Last summer, a few days were spent in Chacaua, a remote fishing village set in a lagoon along Mexico’s Pacific coast. The landscape stretched to mangroves, sand, and water, with human presence scarce. Yet even there, a signal found its way to the mobile device. It wasn’t via traditional towers or submarine cables but through satellites circling roughly 535 kilometers above the head.
That connectivity came from Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet project. The venture, once showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2021, is rapidly shaping a market that is growing in importance. Starlink now operates thousands of low Earth orbit satellites, claiming a sizable share of the orbital infrastructure around Earth.
In the spotlight alongside Starlink and Kuiper, Amazon’s satellite constellation, other players have gained traction since a governance framework for satellite networks took hold in 2022. The milestone year also saw a major smartphone leap when the iPhone 14 became the first handset to offer satellite connectivity, signaling what lies ahead. The sector’s strategic relevance was underscored at the Mobile World Congress 2024, where satellite startups presented plans in the Gran Via hall of the Fira de Barcelona and debated market directions in sessions organized by GSMA, the fair’s organizer.
“Nanosatellites are transforming the industry. It is a shift that won’t be undone,” explains Jaume Sanpera, cofounder and CEO of Sateliot. In May of the previous year, Sateliot marked a milestone by launching a satellite that provides 5G coverage for the Internet of Things, a concept spanning devices from vehicles to household gadgets and beyond.
Connectivity as a lucrative business
More companies are committing to deploying swarms of satellites to deliver network access anywhere on the globe. The goal is to help close the digital divide. When momentum builds, this technology is expected to reach around 600 million people without coverage and another 300 million with limited connectivity.
This wireless approach also opens doors to a bold business model. Sanpera tells a publication that Sateliot has agreements to connect six million devices in remote areas of the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico. He notes that this is about one and a half times more than what the industry has connected in the past twenty years, asserting that service launches in the second half of 2024 will be carried out with partner operators. He believes the disruption from this strategy will compel the satellite sector to move forward.
Another heavyweight in the field is OneWeb/Eutelsat. Since 2019, the company has placed more than 650 satellites into orbit, with a focus on communications and meteorological data collection. Their reported profits approach 2.15 billion euros. The leadership describes it as Europe’s answer to Starlink and Kuiper, underlining a regional alternative within a global market.
Satellites are already supporting communications in emergency settings across sectors like maritime, transport, and agriculture. Looking ahead, a broader transmission of data is anticipated, enabling voice calls, text messaging, and video viewing from virtually anywhere on the planet, according to a senior executive of Lynk Global, an American company advancing these capabilities.
As the satellite industry evolves, the emphasis seems clear: more players, broader coverage, and the potential to redefine how connectivity reaches distant and underserved regions. The coming years are expected to reveal a new normal for global communications, driven by orbital networks that pair with traditional infrastructures to keep people connected everywhere.