Hybrid Networks with Terrestrial Seem to Be Satellite’s Future, Say CEOs

Increased integration of satellite and terrestrial services appears to be the next step for satellite companies, satellite industry CEOs said Tuesday on a Satellite 2011 conference panel in Washington, D.C.

The industry needs to “embrace technologies other than satellite,” said Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade. Some things are done better over fiber, and the industry should recognize the need to find partners from the broader telecom world, he said. McGlade said his company has started doing that with its IntelsatONE network, which uses satellite and terrestrial technologies. Satellite’s ubiquity still makes its technology critical infrastructure, as seen from images of the Japanese earthquake, he said. McGlade also pushed for increased innovation by satellite companies, saying a new big idea is needed to drive growth in the industry.

SES CEO Romain Bausch said satellite success will depend on satellite’s being “complementary to ground infrastructure.” The most successful satellite company probably won’t be the one that outperforms the others, but the one that can develop the right solutions and sell them to telcos, Bausch said. He pointed to the development of ultra-HD as a likely source of revenue beginning within 10 years. Ultra-HD’s significant bandwidth needs, with a single channel taking up a full transponder, will be a boon to satellite service, he said.

Eutelsat would like to see manufacturers reduce the time they take to build satellites, said CEO Michel de Rosen. The company’s customers often complain about that, he said. They should set a target of less than two years, he said. De Rosen said he has seen other industries reinvent themselves and believes suppliers could work faster without reducing quality standards.

A trend continues toward the use of larger satellites, said Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg. He said he expects to see more broadband satellites operating on Ka-band and “could see” Telesat using its Ka-band rights. The move toward 17 GHz band broadcast satellites also lends itself to “larger platforms,” Goldberg said. Telesat has had trouble getting a decent price on launching smaller satellites on a “cost per transponder basis,” he said. Goldberg declined to discuss efforts to find a buyer for Telesat.

The FCC’s net neutrality action is largely a “non-event” for satellite broadband providers, ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg said on a panel late Monday. “It’s hard as a service provider not to provide what the customer wants,” he said. The fight over net neutrality spills over onto fixed satellite service operators like SES World Skies because it affects the video business model, said SES World Skies CEO Rob Bednarek. His company, which transmits some programming for cable head-ends, will have to deal with an increased number of “routes to the home,” including broadband, he said.