Ramona Adams
A new report from Frost & Sullivan estimates the U.S. government and military sector currently accounts for 87.2 percent of the country’s overall satellite services spending.
The research firm’s “U.S. Government and Military Satellite Market, Forecast to 2022” report also shows that SES and Intelsat have the biggest presence in the domestic military market with a combined 57.7 percent market share, Frost & Sullivan said Tuesday.
Peter Finalle, a digital transformation research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said political changes in the U.S. “could cause increased reliance on satellite technology in some locations and ensure that the U.S. government and military remains the largest single client for satellite services in the world.”
The U.S. military’s increased use of weapons such as unmanned aerial vehicles helped raise the demand for satellite communication, the company noted.
Frost & Sullivan added the cost of satellite hardware and services does not affect adoption because satellite appears to be the only current network technology that can provide access in locations where terrestrial networks are unstable.
Regions with U.S. military presence such as the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, lack high-bandwidth terrestrial networks with 100 percent network up time, according to the report.
The market research was part of Frost & Sullivan’s Space & Communications growth partnership subscription that includes global satellite transponder market, global commercial satellite broadband market and U.S. government commercial satellite market, among others.
