NSR Report Finds
Lower Satellite Capacity Prices Unlocking 3G/4G
Backhaul Opportunities
$2.1 Billion
Opportunity is Silver Lining for Satellite
Operators Concerned with Mounting Pricing
Pressure
15 March, 2016
NSR’s Wireless Backhaul via
Satellite 10th Edition report,
released today, forecasts the global installed
base of satellite backhaul sites will surpass
67,000 by 2025 and will generate US$2.1 billion
in revenues. Mobile Backhaul will generate the
majority of growth led by Asia and Sub-Saharan
Africa. The new vertical IP Content
Distribution, serving capacity offload and
content distribution to CDNs, will take some
time to develop but could potentially become a
strategic application for the industry.
“The overall satellite ecosystem is changing
rapidly. Despite growth in active sites
remaining at single-digit rates, the industry
can generate impressive IP growth via new price
points offered by HTS capacity,” stated Lluc
Palerm, NSR Analyst and report author. “Business
models need to adapt as MNOs and ISPs are less
focused on infrastructure management and
end-to-end solutions grow. The global telecom
environment is constantly evolving, and the
satellite industry is finding new applications
as CDN traffic grows and ground networks become
congested.”
As drivers change from USO projects to
economical return of higher-margin sites, the
largest opportunity lies in monetizing the
emerging demand for 3G and 4G sites through
bandwidth provisioning and services. The
uncovered addressable market is still
significant in regions like Asia, Sub-Saharan
Africa or Central & Eastern Europe. Regions such
as Latin America are more mature, but this is
fostering an earlier transition to Mobile
Broadband backhaul while other regions are still
rolling out 2G networks.
The migration to 4G and eventually to 5G creates
new opportunities for the satellite industry. 4G
includes protocols for broadcasting content and
some MNOs are looking into bundling Mobile TV
with their offers. With 5G, content will need to
move to the edge, creating massive opportunities
for content multicasting from satellite.
