[Via Satellite 03-11-14] Chief executives from the satellite industry\u2019s largest players kicked off SATELLITE 2014 sharing the opportunities and challenges ahead. The overall tone from the leaders of Eutelsat, Intelsat, SES and Telesat was upbeat, and with good reason: many of their fleets are growing and new waves of innovation by SpaceX.<\/p>\n
Via Satellite<\/i> Editor Mark Holmes began the conversation asking executives what excites them most about the future. David McGlade, CEO of Intelsat, pointed to mobility and the convergence of MSS and FSS, while Telesat CEO Daniel Goldberg said that seeing such strong demand across many segments has enabled his firm to procure new capacity and look at new architectures of how satellites are designed. Referencing the innovation occurring in the launch space, too, Goldberg observed, \u201cIt\u2019s fun right now to sit with colleagues and customers and plan the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat, noted that 80 percent of future growth in satellites will be in the southern hemisphere, which is why he\u2019s so excited about Eutelsat\u2019s acquisition of Satmex. \u201cWe had no presence in Latin America \u2026 this content will provide significant growth for many years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the satellite market is seeing dramatic change from the launch of new high-throughput satellites, to the dramatic drop in launch costs brought on by gutsy new entrants like SpaceX. Having more affordable and reliable launch options is welcome news to all these veterans, particularly Romain Bausch, president and CEO of SES, who was the first commercial customer to use SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket for the launch of SES 8 satellite \u2014 the highest profile of SES\u2019s three launches last year.<\/p>\n
A key area of discussion centered on WRC-15 and the push to obtain C-band spectrum at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) in November 2015. The satellite industry is escalating efforts to stop terrestrial industry from getting governmental authority to roll out wireless broadband over extended C-band. Studies have shown that International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) services interfere with fixed service satellites, which remain a mainstay of the global satellite portfolio, accounting for 38 percent of the satellite mix (not counting HTS), according to satellite analyst firm, NSR.
\nHowever, CEOs in the panel were optimistic and agreed that the industry will not face a \u201cdoomsday scenario\u201d next year in Geneva.<\/p>\n
They point out that, unlike seven years ago, the industry has joined together much earlier to communicate the critical role C-band and other satellite frequencies play in the world, especially in bringing access to the world\u2019s rural and poor communities. The leaders also said that the \u201cstudies\u201d the wireless sector has issued on their need for spectrum are exaggerated by \u201ctwo orders of magnitude,\u201d which further underscores the need for education and outreach to political leaders, who often know much less than regulators, the panel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTelling this story is so important,\u201d McGlade said, noting that this type of \u201cland grab\u201d could easily expand to other frequencies. Eutelsat\u2019s de Rosen agreed. \u201cWe must think ahead. If we are to be passive about C-band or L-band the threat would be on Ku and Ka,\u201d Rosen added.<\/p>\n
Noting the Big Four\u2019s combined revenue growth at around 3 to 4 percent in 2013, Holmes questioned the leaders if they thought their prospects for growth would improve in the future. Many panelists pointed to key emerging markets as a driver for their growth. Eutelsat expects growth of 5 percent in the next few years, while SES pointed to 6 to 7 percent growth this year alone.<\/p>\n
Intelsat\u2019s McGlade called on a change of the economics of the industry as key to the satellite sector\u2019s long-term growth. \u201cWe have to be more relevant, more efficient, we have to push the boundaries,\u201d he said, noting that the industry needs to both drive down costs and expand the market through innovation.<\/p>\n
Later, McGlade made a memorable observation when the discussion turned to ways the industry could attract the next-generation of talent. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to show what is cool about our industry. It hasn\u2019t hurt to have Elon Musk redefining our industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The talent challenges may be less acute in Europe, where SES and Eutelsat say they don\u2019t have the same difficulty attracting young people into their companies. However, one challenge, de Rosen admitted, was diversity. \u201cWe must do more to make sure women feel they have as many chances to be successful in the company as men,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Via Satellite 03-11-14] Chief executives from the satellite industry\u2019s largest players kicked off SATELLITE 2014 sharing the opportunities and challenges ahead. The overall tone from the leaders of Eutelsat, Intelsat, SES and Telesat was upbeat, and with good reason: many of their fleets are growing and new waves of innovation by SpaceX. Via Satellite Editor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78213,"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-78211","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\/78211"}],"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=78211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}