VSAT Statistics

There are now a great variety of different star and mesh TDMA and DAMA systems from many vendors - The 11th Edition of the VSAT Report lists 30 different products - but currently the star data market is primarily contested by Hughes Network Systems (with its HughesNet HN7000S, HN7700S and HX systems), Gilat Satellite Networks (with its SkyEdge II product), ViaSat (with the LinkStar and SurfBeam systems), iDirect (with the iNFINITI & Evolution) and several standards-based DVB-RCS system vendors which include Advantech Satnet, STM Group, NanoTronix and Thales Alenia Space.  Others include several once-large players, including NEC and AT&T Tridom which have since exited the market.  The figure opposite shows the vendor market share measured by the number of terminals ordered in 2008:

The regional market for VSAT systems is dominated by North America, especially in terms of volumes and particularly so since the launch of mass consumer services.  The lack of any effective penetration of the US is one of the reasons that DVB-RCS systems have fared so poorly in the market over the past few years, despite being backed by companies like Thales Alenia (previously Alcatel).  However, the other regions have been catching up since 1988 and have, until recently, been higher margin markets. Over the past two to three years Africa and the Middle East in particular have grown very strongly on the back of a high level of demand for broadband access services from small businesses in the two regions. The financial sector is a key customer in many developing countries.  Generally elsewhere, demand is primarily driven from large networks provided to large gas/convenience chains, banks, retailers, casual dining and lottery systems.

The market was initially extremely volatile, with sales swinging wildly from year to year as a result of lumpiness caused by large, yet unpredictable network orders.  However, since 1995 sales have grown steadier with greater volumes and a more mature sales cycle.  To date over two million star TDMA sites have been sold to core enterprise customers, such as Yum!, Mobil/Exxon, the US Postal Service, Rite Aid, Walgreens, GTECH, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Best Western and Safeway (see the user examples for more information).  2001 saw the initial growth of consumer internet access services, which are most successful in the US, although there are also services in Australia, the Middle East. and Europe Internationally it has been managed broadband access services targeted at the SME that has provided the strongest area of new demand.

Consumer services in North America have continued to grow consistently and strongly in volume as WildBlue and Telesat's Ka-band spot-beam satellite services have expanded the market and Hughes brought its own Ka-band, onboard processing Spaceway satellite system into commercial service in early 2008.  With future 100 Gbps capacity spacecraft from ViaSat (ViaSat-1) and Hughes (Jupiter) set to triple the total satellite capacity over North America by 2012 these services are expected to continue to grow strongly.  During the same timeframe specialised broadband consumer VSAT satellites from Eutelsat (KaSAT) for Europe and Yahsat  (Yahsat-1B) over the Middle East and Africa will significantly expand the reach and capabilities of VSAT consumer services globally.

At the same times, the number of corporate and enterprise sites served by all different types of VSAT technology have grown well with only mesh DAMA systems finding less favour as they are increasingly marginalised to high-value, highly specialised niches by the rapidly increasing capabilities of the mainstream star TDMA platforms.  Many of these now also support mesh and multi-gateway capabilities - all of which open up new market opportunities for operators.