Life as a satellite buyer...

You are a satellite buyer for Viasat. Your suppliers include Airbus and Thales Alenia Space. What do you see as the most significant trends in satellite connectivity?

Today, the subject on which all operators are working to see how to exploit this new technology is NTN - Non-Terrestrial Network - applied to 5G. In very specific terms, the use of 5G standards in space communications will make it possible to connect smartphones and other 5G equipment directly to non-terrestrial services without using ground relays. There are many projects underway at the moment to move towards what is known as D2D, or Direct to Device. In the near future, people will be able to use their mobile phones to make calls directly via a satellite connection, without relying on ground infrastructure. This will change the face of telecommunications as we know it today, with incumbent telecoms operators and their ground antennas as intermediaries.

One clear advantage of D2D is that it will provide continuous network coverage, so there will be no more dead zones. We've all experienced those moments in the car when the connection goes down. If we integrate a D2D connectivity system into the smartphone, when there is a loss of signal, the system will switch directly to a satellite network to take over. We can also think about doing away with ground relays altogether and providing full Internet access by satellite. This is the type of thinking that is currently on the table, with several constellation projects planned for low earth orbits, following on from Starlink. These include Amazon's Kuiper project and Telesat's LightSpeed. There are also Chinese projects.

What is changing organisationally?

Basically, what's happening is a reconfiguration of infrastructure models. We're moving towards multi-orbit, hybrid models, which will constantly move back and forth between constellations in low orbit and geostationary relays. Each orbital height has its advantages and disadvantages.

All the major players in the sector are therefore currently adjusting their strategy. The market is changing, and telecoms operators are redefining and/or refining their customer targets to create the best architectures to meet them. Today, Starlink is taking a huge share of the market because they have a significant technological lead and are very quick to develop and deploy in orbit. No one in Europe can compete with them today, and this is a major challenge for the European space industry. Will it be able to renew itself quickly enough? This is a real challenge. The projects that are being launched today, like the IRIS² constellation for example, will not be operational for several years, and at the current rate of innovation in Europe we can legitimately wonder whether these programmes will be in the running. Today, we are still in a situation where everyone is chasing Starlink.

How is Viasat positioning itself in this reconfiguration of the market?

Our traditional markets are, of course, facing competition from Starlink. Our current fleet is predominantly geostationary, comprising the ex-Inmarsat satellites as well as the Viasat fleet. We capitalise on the wealth of our portfolio of frequencies and orbital positions, enabling various types of applications. Historically, Inmarsat has been associated with relatively low frequencies (L-band), which are robust against adverse weather conditions. We have long been entrusted with an international public service mandate to provide maritime and aeronautical safety services. When a vessel sends a distress signal, it goes through our system. This is a great source of pride, yet it also imposes constraints on us. It necessitates doubling up on satellites in the event of any anomaly, as any discontinuity in the service for preventing and managing maritime incidents is unacceptable. Let us not forget that Inmarsat was originally established for this purpose and, initially, before becoming a private entity, it was an international organisation dedicated to maritime matters (INternational MARitime SATellite organisation).

One of the main drivers of our development is to enhance our high-speed offering by complementing the global coverage provided by our current fleet. We are therefore deploying the Viasat3 satellite and, in partnership with Airbus, developing three geostationary satellites – GX 7, 8 and 9 – to deliver targeted capacity in what we refer to as « hotspots » (for example, major airports and heavily trafficked flight routes). This will provide additional capacity in the Ka band, operating at much higher frequencies, which allow for significantly greater speeds for users. Notably, this will enable the provision of in-flight Wi-Fi and data applications for shipping fleets.

We are also working on the deployment of constellations (particularly in relation to D2D aspects), but it should be noted that these represent very significant investments. It requires the ability to manufacture and launch several hundred satellites simultaneously, it’s a challenge that is on an entirely different scale from the development costs of a geostationary satellite. To give you an order of magnitude, deploying a constellation is in the region of a billion, whereas deploying a geostationary satellite costs only a few hundred million…

We’ve come a long way since ET phone home.