Intelsat is the world’s largest provider of satellite capacity for network services, according to Euroconsult, with a 29 percent global share. As such, we provide essential infrastructure supporting the rapid expansion of wireless services in many emerging regions and basic and high-speed connectivity for enterprise, fixed and mobile applications in developed and emerging regions around the world.
As mobile communications becomes essential to global networking and Internet use, we are increasingly providing capacity, such as that provided by the Intelsat EpicNG SM platform, to be used for mobility applications including maritime enterprise as well as maritime and aeronautical broadband services for passenger access services. Network services is our largest customer set, at $1.1 billion in revenue.
Overall, in 2015 our network services business was challenged by three factors:
Oversupply leading to an increasingly competitive environment.
Our services supporting point-to-point applications, such as channel and trunking, reaching end of lifecycle, with these services moving to fiber alternatives.
No new satellites with capacity supporting network services applications expected to be in service until 2016.
Growth opportunities for our network services business include increased demand for broadband connectivity globally, such as services for private enterprise networks, fixed and mobile broadband infrastructure applications and, notably, high growth aeronautical and maritime mobility broadband applications. We are developing new service offerings and investing in innovative ground technologies that will provide simplified access to our network. In this way, we are making it easier for our customers to grow, especially with Intelsat EpicNG satellites, Intelsat 29e and Intelsat 33e, planned for entry into service in 2016, providing high performance inventory to offset these recent trends.
Intelsat’s Globalized Network and the Intelsat EpicNG satellites beginning service in 2016 provide critical broadband infrastructure for mobility applications that power a connected world—wherever people travel. In 2015, Intelsat received a significant commitment from a global provider of enterprise services that focuses on applications including the energy, government and cruise sectors. The global agreement utilizes the Intelsat EpicNG fleet as well as others in the Intelsat network for a solution spanning 20 of our satellites, one of the single largest enterprise commitments Intelsat has ever been awarded.
