[Satellite News 09-08-10] Global FSS operators continue to look for growth opportunities outside their traditional market strongholds, with Inmarsat’s investment in Ka-band satellites and the potential for growth in Ka-band creating a divide among the FSS players.
    Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat, said Inmarsat’s investment in three Ka-band satellites is a reaction to moves by the FSS sector into mobile services. “I think Inmarsat’s Ka-band is confirmation of FSS market players taking market share in traditional Inmarsat markets. We see that as a more of a defensive move,” he said Sept. 7 during the “Global FSS Operators: Strategic Issues and Investment Strategies” panel at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week in Paris.
    Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade said, “I am positive about Ka-band, but it not magical. It is not a religious war. It is not perfect for all applications, but I applaud Inmarsat for what they are doing. If I was in (Inmarsat CEO) Andy (Sukawaty)’s position, I might do the same.”
    Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat, which is developing its own Ka-band satellite, is more positive about the market, describing it as “the new Oklahoma” for satellite players looking to stake a claim in a growing Ka-band market.
    In terms of approaches to growth, McGlade said Intelsat’s strategy now is based on having a more flexible network approach and offering customers the best of satellite and telecoms technologies in one solution. “One of the ways we have innovated Intelsat is to have hybrid network solutions. We combine satellite with the fiber capacity that they need,” he says. “For us, the future is in an integrated network — C/Ku/Ka/UHF. We are spectrum agnostic.”
    Romain Bausch, CEO of SES, reiterated the company’s stance at looking at emerging markets as an engine of growth for the company. We are looking at more of the emerging markets. These new 12 satellites (we are adding) are creating 30 percent additional capacity. We are looking at other opportunities for growth in Latin America. There is Brazil and Mexico, but you can’t ignore the other countries here,” he said. “We see good opportunities to develop the media applications business in Africa and the Middle East. There is also a need for backhaul. We don’t see the arrival of undersea cable as a threat.  For SES, the most exciting markets in Asia are in media. In India, we are participating in the growth of DTH.”
    Eutelsat also is looking at a number of different opportunities to develop business. “In the regions where we operate, the momentum is very good. The Middle East and Africa are part of our ‘second continent.’ We see demand growing in the data business as well as the broadcast business. Even with war or peace, the Pentagon wants to know what is going on (around the world), so there will be still strong demands for capacity from the U.S. military. We also believe there is strong potential in Asia. We are looking Asia with care and energy.”
    McGlade also sees potential of Asia, “but China and India are difficult markets to penetrate. We feel good we could grow in Asia, but the regulatory issues stop us from growing more,” he said.
    Telesat will continue to see most of its growth come from the North America market, Goldberg said. “The lion share of our growth has been come from the North American DTH market. When I look forward, it is more or less the same, so the growth coming from the North American DTH market. I think DTH will continue to grow significantly here. We have 85 percent of our revenues coming from North America. We are seeing DTH platforms adding a huge number of HD channels. They will need more capacity. We might need to start to move to new frequencies.  Over the next 12 months, we will also be building up our C-band capacity to serve the broadband markets, particularly in remote parts of Canada,” he says.
     Bausch was not as wholly positive about their potential for growth in North America. “North America is the most mature market in the whole world, so the opportunities for growth are more limited,” he said.