Looks like it is time for this conversation of ‘competition’ has to come to the forefront yet again. This was done to death not that long ago. From my perspective, SAS has NO current competition.
OneWeb, Google, Facebook, Musk and others you mention, are all chasing the ‘broad band’ high speed ‘internet’ market. They spend a lot of time talking about it and some have already thrown millions down the gurgler trying materialize their ideas. Have any been able to secure bandwidth from regulators for their special projects? – NO. ….. and from all accounts that will be a huge hurdle for them to overcome. Not to mention the added ability to retire and dispose of their satellites ‘cleanly’ at end of use period (junk) to mitigate the possibility of becoming ‘collision fodder’.
Broadband is NOT our market. We are based on narrow band suited to voice, messaging and data for payments and the future massive market of IoT.
For those who think these companies ARE competition, ask yourself who of that lot (& others) currently have satellites in orbit providing what out 3D's have already been proven to provide?
What about Iridium you might say….. or Inmarsat? – They are old school cumbersome and very expensive systems that by nature and simple return on investment MUST charge a high rate for connection of at least $1+/min, depending on your plan.
The price that SAS will most likely wholesale at, and still make us all a $quillion dollars, is about 10c/min. Do you see any of the above competing at that price level, based on their huge cost of manufacture and deployment? NO.
We have the jump on any equitable competition that may come later. We are doing the big deals with companies and organizations that we will grow with us in the future. For Johnny Come Later to edge or squeeze our market they’ll need to provide a better and cheaper service. I am not saying that can’t happen, but I will say I can’t see it in the immediate future…………. certainly not until after our full constellation is up and we have firmly entrenched customer base.
Don’t forget, SAS has its own special IP that will keep it at the forefront of this industry for quite some time.
“Cheplan”, on the following aspect you are right, and SAS is working thoroughly on all of them.......
"It would seem to me that SAS, to be competitive, would need to:
- Focus hard on being a first mover operator
- be well funded to expedite full satellite services
- gain agreements at the country level to ensure high utilization of their services
- ensure the right agreements are in place and operational (like the $1 dollar mobile phone provider
- Built strong functional differentiation (like intelligent software to manage data, which it has)."
Any competition that comes along later will only serve to make us work harder and provide an even better service.
I have no doubt that SAS will be unchallenged global leaders in this niche market for a very long time.
