Insight | Blurring the boundaries
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One of the major industry trends of the past few years has been the gradual blurring of the lines between mobile satellite services (MSS) and fixed satellite services (FSS).
Traditionally, the two had clear divides based on geographies, audiences and frequency requirements. Satellite providers shaped their products and services based on their customer segmentation across these two distinct camps.
However, in recent years there has been a slow erosion of these hard edges with a number of factors driving disruptive change. Not least, customer demand has necessitated a narrowing of the gap and in some areas precipitated an increasing overlap.
Businesses, governments and transport operators – all major users of satellite broadband communications – discovered that the exponential growth in demand for internet connectivity available anywhere, anytime required a new, less restrictive approach. They no longer wanted an either or solution. Users want to be able to take their connectivity with them no matter where they go.
Mobility is non-negotiable and devices must be portable and compatible with data-intensive applications to allow users to do more wherever they are.
This critical momentum coupled with the continued evolution of technology and hardware has meant today it is increasingly possible to be more flexible achieving the best of both worlds. Certainly the evolution of very small aperture terminals (VSATS) has significantly lowered some of the existing barriers facilitating both FSS and MSS uplinks/downlinks to mobile earth stations.
So where customer demand has led, the industry needs to follow and no doubt this will be a key discussion topic at the National Space Symposium in Colorado which is organised by the Space Foundation.
From Inmarsat’s perspective, we have characterised this fundamental industry shift as the ‘Internet of Everywhere’, and have planned our strategy for a number of years to accommodate this paradigm change.
This is best manifested in our investment into Global Xpress which – when complete and fully operational later this year – will for the first time see one company provide high-throughput Ka wideband, available anywhere across the planet. But why is this important?
In our opinion, providing a binary choice to meet a customer need is no longer viable such is the rapidly changing technology environment and the volatile nature of demands that they themselves face. Where once there was fixed there is now flexible; services need to reflect this change and react accordingly and at Inmarsat they are.
Even the most complex event-driven government operations, for example, require trusted mobile connectivity to be available on a moment’s notice anywhere in the world. The ability to scale up and down on land, sea or air is non-negotiable and systems are required to be agile and responsive.
The instantly mobile environment is our niche and we design and build highly flexible, seamless commercial satellite networks for worldwide mobility, thereby, augmenting government resources today while bridging to tomorrow.
Perhaps even more significant is the ability for our systems and networks to be fully interoperable with government satellite systems.
Satellite providers need to continue to build systems against uncertain, flexible environments, while prioritising performance and reliability.
Our Global Xpress constellation is an embodiment of the new paradigm and we are very proud that, along with our partners, Inmarsat is at the vanguard of innovation, pioneering a new model for our industry. I look forward to discussing these issues in Colorado Springs and you can view a webcast of my panel here shortly.
Rupert Pearce was Inmarsat’s Chief Executive Officer from January 2012 until February 2021. Rupert joined Inmarsat in January 2005 as Group General Counsel and, from January 2009, additionally held the position of Senior Vice President, Inmarsat Enterprises. Previously, Rupert worked for Atlas Venture, where he was a partner working with the firm’s European and US investment teams. He was previously also a partner at the international law firm Linklaters, where he spent 13 years specialising in corporate finance, M&A and private equity transactions. Rupert received an MA (First Class) in Modern History from Oxford University and won the 1995 Fullbright Fellowship in US securities law, studying at the Georgetown Law Center. He has been a visiting fellow of the Imperial College Business School, London, lecturing on the school’s Entrepreneurship programme, and is the co-author of Raising Venture Capital (Wiley).
