In August 2021, SpaceX made waves by making its first ever acquisition by purchasing Swarm Technologies, a start-up known for its early adoption of proprietary ultra-narrowband satellite IoT solutions, signaling its intention of expanding its capabilities and diversifying its offerings to cater to a broader range of customers. However, what raised eyebrows was Swarm’s announcement.
“Direct-to-device (D2D) may be the buzz, but backhaul is still the biz,” sums up some satellite operator sentiment concerning telecom-satcom convergence during a panel at the recently concluded Satellite 2023 industry event. While satellite D2D dominates conversations at broad connectivity industry events, satellite cellular backhaul has come a long way in the telecom-satcom convergence. The.
ON DEMAND If you missed NSR Research Director, Jose Del Rosario in the APSCC webinar Satellite Direct-to-Device: Decoding the Largest Opportunity for Satcom – you can now watch it on demand. Amidst a flurry of announcements led by some the globe’s most influential companies including Apple and SpaceX/Starlink, the Satellite Direct-to-device market has been touted.
Satellite operators are at a crossroads due to a rapid revolution in satellite capacity provisioning worldwide. The satellite capacity industry was originally dominated by recurring, high-margin video applications, but its focus has now shifted to high-growth, data-centric services. A range of fixed and mobile data applications now dominate the growth story via numerous capacity types, orbits and ultimately, business.
Direct-to-device made a huge splash in satellite last year. First, with Starlink’s partnership with T-Mobile to expand coverage through its 2nd generation constellation. Apple followed not long after, investing $450 million into a similar deal with Globalstar. AST Space Mobile’s BlueWalker-3 satellite launched, unfolding its 700 square foot antenna to test technologies for an upcoming.