Executives Unpack the Practical Challenges of the Satellite and Cellular Convergence

Satellite players are advocating heavily for the convergence of cellular and satellite networks, while working through the challenges involved in achieving this goal. Leaders from Comtech, Viasat, EchoStar, Iridium, Globalstar, and John Deere outlined the key issues during the Opening General Session at SATELLITE 2024 on March 19.

“We've gone from a place where raw megahertz and transponders was the dialogue when it came to satellite connectivity, and even the common dialogue for terrestrial and wireless connectivity,” said Nicole Robinson, chief growth officer of Comtech. “Now we're having a conversation around, ‘What is the true capability that's provided? What's the use case?’”

Hamid Akhavan, president and CEO of EchoStar, which completed its merger with Dish Network in January, said his company is “fortunate to be at the confluence” of having both technologies and networks in house.

“We see a lot of synergies marrying the two together,” said Akhavan. “The kind of the hard line between terrestrial and non-terrestrial can now blur as also standardization of non-terrestrial network technologies has happened in 3GPP [release] 17 and beyond. That has opened the doors for manufacturers to manufacture equipment that can work in both modes without being stranded.”

Mark Dankberg, Viasat co-founder and CEO, said there are huge opportunities ahead as terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks converge.

“It's going to involve a complete rethinking of the space segment, the ground segment, the go-to-market through partner countries,” said Dankberg. “I think one of the main lessons we take away from the cellular mobile business to apply to satellite is [that] spectrum is enormously important. One of things we're trying to do is pull together the mobile devices, mobile satellite operators to create an ecosystem that creates seamless roaming [among] carriers, and especially makes for a good capital investment in a way that's going to enable license-holders to operate networks at scale.

Dankberg is the chair of the Mobile Satellite Services Association (MSSA), a new organization focused on promoting the direct-to-device (D2D) ecosystem.

While there’s still a lot of work to do in space and on the ground, he thinks the work is underway: “We're really excited about that,” he added.

Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, believes there’s still the challenge of getting mobile network operators on board. Desch said that mobile network operators are toying with the idea of whether or not it’s time for space, and there’s a lot of experimentation taking place, especially around how the ecosystem fits together with standards. He expects to see a number of different solutions address the market in different ways, but cautioned for pragmatism.

“I know I've been a little bit more pragmatic about this, I felt this was going to take 10 to 15 years to evolve. I'm afraid it still will,” Desch said. “We're dealing with network operators who expect a very high quality of user experience for their customers [and] expect it to work everywhere, they really want to see a service that fits with their business models.”

Paul Jacobs, the new CEO of Globalstar and former CEO of Qualcomm, spoke nostalgically about how far the industry has come since the 1990s, when the idea of converging networks was still bubbling.

“The CTO at Qualcomm was pitching Globalstar back in ’96 to put internet protocols over the satellite system, and we weren't doing that on cellular systems at the time,” said Jacobs. “It was kind of an original convergence play, even back then. In terms of where we're headed — we're in the middle of playing a key part in the integration of satellite capabilities into cell phones. We see the ability to build private networks terrestrially that also interact with the satellite component as well and use the satellite frequencies both for their satellite MSS use and also on the terrestrial side.”

Michael Kool, senior product manager of Connectivity for John Deere, spoke about his company’s excitement over the recently inked partnership with SpaceX to use Starlink to enhance connectivity in its fleet of agriculture equipment.

“We have 600,000-plus machines that are connected via terrestrial cell today,” said Kool. “But if you look at where our customers are, they're in rural areas. There's a real divide when it comes to connectivity. In instances like Brazil, 75 percent of the country is just not connected with cellular to the levels that we need to operate these machines at the most optimum levels.”

Speakers agreed that industry standardization has helped address the challenge of how to augment cellular with satellite connectivity. However, barriers such as cost and market hesitation loom large.

“As technologies have matured, and we have better manufacturing, the cost of launch has become much more reasonable than it used to be. The projections are even better going forward within a number of groundbreaking improvements and launch facilities and vehicles,” said Akhavan. “Standardization has helped. Some 70 to 80 percent of the landmass on Earth cannot be covered by terrestrial coverage because it’s just not feasible to cover the ocean. I think it makes sense to make that coverage from [satellite]. In some ways, actually, it’s greener to do it than building millions of towers.”

While speakers cautioned about regulatory and spectrum challenges, they said they are nevertheless optimistic about the future.

“Regulators, they want new services and they want competition,” said Dankberg. “I think they also don't want to disenfranchise the people that depend on existing ecosystems, whether it's terrestrial spectrum or space spectrum. I think those are the things that need to be integrated.”

Dankberg believes the regulatory environment will be important to attracting capital from infrastructures like tower companies and companies that invest in carriers.

Desch acknowledged that the regulatory environment has changed dramatically in 10 years, and warmed up to satellite, recalling former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler telling him the commission was focused on the cellular industry. Now in 2024, current FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has emphasized satellite as a critical priority.

“We’ve become dominant in the regulatory environment, but there are real challenges to figuring out how to put those two together,” said Desch. “How do you reuse spectrum? I think regulators want us to succeed, but there's going to be some real challenges putting cellular and satellite issues together and resolving things. But there's at least a desire to do it.” VS