Webinar Recording: Latest Satellite Connectivity Trends and Key Sectors

Key takeaways from the webinar

1. Unprecedented Interest and Investment in Space. The space industry is experiencing its busiest and most dynamic period in decades, with widespread investment in the sector. Investors are drawn to new and upcoming applications such as space transportation, in-space serving and satellite constellations, which are disrupting the traditional telco market.
2. Continued Growth in Launch and Access to Space. Continuous scaling up of commercial launch services is making space more accessible, as cost per kg of getting payload into orbit is decreasing, more launch capacity becomes available to meet demand. Space-based solutions and innovations are becoming more viable.
3. Direct-to-Device (D2D) Hype vs Reality. Despite all the hype around D2D, it is unlikely to provide ubiquitous connectivity for all very-hard-to-reach areas globally due to affordability of handsets to those in developing countries. Different D2D spectrum adoption models are also likely to have limitations in bandwidth capability due to altitude and spectrum channel sizes available. D2D will offer medium-term growth opportunities to satellite and mobile operators over the next 5 years, with satellite-based text and voice communication becoming available. But this is only in some countries whose regulators authorise D2D services using mobile operators’ spectrum bands. Global regulatory approval of D2D using mobile operators’ spectrum allocation will take longer, as will the development of data services.
4. Satellite Applications and IoT. Satellite technology is increasingly being used for IoT applications such as environmental management, agriculture and fisheries, as it does not require large amounts of data transfer and enables new monitoring capabilities from space.
5. Data Centres in Space. There’s growing interest in performing more data processing in space rather than on Earth due to environmental and land-limiting factors.
6. Space security, both physical and cybersecurity, is a difficult subject. It is a major concern, especially regarding sovereign data control and rising insurance costs due to increasing hostile activity.
7. Regulatory Challenges. It’s not an easy time to be a regulator, as they will be very busy in the coming years. Regulatory bodies will face increased complexity due to rapid and complex advancements in space, in particular regarding the integration of non-terrestrial networks (NTN) with terrestrial networks, and a growing concern around space debris.
8. Adoption will depend on cost-effectiveness to implement and long-term affordability, as businesses and organisations will prioritise functionality and performance over whether a service is satellite or terrestrial-based.

Watch the webinar recording below

The Panel

• Moderator - (this will open in a new window)Andrew Muir, CEO, FarrPoint
• (this will open in a new window)Andy Grey - CEO, Exotopic
• (this will open in a new window)Jason Presement  - Market Advisor and Strategist, Canada
• (this will open in a new window)Emma Philpott - Head of Space, FarrPoint
• (this will open in a new window)Henny Sands - Head of Telecommunications - UK Space Agency

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