More than three years ago, NSR first stated in its Broadband Satellite Markets studies that government efforts to require universal access to broadband services would be a boon to the European market for broadband satellite Internet access services. Such initiatives never come about as quickly as service providers would like, but it now appears that Europe is truly setting itself upon this path.
With the global financial downturn, satellite companies are always looking for new and emerging markets to sell their products and services. But with the increasingly global nature of the world’s economies, there are fewer markets left to explore.
The Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) satellite operator business is the most established of the satellite industry, with leaders like Intelsat and SES representing many billions of dollars of investment and revenue. In the past, these companies and their predecessors like Hughes Communications Galaxy and RCA American Communications exclusively relied on investor risk capital and internally ground funds. What has changed to make these companies behave more like debt-leveraged industries like wireless/cellular telephone and airlines?
Inmarsat’s new, Fleet Broadband services is facing never anticipated competition. Its huge investment in its i4 satellite system and its revenue stream are being challenged by the proliferation of Ku Band deep ocean coverage and new hybrid VSAT/L Band solutions as well as by Iridium’s new OpenPort service. For those merchant shipping users that demand high capacity broadband, typically large fleet owners, rising demand for fixed priced broadband is making Inmarsat’s “pay-by-the-byte” services unaffordable at high usage levels and price-challenged at low usage levels. OpenPortsm offers volume based 128 Kbs service will be available at a cost significantly lower than Inmarsat.