Satellite broadband sold bandwidth in the Asia Pacific region is forecast to reach 335.6 Gbps by 2026 from 127.2 Gbps in 2022, according to a IDC report.
The Asia Pacific region excludes Northeast Asia and India. Satellite broadband services market includes digital TV broadcast, consumer internet access, and wholesale enterprise bandwidth.
The main drivers of satellite broadband demand for capacity are both consumer internet access and enterprise connectivity requirements. The largest consumer internet demand will come from a number of markets in the region, including the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Satellite connectivity will be used to substitute for terrestrial access in remote areas and other regions that are underserved by terrestrial fiber or fixed wireless access.
Investment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and mega-Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellations and Geosynchronous (GEO) Very High Throughput Satellites (VHTS) in Southeast Asia and Oceanic region will drive wholesale and consumer retail prices down extending the price declines that began in 2015-2016.
The wholesale price drops will expand use cases that will become feasible to include cellular basestation backhaul, IoT gateways, satellite as a second broadband line, satellite for recreational vehicles and outdoor activities, and connectivity for yachts and private airplanes.
“Moreover, satellite operators launching new satellites are expected to utilize different frequencies in their payloads to serve different needs,” says Bill Rojas, Research Director for IDC Asia Pacific.
The number of enterprise services in operation (SIOs) will grow 10 percent from 29,370 in 2021 to 47,908 in 2026, a CAGR of 10.3 percent.
Satellite bandwidth revenue from enterprises will grow from $253.2 million to $427.1 million, a CAGR of 11.0 percent. Enterprise revenue will grow faster than the number of enterprise SIOs because the data usage per SIO will grow.
Another trend is the market share split between different end-user device / terminals frequency bands, which include L-Band (1-2 GHz), S-Band (2-4 GHz), C-Band (4-8 GHz), Ku-Band (12-18 GHz), and Ka-Band (27-40 GHz). Sold capacity growth will be primarily in the Ku-Band (27.1 percent) and Ka-Band (24.1 percent).
The reason that Ku-band will grow several percentage points faster than Ka-Band is the planned supply of Ku-Band in the region, followed by the use of Ku-band for end-user terminals in some of the larger LEO constellations.
Over the forecast period, IDC expects that Ka-band will dominate space-to-gateway links, and potentially by the end of the forecast period the V-Band (40-75 GHz) will also be introduced by some LEO and GEO operators.
