New WTA Report Explores How the Teleport Business Model is Adapting to Work with NGSOs and Gain Competitive Advantage

New York, NY, June 11, 2024 – The World Teleport Association (WTA) today released The Year of the NGSOs, a new research report that explores how the teleport business model will continue to adapt to a market of verticalized, multi-orbit connectivity and the technology innovations that can extend their competitive advantage in a changing ecosystem.

“Everyone working in the satcom business feels the ground shifting beneath their feet,” said executive director Robert Bell. “The good news for teleport operators is that their vital importance in the connectivity chain is gaining new recognition. The challenge for them is to make informed decisions about how to adapt to new options in LEO and MEO, always with an eye to maintaining and extending competitive advantage.”

WTA members can access the report by signing into their accounts on the WTA website. The report is free for WTA Members and available for purchase by others. Members may directly download the report by following this link and logging in with their user name and password.

An interviewee noted: “Any other LEO constellation competitor almost has to include SpaceX in their launch plans, even though they are a direct competitor to Starlink. Think about the leverage that gives Musk in the market against his competitors, even the GEO operators, since he owns low-cost access to space now and the foreseeable future.”

“Our customers, whether they’re satellite operators or service providers, are absolutely expecting more of us as a ground segment technology provider,” said a technology executive. “They are expecting multi-orbit support and looking for one supplier regardless of orbit, and regardless of space or terrestrial connectivity.”

More on The Year of the NGSOs
By the end of 2023, Starlink estimated that it had more than 2 million subscribers around the world. In 2024 and into 2025, its deployments and customer acquisition will go on at a record pace, including growing penetration of business markets and spacecraft providing basic space-to-ground service to conventional mobile phones. The OneWeb service roll-out will accelerate. SES mPower will start service, move O3B customers to the new network and gain new customers. And Amazon Kuiper will launch satellites and service.

In this report, WTA asks teleport, satellite and technology executives the critical questions. How will the GEO operators – the mainstay of teleport connectivity – respond? How will it affect their teleport partners? How will the teleport business model continue to adapt to a market of verticalized connectivity? What technology innovations may preserve and extend their competitive advantage?

The World Teleport Association (www.worldteleport.org) has been helping its members aim higher since our founding in 1985. Today, WTA is the leading partner in growth for teleport operators, advocating for their commercial interests and promoting excellence in their business practices, technology and operations. The association publishes best-practice reports and presents webinars on technology changes and their business and market impacts. It also presents events and awards and provides global certification and assessment programs to validate excellence and drive improvement. Aiming higher creates opportunity. Aiming higher brings risk. WTA is dedicated to helping its members seize the opportunities and manage the risks to find the paths to growth in a massively changing market.