Four Of The World's Largest Fixed Satellite Operators Announce A Few Surprises At Satellite 2013

Named as the "big four" at the last SATELLITE 2013, the FSS panel, Intelsat, Eutelsat, SES, and Telesat, dropped a few surprises and came out worry-free despite centered on financing and the diminishing ability to raise capital in the industry on the account of the recession in the past few years.

David McGlade, Intelsat Chairman and CEO, singled out ULA’s Delta 5 rocket as an excellent, but pricey choice to launch his satellites.

Eutelsat's CEO, Michael de Rose, on the other hand, told the audience that the most significant moment for the satellite industry last year was the death of Apple Founder and CEO Steve Jobs, who he called “the true pioneer of mobility and an innovator that made, and will continue to make, a considerable impact on our industry.”

Praising technological developments from O3b Systems, SES CEO, Romain Bausch, talked about it going so far as to call it the most significant development of the past year. It is important to note that SES has a considerable financial investment in the worldwide satellite broadband provider.

Giving two of the more surprising answers of the panel session was Telesat's CEO, Dan Goldberg. The first was when he was asked how long it would take for Ultra HD to really make an impact on the bandwidth markets. While the three other panelists said that this would most likely happen in the 2015 to 2016 timeframe, Goldberg didn’t think Ultra HD would make its presence known for at least another five years – in 2018 – despite the upcoming 2016 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games, both happening in Brazil.

He also praised McGlade and Intelsat for the operator’s Epic NG offering, saying, "Most likely emulate Intelsat’s approach with another high-throughput-style offering. The EpicNG development just makes sense for our market and that’s the direction we may take in the future.”

However, with McGlade and de Rosen expressed excitement over the new capability, and Bausch and Goldberg said that they didn’t believe these solutions would make much of a difference, the panelists didn't agree on the potential impact of in-orbit servicing and satellite re-purposing on the operator business.