Today, the passenger maritime segment is one of the best-connected satellite-enabled end-users around. With record-breaking throughputs in the news over the last 12 months, the passenger maritime sector continues to provision vessels with higher and higher data rates.
When NSR noted that IFC markets did not do so well in 2018, it was not comparing the ‘hype’ with its forecast, but rather its own forecast with respect to contracts signed, antenna production, installation rates and aircraft to be outfitted. All these factors did not pan out as expected and despite a rather gloomy.
The Maritime Satellite Communications market is at a crossroad; more capacity is available in all frequencies and orbits thanks to Iridium’s recently launched Certus plans, VSAT terminals are getting lighter and cheaper, and end-users continue to find value in some flavor of higher throughput connectivity.
With the satcom industry moving to network applications and integrated service business models, the price-demand equation has changed considerably over the last 5 years.
As a technology with the potential to impact both satellite and ground network operators, optical satcom is emerging as a contender and/or a complement to existing radio frequency (RF) communications infrastructure.