WTA: Two-Thirds of Enterprise Satellite Customers Expect Requirement Hikes
By Jeffrey Hill | July 1, 2011
[Satellite TODAY Insider 07-01-11] Two-thirds of respondents to a World Teleport Association (WTA) enterprise sector survey said they expected that their transmission requirements would increase in the next two years, driven by rising overall demand for connectivity and the increasing use of video, social networking and apps on smartphones and tablets, WTA said in a report released June 30.
The report, “What Customers Want: Enterprise 2011,” included interviews conducted with senior decision-makers for teleport and satellite customers in retail, maritime and finance segments of the enterprise sector.
WTA Executive Director Robert Bell said that while the report’s findings provide overall good news for satellite companies that serve enterprise buyers with no alternative infrastructure, customers also reported dissatisfaction with the limitations imposed by satellite technology.
“According to the interviews, enterprise buyers are looking to build relationships with vendors that can provide integrated, end-to-end solutions,” said Bell. “Furthermore, half of the enterprise buyers indicated that the recession had no impact on their communications operations while one-third said it had a positive impact. The key challenge for teleport operators, however, is that enterprise buyers would generally prefer not to be using satellite at all. It is a challenge that innovative service providers are rising to meet.”
The report follows a similar enterprise study conducted by NSR in April, which said that the satellite industry is enjoying advantages in some of the harshest, most remote and most demanding vertical markets, including: transportation and cargo, oil and gas, utilities, military and the green or renewable energy sector. The emerging role of civil government agencies in networking public security was credited with driving satellite demand for key regions in the Middle East and Africa as a shift in policy will likely lead to a shift in demand and procurement functions.
"Service providers are improving their current satellite SCADA, M2M and LDR platforms. Whether it is securing the power grid, digitizing the oil field, safeguarding munitions, tracking friendly forces or making transportation assets work efficiently, innovation and the very nature of highly demanding end user requirements make satellite solutions indispensable and integral in the globe’s key verticals," NSR said.