Asia Satellite Business Week Highlight Key Trends in APAC Market

Singapore, June 30, 2023--The Asia Satellite Business Week (ASBW), part of the larger Asia Tech X Singapore (ATxSG, formerly known as CommunicAsia), took place from 7-8 June at the Singapore EXPO. Organized by Euroconsult, the conference brought together leaders from across the Asia-Pacific space and satcom industry, and featured two days packed full of panels, networking, and fireside chats with local space agencies and other stakeholders. 

An impressively varied list of topics was fit into two jam-packed days, but three stood out as particularly interesting or poignant: 

• Local players had a bigger presence this year, as the space sector is becoming more prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region. 
• Non-Geostationary Orboit (NGSO) constellations are becoming more widely accepted as necessary by GEO operators, while at the same time remaining uncertain as to market impact, and
• The space and launch segment is becoming more flexible, which is likely to enable further growth in the sector. 

Local Players Turned Out in Force

Previous editions of AtxSG and ASBW had included a strong local contingent, but 2023 was different. Most obviously, this was the first year since pre-Covid with mainstream Chinese attendance. Given the difference between Chinese commercial space today and Chinese commercial space in 2019 (today is vastly larger), it’s not surprising that we saw several new blue chip Chinese commercial space companies in attendance, including MinoSpace and PIESat. 

Given the re-opening of China in late 2022, it’s also not surprising that we saw the return of several usual suspects of Chinese space including China Satcom and China SpaceSat (aka Beijing Dongfanghong). Beyond Chinese attendance, we also saw the inaugural participation of the Satcom Association of India as a panelist, and the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) of Thailand in a fireside chat. Local participants were keen on leveraging space for both industrial development and practical benefits. We learned from GISTDA ways that they are using space to benefit average Thai people, notably through the creation of the Dust Check () app.

Finally, several satcom panels featured local participants who brought new perspectives to the discussion. Notably, we heard pessimistic forecasts about site deployments for BAKTI in Indonesia (as few as 50,000 compared to the 150,000 conceptualized by KOMINFO), but this partly for lack of supply (the ~3 Mbps allocation per site initially planned was vastly insufficient). In particular, West Papua Province is apparently behind on expected deployments, with the other major factor being logistics (it’s expensive and time-consuming to deploy VSATs to the field).

NGSO Constellations were the Biggest Talking Point, and it wasn’t just Starlink

One of the biggest talking points throughout the satcom part of the conference was the impact of Starlink, and other NGSO constellations. In the case of Starlink, the constellation appears to be winning some market share in maritime, with multiple maritime satcom service providers reiterating previous positive sentiment about performance and customer demand (Speedcast), and with more recent adopters providing more measured, but still undeniably positive feedback on their Starlink usage (Tototheo Maritime Group of Cyprus). 

Other NGSO constellations made their presence known at the conference. KTSAT showcased a multi-orbit strategy, the centerpiece of which is the company’s investment into Mangata Networks (part of the company’s January 2022 funding round). During the conference in Singapore, Korea-based satellite operator KTSAT announced a contract to purchase Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) capacity from Mangata, allowing KTSAT to “meet the diverse needs of customers with multi-orbit networks, including their own GEO capacity.”

OneWeb’s presence in the region remains limited due to only having recently completed coverage, but markets seem primed to take on more capacity, even at prices that are not seen as rock-bottom. The long-awaited entry of OneWeb into India is expected to meet a well-primed market via local partner Hughes India, and other markets including Indonesia also seeming ready to take on capacity.

Overall, the clear conclusion during the week is that most satellite operators are starting to look at NGSO in some context, and quite a few of them are starting to make fairly substantial moves into multi-orbit solutions: even the regional ones. In the future, the biggest question, as has been the case for some time, is elasticity of demand. As hundreds of Gbps or Tbps become the standard for space-based communications networks, how much more demand will exist at pricing that will by definition be orders of magnitude lower than today.

Vastly More Flexible Space and Launch Segment

One of the key enablers of a more varied space industry will be an increase in flexibility on the space segment, occurring in several ways. First, satellite manufacturers are building modular, software-defined satellites, and leveraging technologies and capabilities integrated from experience in building NGSO constellations. During the conference, we heard from Boeing about leveraging capabilities developed from building batches of O3b mPOWER satellites and incorporating them on their Geostationary Orbit (GEO) platforms. This is consistent with lessons learned by other manufacturers, including Airbus (leveraging capabilities developed from building OneWeb satellites).

This flexibility is partly being enabled by a new generation of in-orbit servicing. Around the time of the conference, Northrop Grumman subsidiary SpaceLogistics announced multiple in-orbit servicing contracts with Intelsat, and the company noted that demand for life extension of existing GEO satellites in Asia-Pacific was strong in an uncertain GEO satcom environment. At the same time, companies such as Astroscale are enabling satellite operators to be responsible actors in space, giving them more flexibility in launching experimental payloads that might result in space debris (which could be cleaned up by Astroscale). 

Moving forward, as the space sector becomes more mainstream, it seems inevitable that flexibility would only increase. 

Conclusion

ASBW was a great showcase of all things satcom and space in the Asia-Pacific region. Highlighting a regional dynamism that is starting to fire on all cylinders, the conference was the clearest indication yet of the growing interest in space in APAC. On the satcom side, the most apparent trend was the impact of NGSOs, and the broadening acceptance by satcom operators on the importance thereof. 

In the conference more broadly, we saw emerging space nations playing a bigger role, with several first-time speakers from the region in attendance. This is being enabled by, and also creating support for, increased flexibility of space-based services, including life extension and debris mitigation. Looking on to next year, we may have some clarity on the impact of NGSOs on satcom demand at lower price points, and we are sure to see a few new faces. Either way, looking forward to seeing you then in Singapore!

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Blaine Curcio is Founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting (OGC),  He’s an expert on the commercial space and satellite industries with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. He is also an Affiliate Senior Consultant for Euroconsult. Since joining Euroconsult in 2018, he has contributed to a wide range of consulting missions and research reports, primarily covering the satcom sector globally, and broader space industry in China. He can be reached at:  blaine@orbitalgatewayconsulting.com