{"id":61653,"date":"2019-09-11T23:47:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T15:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/satellites-top-guns-discuss-5g-iot-eutelsats-cba-exit\/"},"modified":"2019-09-11T23:47:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T15:47:30","slug":"satellites-top-guns-discuss-5g-iot-eutelsats-cba-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/satellites-top-guns-discuss-5g-iot-eutelsats-cba-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Satellite\u2019s Top Guns Discuss 5G, IoT, Eutelsat\u2019s CBA Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>The first afternoon of <strong>Euroconsult<\/strong>\u2019s World Satellite Business Week (WSBW) kicked off with the CEOs of some of the world\u2019s biggest operators, <strong>SES<\/strong>, <strong>Intelsat<\/strong>, <strong>Eutelsat<\/strong>, <strong>Telesat,&nbsp;<\/strong>and <strong>Viasat,&nbsp;<\/strong>talking about the future of the industry. One of the big talking points was Eutelsat\u2019s recent exit from the C-Band Alliance (CBA) in the United States. Rodolphe Belmer, CEO, Eutelsat, was quite vague when asked why Eutelsat left the Alliance saying that \u201cWe were a member for the CBA for 18 months. We felt it would be better served if we managed our interests ourselves.\u201d Steve Collar, SES\u2019s CEO took a diplomatic response when asked what SES thought of Eutelsat\u2019s surprise exit. He said, \u201cRodolphe has to make the best decisions for Eutelsat. We still think this is the best plan for the US. We have made tons of progress in the last 18 months. But, yes it would be beneficial if we were all working together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, given Eutelsat\u2019s recent exit from the C-Band Alliance (CBA), Collar also spoke of the importance of the satellite industry working together particularly as all of the major players are developing complex new systems. Collar talked about the need of great flexibility here.&nbsp; He said, \u201cOne of the biggest threats is fragmentation in our industry. This creates confusion for customers. We are building on open platform. None of us have enough money to build one true network. We have to build networks that are coherent with one another. But, if we all do it independently from one another, I worry that we won\u2019t scale fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other talking points included satellite\u2019s position in the future global communications eco-system. Dan Goldberg, CEO, Telesat when asked about 5G said, \u201c5G, I think, is a term that is used incredibly loosely and abused in some respects from a marketing perspective. We know it is coming. Basically, it is a much bigger, much faster wireless broadband pipe. It is a reflection of all the decisions that we are making. There is more broadband. It is important for us to anticipate the demand for 5G. If we really want our networks integrated seamlessly with terrestrial networks, having a low latency infrastructure will be critically important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to Telesat\u2019s own Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation, Goldberg said he was hopeful that the operator would make a decision by the end of the year in terms of next steps and choosing a partner.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Spengler, CEO, Intelsat talked about the satellite industry\u2019s ability to work with Internet of Things (IoT) going forward. He added, \u201cAre the IoT players ready to embrace satellite? I think there are signs that things are changing. We can help bridge the digital divide. I am very encouraged by that. The work in 5G is critically important. We were not part of 3G or 4G world. That is the challenge facing us. 5G is going to take some time to develop. 5G will be substantially faster than 4G. It will be an engine for creativity and innovation. We need to be a part of it. As standards are built, we need to be in the specs. It will take time to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While most satellite operators remain generally positive about satellite\u2019s place in the future eco-system, Mark Dankberg, Viasat\u2019s CEO, took a more cautionary note about satellite relationship with the wireless industry. He said, \u201cCellular operators are the number one threat to broadband satellite. It is difficult for us to bet our futures on a distribution channel that is focused on disenfranchising us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Belmer spoke passionately about video. While many talk of new markets in an IoT world, Belmer once again re-iterated the importance of video for a company like Eutelsat. He said, \u201cVideo is very solid and resilient. A public debate on video can come across as very negative. It still represents two thirds of our revenues. Video is growing in very important areas. It is reassuring for our company and our industry. We have continued to invest in the video segment. Programming has more and more value in today\u2019s world. That is a driver. The number of channels continue to grow. Also, you have Direct-to-Home (DTH) growing in emerging markets, as well as Over-the-Top (OTT) operators offloading channels onto DTH.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The economic environment for satellite operators was also discussed briefly. Collar said, \u201cIn terms of the economy, our industry is disruptive and changing. But, our customers\u2019 businesses are changing in an even faster way. We need to make ourselves more relevant in the consumer environment.\u201d Spengler also pointed out the satellite industry\u2019s ability to withstand economic headwinds. He added, \u201cI would reflect the large big recession on 2008 to 2010. I know from our experience, we didn\u2019t see a huge impact. I would say that thing that concerns us more relate to protectionism and nationalism in certain markets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first afternoon of Euroconsult\u2019s World Satellite Business Week (WSBW) kicked off with the CEOs of some of the world\u2019s biggest operators, SES, Intelsat, Eutelsat, Telesat,&nbsp;and Viasat,&nbsp;talking about the future of the industry. One of the big talking points was Eutelsat\u2019s recent exit from the C-Band Alliance (CBA) in the United States. Rodolphe Belmer, CEO, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}