It’s always fun to look in my inbox and see what is supposed to be hot in the satellite world. At one point, for example, 3-D video was going to be the next big thing in satellite video distribution, calling for vast amounts of profitable new bandwidth. Of course, as is often the case, 3-D video did not live up to its billing. Recently it has seemed like the new “next big thing” was satellite maritime communications; and this looks a lot more real to me. Of course, satellite-based maritime communications isn’t new. Inmarsat was founded in 1979 (as the International Maritime Satellite Organization) by the United Nations and has been providing communications links to maritime traffic (amongst other users) ever since.

If the maritime use of satellites is not new, though, the nature of the product and the end user is. Unlike the original Inmarsat-A service, which provided a thin pipe consisting of analog FM voice and telex with an option for “high speed data” (providing a now laughable 56 or 64 Kbps), current offerings are intended to provide the same sorts of wireless and Internet services that a reasonably savvy Internet user would expect in any major city.

There are a number of different target audiences for this capacity. Of course, ships need navigation and communications services to perform their functions regardless of any other factors, but it is really consumer-level communications that drive the demand for better connectivity. As long ago as the middle of the previous decade, I had discussions with Telenor about the then new demand for communications and Internet access for ships crews. Even then, I was hearing that in order to maintain crew morale (and keep them from quitting), shipping companies wanted a full gamut of communications and Internet services delivered to their ships wherever they might be.

These days it is not just crews, but passengers as well, who cannot leave the Internet and their mobile devices behind. In effect, cruise ships, in particular, have become one huge communications hotspot. In the middle of the ocean, out of sight of land, passengers expect all their gadgets to work just as if they were at home. This places severe demands on a ship’s communications infrastructure. Although companies such as Intelsat have solved problems in providing service to moving ships with all that is involved – including handoffs between different GEO satellites – the sheer volume of communications traffic has demanded more than just a satellite uplink.

As an example, one of the messages in my inbox was from MTN Satellite Communications announcing their MTN Nexus solution that involves not just satellite capacity but “computing, caching and security infrastructure” as well. I’m sure that there are other companies offering solutions to the same issues, but the point is that the bar has been raised and the shipboard consumer now requires more than can be provided by a simple uplink.

Another example is O3b Networks, whose original plan was to provide fiber-like service to populations isolated from major fiber optic cable landings (most of Africa, for example). In recent months they have announced O3bMaritime, a service for cruise ships and O3bEnergy for oil rigs and other energy related maritime users. Oil rigs and cruise ships now call for the sorts of communications resources that go with access to a major fiber optic cable. To my way of thinking, this is the true future of consumer use of satellites. It is not satellite phones or even competition with terrestrial DSL that we are talking about; it is satellites directly supporting the vast array of communications services that we are accustomed to using on dry land through massively complicated hybrid communications networks that are not available at sea (or isolated areas).

The fact that a passenger’s wireless device does not talk directly to the satellite, but to a wireless antenna next to a satellite dish does not reduce the consumer focus of the network. While there will be increasing numbers of direct users of satellite video, broadband, navigation, and audio, aggregated users, such as the passengers and crew of a cruise ship, will be a growing part of the satellite industry as satellites are used to provide a rich communications environment in places that seemed out of reach only a few years ago. The new goal is to perfectly replicate the experience of a user in a currently well-served environment anywhere else on the globe. A goal that should generate quite a bit more revenue than 3-D video.
 

Max Engel is an experienced satellite industry and telecom industry analyst and founder of The North Star Consultancy. He can be reached at [email protected].