To get a pulse on the dynamic Latin American Satelltie market, we invited executives from the major satellite operators in the region to share their views on the trends and opportunities in the region. Executives from satellite operators including ABS, Eutelsat, Hispamar/Hispasat, Intelsat, Iridium, SES and Telesat participated in the roundtable discussion. Excerpts follows:
The satellite market in Latin America is moving to a new era marked by overcapacity with major satellite operators focusing in the major verticals market to promote growth. The major players are expecting for 2019 with new governments in power in Brazil and Mexico (key major markets for Latin America) a new demand is coming back in all verticals (Residential, Corporation, Government and Defense).
In terms of the economic outlook based in the IMF report Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean is picking up, thanks to a stronger demand at home and favorable Global Environment helped also by rebounding commodity prices. But to secure more durable growth with widespread benefits, the region needs to invest more in key sectors, like infrastructure and education to boost productivity over the longer-term, the IMF said in the latest regional assessment. The Regional Economic Outlook for the Western Hemisphere estimates growth for the region to increase from 1.3 percent in 2017 to 2 percent in 2018. For 2019, the report forecasts growth to continue to pick up to 2.8 percent. Following the recovery in private consumption in 2017, business investment is expected to rise and become the main driver of economic activity, after a three-year contraction. Despite this rebound, investment levels are expected to remain below the levels as seen in other regions, limiting the region’s growth potential, according to the report.
We posed some key questions for the main players and we received feedback from the following satellite operators: ABS, Eutelsat, Hispamar/Hispasat, Intelsat, Iridium, SES and Telesat. We asked each company, What is your plan for the Latin American Market for the next two years and what verticals (Video, Data/IP, Mobility, IOT & others) are you pursuing now and are planning for the Latin America region
Follows are excerpts of the responses from executives of the major satellite operators in the region:
Estevao Ghizoni, Managing Director of the Americas, ABS: ABS is a growing global satellite operator with 6 geostationary satellites. Its extensive teleport network provides comprehensive coverage to 93% of the world’s population across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, CIS and Russia.
We have invested in building a strong team including the appointment of myself as MD of the Americas and Edison de Vito, Sales Director of Latin America. We have a teleport operation facility in Brazil with our partner Prime in Rio de Janeiro in providing engineering and technical support to customers.
As part of the global coverage, ABS-3A satellite provides dedicated C- and Ku-band coverage for the Americas over Brazil including the Atlantic Ocean. The satellite delivers satellite broadcasting and telecom services to leading broadcasters, service providers, enterprises and government customers. We see opportunities in cellular backhaul, broadband (rural and government initiatives), aeronautical and maritime connectivity, video contribution and distribution and occasional use application.
Mike Antonovich, CEO of Eutelsat Americas: Eutelsat launched three satellites focusing on Latin America between 2015 and 2016, allowing us to fortify our offer and ensure we have the right capacity available for our customers to continue growing across the region.
In addition to our traditional video and data services, we are constantly working to stay ahead of the industry’s changing needs and have developed a growing number of value-added solutions for a wide range of customers. We are actively pursuing our video strategy by building closer ties between the OTT world and the satellite ecosystem and are progressively putting into place the conditions needed for these two technologies to work together to deliver end-to-end services to our customers.
As the Internet of Things continues to expand, we are responding to the markets needs with our Smart LNB technology, a simple device that provides secure and cost-effective IoT connectivity. This solution is ideally suited for connected applications which exchange data with remote assets or infrastructure, enabling real-time live communication with potentially millions of devices to relay information to and from virtually anywhere.
Working closely with our customers to anticipate their needs, we expect these offers to continue growing for the Latin American market in the upcoming months and years.
Hispamar's Amazonas 5, located at 61°W is meeting growing satellite capacity demand, mainly for satellite television platforms in Latin America and Brazil. In addition, it has 34 Ka-band spot beams that can provide new Internet connectivity services throughout Latin America. Photo courtesy of SS/L.
Sergio Chaves, Business Development Director, Hispamar: The Hispasat group has launched in the last 1.5 years managed services in Latin America with Ka and Ku band platforms for the region for a total of four platforms. We believe that more and more satellite companies will have to offer something more in the value chain for its customers. We believe that we are in line with what the market is requesting.
Mexico and Brazil are the countries we are offering Ka-Band platforms. Colombia, South America and Central America we are offering Ku-Band. Our Strategy in the current model and have been always working in the B2B market.
