The mobile satellite services (MSS) market in Europe was given a significant shot in the arm in August when the European Commission (EC) announced there would be a new pan-European licensing procedure for these services to make things easier for satellite operators. Operators who are successful in gaining a license will be able to offer services such as high-speed data, mobile TV, disaster relief communications and remote medical communications across Europe via a single license.
     “This new one-stop-shop procedure will not only cut red tape and save a lot of time, but it will also enable an operator from the United Kingdom or France to compete on the same basis with a satellite operator from Sweden or Luxembourg, because the selection criteria used are the same now — no matter in which EU country operators would like to offer their services,” Viviane Reding, European commissioner for information society and media, said. "Establishing a common selection procedure for 27 sovereign nations is an innovation for the satellite world and acknowledges the fact that by their very nature satellite communication systems do not know any borders and should in fact cover the largest possible part of our EU territory.”
     The EC expects the selection procedure to be completed in the first part of 2009, and Reding is bullish about the role next-generation MSS can play on the media landscape. “Mobile satellite services will change the future landscape of media and communications as the potential of such systems is huge. They will allow us to experience services we did not know before: using a high-speed Internet connection to watch TV or listen to the radio via your mobile phone or even to guarantee communication services in case the telecommunications infrastructure has broken down as a result of a natural disaster,” she said. “Satellite communications are an integral and essential part of the new global information highway, and they will substantially improve high-speed communication throughout the entire EU.”
     The EC’s move prove a significant boost to players such as Inmarsat, ICO Global Communications, SES Astra and Eutelsat Communications, which all hope to win pan-European licenses. The operators are looking at this as a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor on a number of potentially exciting new markets. One of the companies looking to take advantage of this is Solaris Mobile, the joint venture between SES Astra and Eutelsat. The two operators plan to commercialize satellite infrastructure in Europe for broadcasting video, radio and data to mobile devices and vehicle receivers as well as a range of interactive mobile services. Eutelsat’s W2A satellite, which has an S-band payload, has been under construction since October 2006 and is scheduled for launch this year.
     Solaris Mobile is looking at two markets: mobile TV to handheld devices and secondly delivery of communications infrastructure for cars, said Steve Main, CEO of Solaris Mobile. Secondary markets include providing services for the public sector as well as offering services to cellular operators who want to make more of an impact in the mobile TV market. “These operators spent a lot of money on 3G licences and built the 3G networks but have proceeded to use them primarily for voice. So these guys should be leaders in these new applications, but the evidence over the last 10 years is that they have probably not been leaders,” he said. “However, if they see the market opportunity opening up, and opened up by other people, they will pile in. It is inevitable. They control the mobile communications market at the moment. They will not want to see this position diluted.”
     ICO, which has one of the most pioneering mobile video strategies in the United States, also believes it can play a role in Europe. ICO CEO Tim Bryan is confident the operator will win a Europe-wide license. “Having been through a process like this before and having spent the money to commence the deployment of a system, getting ourselves into operation, getting our frequency coordinated around the world, I feel that ICO has by far a running head start in the process. I feel very comfortable about our application.”
     Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat’s group general counsel and senior vice president, said this new environment offers an “exciting opportunity” for the operator. “For us, it is not just about mobile TV or one-way services. We see this as something where we can develop two-way services as well as one-way services,” he said. “Our satellite will be able to deploy value-added next generation services and also align that with one-way services like mobile TV and digital radio. Depending on which model is best served, we will be able to flex the capabilities of the satellite in whichever model takes off. Whether that is next-generation [Broadband Global Area Network], which is evolutionary, or the rapid take-up of mobile TV, which is more revolutionary, or something in the middle where we have a hybrid multimedia terminal. Whichever it is, we will be able to serve the market.”