Satellites Struggling With Latency Issues for 5G, Satellite 2016 Conference Told

Latency issues are potentially a big stumbling block for satellite participation in 5G, speakers said at the Satellite 2016 conference Tuesday in National Harbor, Maryland. Some CEOs said it's a conversation to be avoided; others called it not that big a deal and easily worked around. "Latency is clearly an issue ... we are going to have to deal with," Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce said.

A push in Europe to define 5G with ultra-low latency standards would set requirements no satellite could meet, and needs to be stopped, Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer said. That effort is driven in part by the auto industry as it thinks about 5G's role in driverless cars, he said. The satellite industry needs to have a bigger role in defining 5G, and it needs to avoid talking about latency, focusing instead on 5G benefits to consumers and the way satellite fits in, he said.

"I don't think you can put your head in the sand and say 'I'm not going to talk about latency,'" said Telesat CEO Daniel Goldberg. Latency issues are key in some applications, but the industry has low-latency options such as low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellations or satellite/terrestrial hybrid networks, he said. Cars will be networked in a variety of ways, and satellite can play a role in things such as uploading or downloading data, Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said.

Goldberg said tackling latency issues was a big motivator for Telesat's current investigation into LEO. Spengler said geostationary constellations like Intelsat's are suitable for most applications, but the company's OneWeb investment (see 1506250023) was driven in part by the goal of interconnecting with the broader telecom infrastructure. The future likely will see more mixed constellations of LEO, geostationary and medium-Earth orbit satellites, giving options for delivery of services, said SES CEO Karim Sabbagh.

Pearce said one particular cloud on the industry horizon is the "price-depressive environment" as more data capacity comes online. Another is the related problem of satellite companies all diving into broadband, though average revenue per user surely won't follow the same growth rate, he said. Raising rates is difficult as more capacity comes on the market, Goldberg said. "A lot of these markets are oversupplied today," he said. "If you're going to add capacity, it better be differentiated." For satellite broadband to be successful it has to be directly competitive with fiber offerings, and terminals -- today too expensive and too big -- need to improve for mass market deployment, Belmer said: "We do not invest enough in the ground segment.”

Falling data rates also are opening the door for satellite to tie more into the broad telecom universe instead of being its own microcosm, Spengler said. The next step is working cooperatively with wireless providers on some offerings, he said. There also are numerous untapped markets, from connected cars and IoT to drones, that could be an industry focus, he said

The CEOs all pointed to such markets as video, IoT and mobility -- particularly in the form of broadband connectivity -- being big potential growth opportunities. Sabbagh said compression technology is letting the company "plant the seeds for Ultra HD." Some areas of business, like enterprise, need to rework their business model, he said.

Executives were upbeat -- with qualifications -- about prospects of a reusable launcher market, with several saying they would be interested once there's adequate evidence of their success. Reusable launchers could potentially cut launch expenses in half and could be in use by decade's end, Sabbagh said.

Asked about an Intelsat turnaround -- the company's stock hovering just north of $2 the past five days, down from close to $12 a year ago -- Spengler said, "It's about growth, obviously," with the company's Epic satellite constellation a linchpin. The first Epic satellite launched in January (see 1602220042) and is expected to be operational in April, he said. "The share price will come when the growth resumes.”