Starlink and OneWeb Driving Maritime Connectivity Growth, Says Valour

Satellite-based maritime connectivity revenue reached $2.1 billion in 2023, up from $1.8 billion the year prior, Valour Consultancy said Thursday. A big driver was increased spending on SpaceX's Starlink maritime low earth orbit service, as well as some vessels using Eutelsat's OneWeb LEO service, it said. More than 20,000 vessels used Starlink by the end of 2023, and the L-band maritime mobile satellite service market saw revenue of $470 million, down slightly from 2022, said Valour: As of 2023, there were roughly 116,000 active MSS terminals worldwide subscribing to the legacy maritime satellite services. Inmarsat and Iridium have notable subscriber bases there, though the geostationary orbit very-small aperture terminal marketplace has leveled off at around 42,000 vessels globally, it said: It's likely GEO service will become a backup to LEO, similar to MSS. Valour said that 2023's dip in GEO VSAT revenue is expected to continue into this year and that the number of vessels subscribing to LEO service will likely surpass GEO VSAT sometime in 2026.