Intelsat Deal Would Make SES More Competitive in Mobility Space: Valour

Between Intelsat's end-user direct relationships and its OneWeb low earth orbit (LEO) partnership and SES' geostationary and medium earth orbit (MEO) assets, SES' proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2404300048) gives it more mobility competition options, Valour Consultancy Senior Analyst David Whelan emailed us Wednesday. The high level of synergy between SES and Intelsat makes the deal unsurprising, Whelan said. "It creates a new entity with multi-orbit capabilities and a vendor that becomes a one-stop-shop for Ku- or Ka-band solutions," he said. The deal gives SES direct access to aviation customers -- something it had little of outside of government, he said. SES will likely not want to disrupt the status quo in terms of Intelsat’s current customer base and will look to augment Ku-band service with its own satellites, he said. Between SES' Skala service, its O3b MEO constellation and Intelsat's Flex, New SES will be supplying connectivity to more than 12,000 maritime vessels globally, "so already a strong player," he said. The deal might not help it much in landing new customers, as LEO-only is increasingly the preferred option, he said.