MSS Prepares For Next-Gen Services, WRC-15
The mobile satellite services market is aiming to remain relevant and robust by continuing to innovate and use emerging technologies to meet customer needs. Making products that are more cost-effective and widely used and figuring out the path toward next-generation services and networks are challenges that must continue to be met, MSS executives said Wednesday at the Satellite 2014 conference in Washington.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Globalstar started its Sat-Fi product in January. The objective is to make Sat-Fi a $100 product, said Jay Monroe, Globalstar CEO. “If you can get a product to somebody that can be used with their existing device … there’s a massive market for that,” he said. Everybody’s strategy is a little bit different, he said. Consumer satellite products have to be inexpensive, he said.
Iridium is working toward launching its new constellation, Next, and this quarter it will launch Iridium Go, a portable unit that provides a global connection for voice and data communications on up to five smartphones, said CEO Matt Desch. “We've built a solid position right now in the maritime market.” Iridium also is “the valued player in the aviation market,” he said. Iridium expects to expand its business with Next, Desch said. “We have a strategy to implement Next services early … and provide capability before the network is completed."
Aside from gearing up to launch its Ka-band network, Global Xpress, Inmarsat is looking to expand services beyond its data services business, said Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat CEO. “We're focusing on how we take BGAN [broadband global area network] to the next level,” he said. The company is “incrementally broadening” into the consumer market, he said. Global Xpress is on track, he said. “We confirmed growth metrics for the next two to three years.”
Thuraya is taking its time to develop its business for the future, said CEO Samer Halawi. “We don’t want something that doesn’t make sense,” or something that has simply been retooled, he said. Thuraya expects to have more clarity on a next-generation concept next year, he said. The company’s satellite sleeves, which allow an iPhone to operate as a satellite phone, are outselling the company’s other products, he said.
Standards are necessary, some of the executives said. Without standards, “it’s difficult to get to price points that will give you the millions” in terms of revenue, Halawi said. Desch agreed there’s a need for standardization. But “the standard in our case is what the terrestrial world is doing,” he said. “We're focused on working with terrestrial partners … to integrate our products more effectively.”
Markets will likely evolve in the L-band, said Pearce. The BGAN terminal is shrinking and getting a lot cheaper, he said. Inmarsat will most likely want to push the envelope on higher speeds to smaller devices, he said. Satellite also plays a crucial role in the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine services, he said. Cyber resilience “is becoming hugely important,” and having a satellite capability will be critical for that, he said.
The MSS executives urged the satellite industry to prepare for the upcoming discussion on satellite spectrum at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) next year (CD March 12 p12). “This is satellite spectrum and we need to keep it satellite spectrum,” said Halawi, referring to the debate around whether satellite can spare some of its spectrum for the wireless industry. “We have to remember that we serve mission-critical purposes, and we need to stick to that,” he said. There’s a hyperpolitical environment around WRC-15, said Pearce. The satellite industry must show “how relevant we are,” and “burst the balloon on the premise that there is a crisis,” he said, referring to claims of the amount of spectrum required for terrestrial mobile broadband services. Technology, like small cell and LTE, is already solving the so-called crisis, he said. There is a threat coming from the international mobile telecommunications, he added: “It’s not a question of ‘whether,’ but ‘when’ and ‘whom’ spectrum is going to be taken away from."
Globalstar’s Monroe said the interest of the terrestrial wireless industry in satellite spectrum raises concern for Globalstar MSS spectrum and its plans to launch a low-power terrestrial service if granted FCC approval. The satellite industry must make certain that terrestrial wireless entities “don’t impinge upon the spectrum we need to operate our satellite network,” he said. Monroe also said he hopes the FCC will issue an order on Globalstar’s NPRM by the fall: “It will give us an opportunity to monetize another asset inside Globalstar in some creative way.”