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www.satellite-evolution.com | March/April 201924
Teleports
David Andres, Business Development Manager at Santander Teleport
Teleports of todayTeleports play a vital role in the global spaceand satellite industry, delivering vital servicesthat let spacecraft communicate with theground. In recent years, there’s been asignificant change in the challenges andopportunities for teleports, as discussed byDavid Andres, Business Development Managerat Santander Teleport.
Satellites are at the heart of the technologicaldevelopments shaping our era. They affect the way we livewithout even realizing it: They make us safer, predict theweather, provide modern conveniences, broadcastenter tainment, and ubiquitous communications.Independently of the mission these are designed to achieve(broadband communications, broadcasting, weathermonitoring, earth observation, navigation…), we cannot helplooking up to the sky and thinking ´that is where everythingis happening.´
But those of us who work in this industry know that theoverall satellite ecosystem is built as a result of the integrationof the space segment (satellites) and the ground segment(teleports, baseband systems, user terminals, and terrestrialnetworks). A key element of this ground segment is theteleport, also known as the Earth station or ground station.
The teleport facility is the nexus between Earth and space,the hub where data and video traffic are collected, processedand transmitted to the world via satellites, or received fromthe satellite and distributed via terrestrial networks. It is easy
these days to ignore the importance of the teleport as afundamental piece of the satellite ecosystem. In a newupcoming era of low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations andsatellites of all sizes and purposes, where digital processing– once destined to remain in the ground – is conquering theskies to make more efficient use of the radioelectric spectrumand provide higher orders of magnitude of bandwidth, weare more than ever starting to recognize - paradoxically -that development in ground systems is playing catch up withtechnology flying in space.
Interesting challenges and opportunitiesOur industry is getting ready to launch global constellationsof communication satellites to connect the undeserved, butwe are yet to figure out how we can provide low cost, size,weight and power user terminals that will make mass adoptionof truly universal broadband communications a reality. Wecan design and launch Earth observation satellites on smalland nanosatellites with unthinkable capabilities only a decade
Photo courtesy of Santander Teleport
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www.satellite-evolution.com | March/April 201926
Teleports
ago, yet we are still working out how to process the vastamounts of images and data that will be generated and sentback to Earth, to develop compelling applications that toattract the end users by bringing new value and industrygrowth. It is obviously early days yet and some of thesedisruptive technologies will catch up; the successes of newventures originating from them will be determined bysuccessful business cases.
The teleport operators of today face interesting challengesand opportunities. In the past, the supply chain of the satellitecommunications market was clearly defined with satelliteoperators providing bandwidth, teleport operators providingthe necessary facilities to connect ground with space, andservice providers offering managed services to end users indiverse markets branching out of two primary and verydifferentiated areas: Broadcast and data. As time evolved,teleport operators engaged into more profitable managedservice offerings, service providers started to bring their owninfrastructure into the teleports (in some case acquiring orbuilding their own teleport facilities), and satellite operatorsused their own teleports to provide space and teleportservices… Or any combination of the above.
Nowadays, satellite operators are taking more control overthe value chain, and the once shy to admit a strategy thatwould bring them to compete face-to-face with their owncustomers are now openly admitting that offering managedservices to specific vertical markets is an intrinsic part ontheir strategy. Furthermore, the new advent of high and veryhigh throughput satellites, whilst bringing huge amounts ofsatellite capacity to certain areas, are making it hard forteleport operators and service providers to own their ownplatforms to efficiently take advantage of the new spacecrafts,and easier for satellite operators to justify their quest to sellMbps and MHz. Whilst this seems all but good news forteleports operators, the reality of managing the huge amountsof capacity across multiple spot beams is rapidly bringingnew opportunities to independent teleport operators, assatellite operators must adopt a less centralised and moredisperse ground station architecture to tame the hundredthsof Gbps that new spacecrafts are able to process. The groundstation serving a communications satellite becomes a networkof teleports across vast geographical areas, interconnected
by a high-speed terrestrial backbone network, and far morepowerful data processing hardware and managementplatforms.
Verticalization of satellite operators is not a free-rideIn addition to this, verticalization of satellite operators is nota free-ride, but one that requires appropriate commercialchannels and business operations for each individual vertical(whether maritime, aviation, broadband, broadcast, etc). It isnot a simple matter of offering Mbps versus MHz but involvesa full engagement with the issues and needs of individualend customers. Each vertical has its own idiosyncrasy thatrequires a level of specialization at all commercial technicaland operational levels. Satellite operators will only besuccessful through strong partnerships with existingspecialised service providers, effectively going back to theold model of service providers and satellite operators workingtogether and focusing on those areas where each party excelsat.
On the other hand, the explosion of new technology andfinancing in the space sector is bringing new capabilities incommunications, Earth observation, GEO positioning andspace situational awareness applications. Whether it is GEO,MEO or LEO, telepor t operators serving satell itecommunications markets - as providers of critical missionground infrastructure and support - have the knowledge andexperience to support these fast expanding markets acrossthe whole satellite ecosystems.
Teleport operators need to adapt their strategyIt is easy to keep up with the ver tiginous speed oftechnological advances in the telecommunications industry,satellite not being less affected it its own ways. In a certainsense, whilst teleport operators need to adapt their companystrategy considering the current industry transformation, it isalso easy to get too distracted by it and lose focus on themost important thing of all: Our customers. Customersrelationships are built on trust, and trust is hard to build buteasy to lose. Customer excellence must by at the centre ofthe strategy of any successful long-term company and needsto be endorsed by all departments, commercial or operational,financial or corporate.
Santander Teleport Main Offices
Aerial view of Santander Teleport in Spain
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