Satellite broadband Internet access users to cross 5.2 million in 10 years

Telecom Lead Asia: Satellite broadband Internet access subscribers will cross 5.2 million globally in 10 years.

Enterprise VSAT installed base will reach nearly 2.9 million sites.

In addition, backhaul services and IP trunking will make important strides as services shift to provisioning with HTS and O3b capacity.

The launch of new high throughput satellites in North America finally began to impact the growth curve for satellite broadband Internet access services in 2012.

Patrick M French, NSR Senior Analyst and the report author, said: “NSR expects that these services will prove their mettle in the coming 12 to 18 months in North America, and this should give the needed nudge to other regions like Western Europe and Latin America.”

Developing markets like Latin America and parts of Asia will have larger installed VSAT bases than mature markets like North America within a few years.

The impact of government social inclusion projects within the broadband VSAT market cannot be understated. Classic narrowband verticals like lottery and ATM networks have recently been highlights of the sector and are expected to show significant gains in the coming years.

Traditional C- and Ku-band services become cost effective as the data load at the 3G/4G backhaul sites exponentially increases. The satellite industry has a solution for this, and the migration to O3b and HTS provisioned backhaul sites is key to offering substantially more capacity at a much cheaper price. The same applies to IP trunking that will see increased bandwidth demand as it moves to O3b and even HTS-provisioned services despite a declining installed base of sites.

[email protected]