Telco Deals Could Point to a Brighter Future

I write this editor’s note the week that 90-year-old actor William Shatner, an icon from many our childhoods through watching Star Trek, went to space on a Blue Origin flight. What is interesting is just how mainstream space is now, and how it is regularly making front page news all over the world. I have seen everyone from Prince William to Bruce Springsteen talk about it this year.

One thing that has caught my attention recently is how telcos are starting to embrace satellite more than perhaps they have in the past. OneWeb’s deal with AT&T was potentially the top deal of SATELLITE 2021, and very quickly following that we saw another significant agreement involving Eutelsat and Deutsche Telekom. In most of my recent interviews, executives are confident that major telcos will start to embrace satellite tech in a broader way. It will be fascinating to see what happens in 2022 in this regard.

In this edition, our cover story features Intelsat CEO Steve Spengler. Although the operator has been going through restructuring, Intelsat is still one of the biggest and most significant players in our sector. The operator is charting a new direction with its Gogo Commercial Aviation acquisition, and is pursuing a network of networks concept. In this interview, Spengler also talks directly about how Intelsat might invest in non-Geostationary Orbits. It is well worth a read.

Two other hot topics: Ground Segment as a Service (GSaaS) and cloud/edge computing are also discussed at length in this edition. These topics are coming more and more to the fore, as the bridge between the satellite, the cloud and ground narrows and offers companies many exciting possibilities.

On another note, we have just had a highly successful CyberSatGov event in Reston, Virginia, where we hosted security influencers from the government, cyber, and satellite worlds to talk about the potential security threats facing the industry going forward. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it there myself, but I want to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in the event.

Also, we have opened nominations for our Satellite Executive of the Year (SEOTY) and Satellite Technology of the Year (STOTY) awards for 2021, please submit your nominations. These awards recognize the best and the boldest of our industry. As we approach the end of the year, and a cautious return to normality, we at Via Satellite continue to wish you all the best.