June 27, 2011

NSR's newly released Mobile Satellite Services, 7th Edition, finds the MSS market coming out of the recession faster than expected and will see increase competition, further consolidation, and a blurring between MSS and FSS products and services that will accelerate the transition to broadband mobility and converged connectivity satellite products.

“The global MSS market will grow to $10.2 billion in 2020, more than doubling from today’s volume”, according to the study’s author Claude Rousseau, Senior Analyst for NSR. “Bankruptcies of MSS-ATC operators offer a repeat scenario of the late 1990s causing many people to see the industry negatively, but,” Rousseau notes, “MSS operators have actually grown more than 8% last year while FSS VSAT operators have seen their share of the satellite mobility revenues top the 20% mark.”

As the response to the huge demand for higher bandwidth solutions is shifted to FSS Ku-band, more capacity on satellite constellations and high-throughput satellites (HTS), there is no turning back from this trend.   The continuing onslaught of huge on-orbit capacity supply is nonetheless overshadowed by the MSS-ATC operators who failed to deliver on promises made, and as Rousseau states, “it’s time for dual-mode MSS-ATC devices to exit the market.”

NSR’s Mobile Satellite Services, 7th Edition, forecasts MSS in-service units to grow from 2.1 million units in-service in 2010 to more than 4.9 million by the end of 2020 and also sees more horizontal and vertical consolidation continuing, but expects regional players to offer more nimble, flexible solutions to the market.  Mobile Satellite Services, 7th Edition further finds higher bandwidth data units and the advent of dual-mode capabilities such as personal locator beacons, push-to-talk and positioning in the land-mobile segment will push MSS operators into more vertical as well as consumer markets.

By the end of 2020, HTS capacity is projected to hold a 22% market share. “This is remarkable growth for the new kid on the block,” explains Rousseau.  “The arrival of satellites such as Inmarsat’s Global Xpress in the well-established maritime and the emerging aeronautical business will take-away some customers from FSS operators, and cannibalize a portion of the L-band broadband market.”