracking cellular backhaul in a large way. The most interesting markets here are probably in Africa, but there are others. I think we are starting to see opportunities in content distribution beyond those four markets. There are a variety of industries where quasi-unicast IP distribution of content starts to look interesting in Ka-band. Whether it is involving mobile networks, digital cinema networks or out of home advertising networks, there are opportunities in moving content around and Ka-band can do this more efficiently than other forms of satellite technology. But mainly we are still pretty focused on those four markets I mentioned earlier.
VIA SATELLITE: Can you expand on where you see the military market opportunities for Avanti, both in the United States and beyond?
Williams: It appears that all military organizations are experiencing significant growth in demand for flexible and low-cost satellite capacity, driven in part by the growth in the use of video data. UAVs form part of that picture but there are other applications. Avanti is designing flexible Ka-band capacity, which covers most of the landmasses where NATO organizations are likely to have an interest, and intends to make this capacity available in a flexible manner designed to meet the cost-effectiveness objectives of modern military organizations.
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