SATELLITE 2018 kicked off with a lively panel “SATELLITE 2018: Challenges and Opportunities for an Industry in Transition” where industry figures talked about everything from LEO systems to ground-based services and what the industry must do to stay relevant.
Kay Sears, vice president for strategy at Lockheed Martin, said LEO satellite operators face a business-case identity question. “Are they data companies? Or do they want to be a network operator? Those two models are very different. Business models will change several times before they launch.”
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Bryan Hartin, executive vice president at Iridium, cautioned that not all new LEO players would find a niche. “While there are many new entrants, I have seen the CLECs in the 1990s in telecoms who came in, and only a few made it. To do 600-900 satellites with no cross links is a big effort.”
Jeff Matthews, specialist leader at Deloitte, warned: “You can’t do the ‘build it and they will come’ approach. The constant blind spot is the ground segment.”
Nathan Kundtz, CEO of Kymeta, highlighted four trends: industrial always-on connectivity, hybridization of networks, LEO constellations mixing with GEO and cellular, and the connected car market. “The mobile market will absorb most of that satellite capacity. The market is there; the question is at what price point.”
Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Telespazio, said end users are driving change. “We use space as an enabler of economic development; there is a great role for service providers.” VS