With regards to where the demand in Latin America will be coming from in the near future we believe in verticals for Broadband, Backhaul and IOT are the major expansion market for satellite communications.
Juan Pablo Cofino, Intelsat’s Regional VP, Latin America, Intelsat: With 5G on the horizon, it is imperative that network operators throw out the old playbook and rethink their approach to broadband connectivity. The future will be wireless - and satellite is a great wireless technology. Satellite has the essential ingredients necessary for the new, hybrid telecom infrastructure, or what is commonly referred to as the “network of networks.” This is especially true in countries where digital inclusion is necessary to achieving economic growth.
Satellite provides reach, ubiquity, quality, efficiency and security.
And the innovations that have come to market over the past few years have enabled satellite to bridge a performance and economics gap with terrestrial wireless solutions. This is largely due to the advent of powerful high-throughput satellites. When these are paired with more capable, smaller ground hardware designed to take advantage of the greater satellite throughput, we are improving economics and simplifying access for network operators and end users.
As 5G emerges as a driving framework for communications, it is clear that a monolithic architecture is not an answer to all the telecom problems. This is why Intelsat has focused on making it easier than ever to integrate satellite connectivity into terrestrial networks and introducing new economic models that help network operators close the business case for extending services. With this 21st century approach to solving problems, satellite operators and mobile network providers can work together and use the respective strengths of their technologies to expand networks into regions that were once cost-prohibitive.
For satellite to fully participate in these sectors, satellite operators must be involved in the development of standards, namely the ground technology that makes it easier and more cost-efficient for end users to access HTS and unlock the full potential of M2M and IoT services. Focusing on the full ecosystem will grow the number of connected devices and spur additional demand for satellite-enabled services and applications in the future. The implementation of an integrated, hybrid approach to telecom will enable operators and service providers to meet the booming bandwidth requirements of Latin America and the world.
Mauricio Bouroncle, Vice President & General Manager, Americas, Iridium Communications: Iridium, a leading low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications provider, is the only network with 100-percent global coverage, delivering reliable and robust connectivity. The network enables a broad scope of voice and data services across Latin America and the Caribbean, ranging from satellite phone communications and satellite Push-To-Talk (PTT) radio services to the Internet of Things, real-time tracking capabilities and remote asset management. Due to Iridium’s proven network reliability, low latency and its suite of easy-to-use devices and services, Iridium is the network of choice for mobile applications. For instance, worldwide organizations such as NGOs and armed forces, rely on Iridium’s satellite devices and services for critical communications, especially when deploying emergency response efforts.
Global markets, especially mining and oil and gas all favor Iridium, and we expect to see continued growth across the mobile satellite market for many years to come.
As Iridium completes the launch and deployment of its new global, LEO satellite constellation called Iridium® NEXT, the market can expect to see new services, like Iridium CertusSM, become available. Iridium Certus is the company’s next-generation specialty L-band broadband service, that will provide a high-speed, 100-percent global and cost-effective option to all vertical markets. Iridium Certus will debut at 352 Kbps and will be upgradable to 704 Kbps with a firmware update in 2019, eventually reaching speeds of approximately 1.4 Mbps. Multi-service terminals have been developed by our leading value-added manufacturers, Thales and Cobham, supporting the maritime, aviation and land-mobile markets. Specific to the Latin American region, where vast amounts of remote territory lack terrestrial infrastructure, Iridium is well positioned to be a key partner for local organizations seeking reliable, mobile connectivity regardless of geographic location. Iridium is continuously innovating for its customers, and as a result, sees continued growth through its expanding distribution network in Latin America and around the world.
SES responded in terms of two key segments: Video and Data:
Video - Jurandir Pitsch, Vice President, Sales & Market Development Latin America and Caribbean, SES Video
Data: Omar Trujillo, Vice President, Fixed Data, Latin America, SES Networks
To better serve the region, we have been investing into space and ground infrastructure.
Video Networks - We are focusing on three key areas in video. First, we will continue to leverage our prime orbital slots to bring more content to viewers across the region after having launched two GEO satellites in the past two years to serve Latin America. SES-10 and SES-14 are strengthening our premium video neighborhoods and enabling our customers to leverage our strong reach to embrace its growth potential. Secondly, we will accelerate the adoption of higher picture quality. While HD keeps growing, we are now helping broadcasters and TV operators jumpstart their UHD services via our UHD platform, launched in Latin America in April. The end-to-end solution brings together UHD content (4 channels for now), satellite distribution and reception equipment. Finally, we intend to support broadcasters in satisfying the increasing demand for always-on access to video content. Through our affiliate MX1, they can streamline their content management operations, and deliver content to any online or linear platform, and any type of screen. We are also pushing Video-on-Demand Everywhere technology so that everyone can have enjoy the experience even without reliable broadband access.
