Originally published by Analysys Mason on December 9, 2024. Read the original article here.

Technological innovation is transforming the economics of the space sector, creating radical change across the satellite telecoms industry. In 2025, the gathering momentum will translate into a burst of activity that will affect the entire global telecoms sector.

Massively increased capacity has already facilitated the integration of satellite services into the broader telecoms ecosystem: non-terrestrial networks are now embedded into standardisation bodies such as the 3GPP. A virtual circle of performance improvement, accelerating consumer take-up, increased demand and falling costs is feeding into an intensifying positive feedback loop. Opportunities are proliferating across multiple applications including direct-to-device (D2D) communication, rural broadband and connected cars.

Telecoms vendors and operators have begun to take positions with significant investments, as seen in investments from AT&T, Google and Vodafone in AST SpaceMobile. Apple has announced plans to invest USD1.5 billion in Globalstar’s D2D constellation, and the European Commission (EC) has recently selected a consortium with participation from Deutsche Telekom and Orange to develop the IRIS2 constellation.

Investments in the satellite communications industry in 2025 could well surpass USD20 billion. In addition to the consortium funding for the EC’s IRIS2 project, the Mobile Satellite Services Association is considering investment in a shared constellation with support from Ericsson, and other players, such as Dish/Echostar and Iridium. These players are set to fully embrace the D2D race with additional expansions of their space assets. Deployment of constellations will move ahead with Kuiper and Lightspeed joining Starlink, OneWeb and mPower to make satellite broadband truly ubiquitous for both consumers and enterprises.

Commercialisation of early D2D services will become widespread as Skylo continues its expansion beyond the deal with Verizon and smartphone vendors incorporate satellite capabilities. This will lead to annual satellite telecoms service revenue reaching USD165 billion by 2033.

Originally published by Analysys Mason on December 9, 2024. Read the original article here.