Free In-Flight Connectivity to Help Drive Satcom: SES CEO

U.S. airlines will likely start offering free in-flight connectivity in the next three to five years, which will help drive the satellite aeronautical connectivity market, said SES CEO Steve Collar Wednesday in a company webinar. Data capacity on SES-17, to launch at week's end, is aimed especially at the North American aviation market, he said. He said SES-17 and O3b's forthcoming mPower low earth orbit constellation will be connected, with customers moving from one to the other seamlessly, and that hybridization is SES' first step toward a global interoperable network. Northern Sky Research analyst Brad Grady said 50% of global satellite data capacity demand will likely be from the Americas by 2030, with demand for mobility capacity expected to grow 17-fold, government capacity demand growing 19-fold, and enterprise capacity demand growing 12-fold. Grady said there were 3 Tbps of geostationary satellite capacity and 0.3 Tbps of non-geotatioanry capacity available worldwide in 2020, and that should grow to 32 Tbps of GEO capacity and 140 Tbps of NGSO capacity by 2030.