Data networks – whether in Government, mobility (maritime & aero) or enterprise -- are key areas of growth as they are being driven by a rising number of connected devices, IoT and data rich applications. Our O3b MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) fleet is the only successful non-geostationary constellation to deliver commercial broadband services across the globe, enabling SES to truly differentiate itself. Together with our GEO fleet, we can support universal service obligation (USO) commitments and contribute to driving the digital economy across the region. The same satellite connectivity is enabling interoperability among different government agencies, supporting defense and security, rescue and disaster relief missions. On mobility, the number of commercial aircraft and ships connected via satellite is expected to increase exponentially in the Americas in the coming years, which will drive dramatic growth in bandwidth usage.
Mauro Wajnberg – General Manager Telesat Brazil: In July 2018, Telesat successfully launched our new Telstar 19 VANTAGE high throughput satellite (HTS) to the prime Brazilian orbital slot of 63 degrees West, the same used today by Telesat’s Telstar 14R satellite. Telesat now has six GEO satellites serving Latin America – Anik F1 and Anik G1 at 107.3 West, Telstar 12 VANTAGE at 15 West, Telstar 11N at 37.5 West, along with Telstar 19 VANTAGE and Telstar 14R at 63 West.
Telesat’s focus in Latin America the next two years will be on providing our telecom customers with high performing solutions for cell backhaul and trunking across the region, as well as providing our enterprise VSAT and mobility customers with services that offer improved performance and cost effectiveness. Service options on T19V include a powerful Ku-band regional beam, along with HTS spot beams that provide full coverage of Brazil and the Andean. T19V also has Caribbean and HTS spots ideal for mobility markets. Finally, there is tremendous interest across Latin America in Telesat’s new LEO satellite system now in development. We will keep the market informed on our LEO progress and pursue projects with GEO capacity that could become a ‘bridge to LEO” in cases where broadband connectivity needs are growing rapidly.
Conclusion
In a recent conference in Latin America, Anatel the regulatory body in Brazil gave a report that showed that the market still in a growing mode. The evolution of satellite capacity in Brazil will have 360% growth between 2015 and 2021, according to data presented by the president of Anatel, Juarez Quadros, in the Latin American Satellite Congress last August. Three years ago, there were 2.7 GHz in band Ka, 17.8 GHz in Ku-band and 17.9 GHz in C-band. In 2021, the Brazilian satellite market is expected to reach 128.5 GHz in Ka band, 28.8 GHz in Ku and 20, 2 GHz in C band. According to agency information, in 2017 this ratio was 41 GHz, 23.5 GHz and 19.7 GHz, respectively for Ka, Ku and C bands.
In the Brazilian market there are currently 17 satellites in national orbits, with 37 foreigners authorized and four with non-geostationary orbit (NGSO). Up to 2021, three new satellites are planned, according to Anatel. Today Brazil is one of the major user of Satellite Communications in Latin America.
In summary all the main players are looking forward for new markets both GEO, LEO’s ranging from Video applications for Satellite TV, streaming and Broadcast HD; Backhaul that historical is one of the key vertical in Latin America because lack of infrastructure to provide cellular services in remote areas will be growing with the penetration of LTE and 5G in the near future: Consumer Broadband is another area that already have Hughes in Brazil and expanding for other countries in Latin America during 2018, and now Yahasat that starting in Brazil with their own Ka-Band Satellite to provide residential and business internet via satellite working with local Partners and the new comer is Viasat that finally close the deal with Telebras to provide services in Brazil with the Government Satellite SGDC. Mobility is another market that is growing both for maritime, Aeronautical and terrestrial with the advance of Ka-Band satellite with small antennas has a big potential in the region. Finally, IOT and related application is a growing market in the region with the L-Band operators like Inmarsat, Iridium and Globalstar with new fleet of satellites to penetrate in this growing market in the region give us a good outlook in the Region for the 2019 and beyond.
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Bernardo Schniederman is the Principal of Telematics Business Consultants. He can be reached at: info@tbc-telematics.com.
