Intelsat CEO David McGlade feels the fixed satellite services (FSS) sector is in a good position today, but he would like to see the industry as a whole “spend more time looking for big growth opportunities” in order to prepare for the future.
“We talk about what has happened over the last few years,” he said. “DTH, for example, was a big breakthrough. You could argue
XM-Sirius has been a moderate success. With
WildBlue and
HNS (Hughes Network Systems), consumer satellite broadband has been a moderate success. But what are we going to do as an industry to look for bigger things to happen? I worry that we don’t do enough. There is an attitude that this is business as usual. The main operators have all had a good year so far, but going forward, you have to think about what are we going to do to drive this industry, and I don’t feel as though we have done enough.”
In a wide-ranging interview, McGlade discusses growth opportunities for FSS players such as Intelsat and what he thinks about growth areas such as mobile TV, satellite broadband and IPTV.
Satellite Today: Is Intelsat’s vision of the future based on applications or satellite capabilities?
McGlade: I see them as interdependent. We are continually seeking improved technology to bring to the industry. When that technology breaks through, we then have robust platforms for new applications that can serve our customers’ business objectives. For example, when I was working in the cellular industry, we were seeking technological avenues to bring data applications to our enterprise cellular customers. Both the technology and applications fell into place and we successfully rolled out services to our O2 customers. You have to take both into consideration or you may fail.
Today, the satellite industry’s technology is a mix of space-based and terrestrial services. What you don’t want to do, in my opinion, is directly compete with mature technologies and services in established markets. An industry-announced plan that Ka-band can compete head-to-head with terrestrial technology, for example, is intriguing, but seems challenging. I hope it happens. So, what can we do? We should look at providing broadband to underserved global regions that have economically-stable countries that can support new applications rather than just focus on major cities that already have robust broadband capacity.
Satellite Today: Could the success of WildBlue be replicated elsewhere?
McGlade: It would be great to do elsewhere in the world what we are doing with WildBlue in the United States. The hard part has been finding the countries and regions that will grow the same way as we have seen in the United States. As of today, the United States is the only market where there is decent penetration of consumer broadband, but there should be a play in other regions as well. In some countries in Europe it could work. I think it could also work in Latin America, Asia, and even South Africa.
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