Intelsat is eyeing the satellite-to-cell market and has several potential deals on the horizon to provide WiFi to airlines. That’s according to Intelsat CEO Dave Wajsgras, who spoke during a fireside keynote on Monday during SATELLITE 2024, taking place through tomorrow in Washington, D.C.
Intelsat is in its 60th year. Wajsgras described how the company cut its debt and refocused the business since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It pivoted to emerge as an end-to-end solutions provider. Wajsgras said the addressable market for bandwidth is about $12 billion to $14 billion, but the addressable market for connectivity is much broader, according to Via Satellite.
Wajsgras described the satellite-to-cell market as “substantial — $20 billion-plus over say, the next five to 10 years. It’s not going to kind of happen overnight on a global basis. A lot of the technology is still being developed, but it’s fairly advanced.”
He said Intelsat is close to investing with an unnamed technology company that he described as having proven satellite-to-cell capability, with strong agreements with several large mobile network operators. “We have talked with them for a little while and we’re going to not only invest with them, but we’re going to work on further developing a direct-to-handset [offering] using our spectrum holdings,” said Wajsgras. “We think that will give us a very unique position in this growing market.”
Wajsgras touted one of its biggest wins — in commercial aviation. In late 2020, Intelsat acquired Gogo Commercial Aviation, which brought in new expertise in managed services. Since then, Intelsat has won contracts with American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Air Canada, and others, according to Via Satellite.
“That’s one of the top two growth platforms for his company, and it’s very competitive,” he said, pointing to Intelsat’s strength as a multi-orbit in-flight connectivity provider, by working with Low-Earth Orbit operator Eutelsat OneWeb. “In the fourth quarter of last year, we won more business through our multi-orbit offering than we did the prior three years combined with a single orbit offering.”
He said Intelsat understands the end user customers, notes Via Satellite. “People who fly on planes are the ultimate customers — what they’re looking for and what they need,” he said. “We work with major airlines to set up very sophisticated and structured service level agreements. We can segment even by cabin what the pricing options and the structure of the WiFi service might look like. So we think those two give us a good position to grow that business.”
The SATELLITE 2024 Conference & Exhibition takes place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, located at 801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Register at: www.SATShow.com.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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