HTS satellites & growing data communications demand will change the game
Paris, Washington D.C., Montreal, Yokohama, September 29, 2015 – According to Euroconsult’s newly published report, Maritime Telecom Solutions by Satellite, Global Market Analysis & Forecasts, the value of the global maritime satellite communications market will double over the next decade, with a CAGR of 6% in terminals and 8% in revenue over the 10-year period. Ever-increasing data communications needs and the massive launch of new generation High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems are expected to drive both the growth in the market and consolidation in the value chain.
Even though the economic environment is unfavorable due to oversupply in merchant capacity and falling oil prices, the maritime satcom market has maintained its high growth in the last 12 months. Driven by both fast-increasing communications requirements per vessel and aggressive marketing initiatives by service providers, the maritime VSAT market grew by 15% in terminals and 9% in revenues in the last year. The global maritime satcom market reached an unprecedented level of 368,000 terminals, $816 million in revenue at the satellite operator level and close to $1.6 billion in revenue at the service provider level. A total of 7 Gbps of C- and Ku-band capacity was used for maritime VSAT business, compared to less than 2 Gbps in 2010.
“Shipping companies are now investing in cloud computing, big data analytics, automation and video streaming applications. Crew applications, in particular social media, have never ceased the growth of their bandwidth hunger,” said Wei Li, Senior Consultant at Euroconsult and editor of the report. “On the supply side, we see the ongoing launch of new generation HTS and conventional satellites giving downward pressure on capacity pricing and causing stronger competition in the sector. All maritime VSAT service providers are aggressively acquiring market share before the launch of Inmarsat Global Xpress. Building global maritime beams requires substantial investment and all service providers need to have scale in their business to improve the profitability. In addition, the technical nature of HTS systems requires more investment of satellite operators in ground infrastructure and even end-user equipment. We definitely see the sector becoming more consolidated both vertically and horizontally in the coming decade.”
