The opening of CommunicAsia comes at what could be the beginning of a new era in the Asia-Pacific region. For many years, the satellite communications sector has viewed the region with a sense of frustration, as governments throughout the market placed national pride above economic sense, and the desire to operate their own satellites hurt the business climate for established regional players that were trying to grow their business in order to compete with global players.

Progress seems to have been made with some governments, such as Asia Broadcast Satellite’s (ABS) November acquisition of Mabuhay Satellite of the Philippines. While parent company Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) may have enjoyed owning and operating its own satellite, the financial realities of having to replace the nearly 13-year-old Agila-2 as well as continue to operate and maintain a satellite communications facility probably did not make much sense. Selling the satellite and associated facility to ABS benefits PLDT, ABS and the overall satellite communications sector in the region, as a smaller number of healthy players and more reasonable transponder prices for the operators will help those surviving regional players compete against the global operators in a market considered ripe for satellite communications growth.

But moves like this likely will remain few and far between, as Asian governments continue to both invest in their own space technology as well as try to protect their markets for their domestic satellite operators.

It is due to these twin problems that operators like ABS have been or are turning more attention to areas outside of the region for growth. ABS expects only 20 percent of its future revenues to come from within the Asia-Pacific region, and the majority to come from markets in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where competition is healthier according to CEO Tom Choi. “Unless the growth rate in Asia catches up with the supply in Asia, we are not going to see high fill rates or strong capacity prices. In other markets, supply is outstripping demand, resulting in higher prices.”

Another operator, Measat, also wants to become a global player. “While Asia will remain our core market, we are developing more into an emerging market operator. We want the company to be more of a global player than an Asian player,” says COO Paul Brown-Kenyon. Markets such as Africa are “easier” for new operators to gain a foothold than in some promising countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

While this may mean good news for users in Africa, who often complain that transponder prices are too high, it is customers and end users in the Asia-Pacific region who will suffer if governments around the region continue to place their own pride above smart business practices. Maybe some of the moves by the larger satellite operators in the region will convince governments to change and improve the situation once and for all.