HTS Making Waves but FSS Remains Core to
Maritime Satcom
May 6, 2015
NSR’s Maritime Satcom Markets, 3rd Edition,
released today, finds a steady up-tick of activity across the maritime
satcom markets – from new-build vessels coming online over the next ten
years, to focusing on improving remote operations on existing vessels.
Already close to a $2 Billion opportunity across the merchant,
passenger, offshore and fishing markets, the maritime SATCOM market will
grow to almost $5.2 Billion in retail revenues by 2024.
“Improving markets for merchant maritime due to lower fuel prices are an
encouraging sign for renewed investments over the near future,” states
Brad Grady, Senior Analyst with NSR. “As the core of the maritime
market, commercial maritime vessels – from tankers to container vessels
– are continuing to look at new and innovative ways to improve their
remote operations. Everything from advanced route-planning,
real-time weather data, and improving crew welfare all depend on a
steady uptick of bandwidth demand. Adding in the opportunity for
narrowband connectivity, which has evolved from traditional
Inmarsat-type voice applications into complex networks of M2M devices
bringing “big data”, and other value-added services directly to
end-users, the maritime markets will remain a key mobility vertical
across all aspects of the satellite communications value-chain.”
“Over the next ten years, an additional 80,000 In-service units across
all segments of the maritime markets will be broadband,” Grady adds,
“and broadband connectivity will provide more than 75% of new retail
revenues over the next ten years. VSAT-based maritime In-service
Units will consume nearly 150 TPEs of FSS C- and FSS Ku-bands, and over
21 Gbps of HTS capacity across GEO, LEO, and MEO orbits in C-, Ku-, and
Ka-bands.”
As maritime end-users continue to look for ways to improve their
operations, all options are on the table: value-added vs. end-user
provided applications, FSS vs. HTS vs. MSS connectivity, and even
satellite vs. terrestrial. HTS, regardless of GEO, LEO, or MEO
orbits, will not be the answer to every question for every market, and
as-such service providers will need to help walk end-users through the
right combination of services, at the right price, for the right
application.
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