Optimal Market Segmentation of Low Earth Orbit Broadband Systems

Concept

Revenue streams that can be quickly implemented with minimal staff should be prioritized for LEO (low earth orbit) broadband systems.

LEO broadband systems aspects

• Latency
• Availability
• Backplane usage
• Regulatory
• Billing
• Connectivity

Low latency satellite broadband systems is a concept that is not new. What is new are the amount of companies preparing to enter this market. The advantage of satellite broadband in general is the ability to connect to the system from remote areas anywhere in the system’s footprint. Existing systems come with the disadvantage of higher latency than equivalent ground based systems. Multi-satellite systems have the additional property of a backplane (satellite to satellite data routing) to reduce latency. LEO broadband systems while an increase of cost and complexity have the advantage of lower latency and a global footprint.

All satellite systems share the common task of initial regulatory effort. Going global magnifies this effort.

All broadband systems share the common task of connecting to the rest of the internet with an appropriate amount of bandwidth. For a LEO broadband system backplane use and latency are optimization increase the more ground network connection points are available. There are three general modes:

• Point to point — non-internet data traffic
• Point to hub — connection to a common destination internet or otherwise
• Point to net — the common case

All business have to contend with billing. Billing business is less costly than billing consumers directly.

Use Cases

Low latency point to point — The most common example is high frequency trading. The network as part of its design has been optimized for these high value use cases. The use base takes place in a dense part of the footprint and makes extensive use of the backplane. These customers pay a premium for priority access to the network and are typically have regulatory support readily available.

Remote availability point to hub — While remote areas can be served with low latency another use case is service without the use of the backplane. The latency in this mode is between the slower non-LEO satellite systems and the faster ground based systems. The advantage is the ability to offer a service with less use of system resources which can translate to a lower cost.

Service point to hub — this is adding a service to the network where the service is typically at a single hub. The common example here is VPN. VPNs increase latency since they route though a hub prior to connection to the wider internet. Use of the backplane here would reduce latency.

General — This is the point to internet case which is how most people envision utilizing the network.

There are many other specific use cases but most others are variations of these types.

Market Segmentation

High value customers — High frequency trading etc. These are the customers that extra capability has already been planned for from the time of design.

Advantage: High Revenue

Low Density National Carrier — These are national carriers who can utilize, resel, and support the network in areas with either sparse population or low revenue.

Advantages: Low backplane usage, billing execution, regulatory assist, internet gateway, external funding

Low Density Regional ISP — These are ISPs that operate in rural areas in otherwise dense and profitable nations.

Advantages: Low backplane usage, billing execution, regulatory assist, internet gateway, external funding

VPN ISP — These are existing VPN providers expanding into ISP to reduce latency

Advantages: Billing execution, internet gateway

Direct to consumer — The general segment. Revenue, regulatory, and internet gateway hurdles can be overcome by prioritizing other segments.

In addition there are more use cases each of which should be judged on the balance of how they contribute to initial revenue, regulatory, and internet gateway hurdles.

Next Steps

The high value customers have already been planned for. The cases prior to direct to consumer can begin to be executed by a small team as soon as ground stations and a partial satellite network are in place.