ABS CEO Tom Choi’s harsh comments on the viability of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations came during the conference’s final panel, “Visions of the Future Satellite Industry: Business Beyond SATELLITE 2017.” According to Choi, companies rushing to build bigger HTS and launch mega-constellations into LEO are suffering from a “herd mentality … without really understanding how this capacity is going to get sold or where the customers are going to come from.”
David Harrower, VP of business development for iDirect, agreed that what “a lot of operators don’t anticipate is the ground network required. It’s a cost impact that is challenging for a lot of satellite operators.”
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Andrey Kirillovich, director for integration services at RSCC, noted: “The ground segment is developing behind the development of the space segment. The main problem is the readiness of FPAs.”
Choi argued that providing connectivity via GEO will almost always be more profitable. “Our plans are to selectively target specific countries from GEO where we can bring a lot of capacity on a low cost basis,” targeting Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the DRC.
Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of CNES, warned companies solely interested in LEO to watch out for orbital debris.
Vern Smith, VP of communication satellites at Lockheed Martin, believes the next big wave of innovation will emerge on the production side. “Five years out, I would argue that you could see production times on the order of six months.” VS
