Partnerships Between Carriers, Satellite Operators Expected to Grow

Partnerships between mobile carriers and satellite companies now cover 2 billion subscribers worldwide, including in developing markets, said Tim Hatt, head-research and consulting at GSMA Intelligence, Monday during a Mobile World Live webinar. The footprint is “wide and it's deep, and we’re only going to see more of these [agreements] coming online,” he said. About 6%-7% of the world’s population still lives in areas not served by terrestrial wireless, including in high-income countries, Hatt said. Satellite operators have served ships for more than 20 years, but the cost has always been high, he said. But they are “really coming down,” which makes service “a lot more accessible,” he said. Satellite IoT is seeing growth for logistics, as well as in cars, precision agriculture, mining, oil and gas production and in other areas where connections are hard to reach through terrestrial networks, he said. Carriers see potential growth in revenue and “that underscores a lot of the commercial deal making we’re seeing taking place,” he said. Hatt predicted that the most common deals will be based on satellite operators providing backhaul and front-haul connectivity and mobile carriers controlling “the customer relationship,” though other business models are emerging. The “hype” about non-terrestrial service in the wireless industry “is becoming more and more real,” said Anirban Chakraborty, Comtech chief technology officer. The drive to standardization of satellite service as part of 5G through the 3rd Generation Partnership Project is important because it provides a common technology platform, he said. “There are technical challenges, regulatory challenges,” he said. Ubiquity of service has long been one of the biggest concerns for everyone in the telecom industry, Chakraborty said.