By Stuart Thomson
High-Throughput Satellite capacity is expected to expand dramatically over the next five years, but with growth primarily driven by non-traditional non-geostationary satellite constellations focused on delivering broadband capacity according to a report by Euroconsult.
Global HTS capacity supply is expected to grow at a 45 per cent CAGR, surpassing 60,000Gbps of capacity, according to the report.
Non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) broadband constellations are projected to account for nearly 90 per cent of capacity supply in 2026, a contrast to the historically dominant market share of supply held by GEO-HTS systems.
Global capacity demand is meanwhile projected to average 28 per cent on a compound annual basis through 2030, with the consumer broadband segment poised to account for nearly 60 per cent of net capacity growth globally.
Recent NGSO developments include the launch campaign of SpaceX’s Starlink LEO constellation, which drove a 350 per cent expansion of global HTS capacity supply in 2021 after entering initial operational status. While other NGSO constellations have faced a mix of development and launch delays, OneWeb and SES (O3b mPOWER) are poised to enter initial service in 2022, the report points out.
The research outfit says that the GEO-HTS segment will continue to grow, albeit at a more moderate pace, with established operators dopting software-defined satellite architectures to help reduce risk and improve agility.
“High throughput satellite technology has never been better positioned to help bridge the rural digital divide through a combination of innovation and scale, notably through NGSO (non-geostationary) constellation architectures,” said Senior Affiliate Consultant at Euroconsult, Brent Prokosh.
“This in turn will drive significant improvements in value and performance of satellite broadband services”.
