Mike Thompson, Director for Technical Development at Access Partnership spoke to Via Satellite on EchoStar’s bid to acquire Inmarsat.
Inmarsat is particularly vulnerable right now to a bid, such as EchoStar’s, according to Thompson. “Their older-generation satellites have enjoyed a loyal customer base and reasonably steady revenues. However, just as the terrestrial world is moving to 4G/5G cellular service, customers of satellite service want more data speed for less money. Inmarsat made a bold move to invest in a global Ka-band network, but as we have seen they haven’t been able to capitalize on that yet. Their first-mover advantage is ebbing away, and their legacy services are in price-decline, so my guess is that EchoStar may not be the only one with an interest,” he says.
Read the full article here.
