{"id":87265,"date":"2010-03-19T18:29:23","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T10:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/mss-leaders-assess-market-hail-fcc-broadband-plan\/"},"modified":"2010-03-19T18:29:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T10:29:23","slug":"mss-leaders-assess-market-hail-fcc-broadband-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/mss-leaders-assess-market-hail-fcc-broadband-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"MSS Leaders Assess Market; Hail FCC Broadband Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

[03-19-10] Leaders from the five largest MSS companies debated the form and function of the mobile industry and praised the U.S. Federal Communication Commission\u2019s (FCC) recent broadband plan during Wednesday\u2019s MSUA-7 panel, \u201cNew Solutions and New Opportunities: The MSS CEOs Speak Out.\u201d
\n   It has been a busy year of developments for each component sector of the MSS industry, as illustrated by the responses given when moderator and industry analyst Tim Farrar asked panel executives to summarize their\u2019 developments.
\n   Inmarsat<\/strong> CEO Andrew Sukawaty said his company sits comfortably in the position of a market leader. \u201cThis year, we launched a new satellite constellation and a new platform of mobile data services. We\u2019re putting our third satellite into position and our services in maritime can now transfer up to half a megabit in speed. We closed the deal with Stratos, which we believe is the best distributor in the MSS market, in April, so we can\u2019t complain,\u201d he said.
\n   Globalstar<\/strong> Chairman Jay Monroe, who shocked the MSS industry last year with a major Coface funding announcement, said his company had three major areas of development. \u201cAbout 120 days from now, we\u2019ll be sending new satellites to Baikonur. Secondly, Globalstar is evolving into a consumer products company. That differentiates us from others on this panel. Finally, we are rolling out with a WiMax platform in order to become a rural broadband vendor in the near future,\u201d said Monroe.
\n   Thuraya<\/strong> CTO Ali Saeed Al Mazrooei said his company focused on satisfying vertical markets in the Middle East and Asia. \u201cOur competitors keep us busy and keep the pressure on us to innovate. For Thuraya, the year has not only been about coverage, it has been about customization. The customer vertical market has a specific requirement and we\u2019ve spent the last year meeting these requirements,\u201d he said.
\n   Iridium<\/strong> CEO Matt Desch, sitting on his fourth MSS panel, highlighted the economic environment. \u201cThis last year was particularly interesting. It was a tough year for business and a test for the MSS industry. For Iridium, the main development this year was going public last year. The move gave us a strong balance sheet at the end of the year and further developed our plans for Iridium Next,\u201d he said.
\n  TerreStar<\/strong> Networks President and CEO Jeffrey Epstein said his company ended the year with its first satellite, TerreStar-1, in orbit and, most importantly, paid for. The satellite will power TerreStar\u2019s dual-mode handset, equipped with an AT&T SIM card. \u201cAfter a long testing period, we made our first dual-mode handset call in July from Las Vegas. It has been an excellent year,\u201d Epstein said.
\n  SATELLITE 2010\u2019s panel was two CEOs short of last year\u2019s panel. Orbcomm<\/strong> CEO Marc Eisenberg and ICO<\/strong> CEO Michael Corkery were absent, which sparked debate on the status and size of the MSS market.
\n   \u201cIs there enough room? To answer that, it is important to remember that satellite is a niche market. When you say \u2018big market\u2019 you mean \u2018mass market\u2019 and then you\u2019re talking about providing indoor coverage, roaming and penetration. That requires overcoming physics, satellite manufacturers lowering their costs and taking less time to build satellites in order to keep up with the technology,\u201d said Al Mazrooei.
\n   Monroe said there is plenty of room for competition. \u201cEverybody\u2019s business plan on this panel is different and [there is] room for everyone to make money. I think Globalstar is trying to do something fundamentally different from Iridium or Inmarsat. We went after our financing in a way that made sense in an environment where the credit markets ceased to function for almost two years. I think every one of these companies owes the ECAs a great deal of gratitude,\u201d he said.
\n   Sukawaty referenced Globalstar\u2019s funding \u2014 which competitors last year labeled a \u201cbailout\u201d but now praise as the only logical way to finance new satellites \u2014 as a litmus test for the industry. \u201cI\u2019m not attacking competitors here, but these issues are about proper business models and capitalizing on opportunity. I would like to thank Jay for breaking into that financing market, but we don\u2019t want to have a subprime crisis in the satellite industry. Look at ICO; they are not here this year. Anyone who is looking to finance satellites should look at the way Globalstar financed their spacecraft. You would be foolish not to,\u201d he said.
\n   The MSS leaders were then asked to comment on the FCC\u2019s new broadband plan, which involves allocation of the ATC spectrum and prioritizes wired and wireless broadband access. \u201cFor the MSS industry, the FCC plan is a great development. We should all welcome it as great public policy. Apple iPhones and other Smartphones are driving up demand for spectrum, and there is not enough spectrum out there. Mobile operators at one time \u2014 and I was one of them \u2014 opposed ATC. The equation is simple for the operator, the more spectrum you give an operator, the more that they can work with,\u201d said Sukawaty.
\n   Monroe agreed. \u201cWe think that anything the FCC does to improve broadband service to the public is a good thing. From our perspective, what the FCC does in the U.S., other international regulatory bodies will tend to follow and implement,\u201d he said.
\n   Desch, while maintaining that the broadband plan was well-written in the way it repurposes spectrum and value for taxpayers, said he would not shift his opinion on ATC so suddenly. \u201cI think the idea of ATC suddenly transforming back into a good thing again is a misnomer. We have to be careful. I think the plan, more than anything else, shows that ATC has failed as a business concept. It\u2019s been entrenched in handheld devices and it didn\u2019t work out because it is too messy. Nobody has been eating that dog food over the last eight years,\u201d he said.   
\n   Desch\u2019s dog food comment drew immediate criticism from Monroe and Epstein. \u201cWe like the dog food, and we\u2019re eating it daily. ATC is a good business for us,\u201d said Monroe.
\n   \u201cI agree with Jay, and we think the ATC component market is valuable and saves lives, especially useful for emergency and military users. ATC creates a lot of value for Americans,\u201d said Epstein.
\n   ATC licensing fees, which would emphasize bandwidth management in the FCC\u2019s broadband plan, were hailed by Sukawaty as a way to level the playing field for satellite. \u201cIt puts more pressure on satellite\u2019s competitors. License fees should be charged. That is what we\u2019re seeing in Europe. I think it is fair and reasonable. However, anything beyond that would be excessive and would kill business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[03-19-10] Leaders from the five largest MSS companies debated the form and function of the mobile industry and praised the U.S. Federal Communication Commission\u2019s (FCC) recent broadband plan during Wednesday\u2019s MSUA-7 panel, \u201cNew Solutions and New Opportunities: The MSS CEOs Speak Out.\u201d    It has been a busy year of developments for each component sector […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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-87265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87265"}],"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=87265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}