Government support for satellite broadband services, which has contributed significantly to the use of broadband technologies in South Korea, is expected to be replicated in many countries of the Asia-Pacific region, according to a recent report by Northern Sky Research. The report says that, given the Asia-Pacific’s challenging economic environment and health concerns affecting GDP and demand, growth for broadband satellite services will be moderate but steady, driven largely by growth of the Internet in the China and India.

ISPs have leased satellite capacity for trunking needs and are expected to dominate revenue streams within the forecast period ending in 2007, according to the report entitled “Asia-Pacific Broadband Satellite Services Markets 2003.” In 2002, the ISP market for trunking services generated an estimated $386 million in revenue, for bandwidth needs that represented 6.2 Gbps. Although fiber continues to encroach on satellite-based services, the need for cost-effective, wireless WAN connections will always be present in this region, the report says.