OW41: Under Siege

If I had to sum up this week in one punny line: “Mazes in motion: the orbits, the contracts, the regulators trying to keep up.” The satellite communications world continues to contort into more layers: GEO is no longer “legacy safe harbor,” LEO/MEO/NGSO are elbowing in, D2D talk is creeping louder, and VSAT suppliers are scrambling to be “multi-orbit capable.” Meanwhile, regulatory dancers are trying not to trip over themselves.

You could say that the incumbent GEO players are behaving like generals reluctantly handing over crowns to upstarts who can see the battlefield in high resolution. Meanwhile, LEO and NGSO operators feel their moment is arriving, and regulators (especially in the U.S.) are waving banners saying “streamline or perish.”