Tag Archives: LEO satellites

LEO Satellite Constellations: From Capital Treadmill to Economic Flywheel

By | September 24, 2026
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I’ve been thinking about the economics of LEO constellations for some time, particularly as the industry moves toward larger constellations, greater vertical integration and increasingly diverse applications. The conventional argument is straightforward: scale lowers costs, lower costs enable more capacity, and more capacity creates more customers. But there is another side to the equation: satellites… Read More: LEO Satellite Constellations: From Capital Treadmill to Economic Flywheel »

T-Mobile + SpaceX Direct Satellite-to-Handset Service: Lots of Hype and Little Reality

By | August 29, 2022
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This will start as a technical post, but I will relate it to practical and commercial conclusions at the end. T-Mobile and Space-X announced a partnership to provide direct satellite-to-handset service using T-Mobile PCS frequency band. While this is new to Space-X, there are other players in the industry working on the same objective, primarily… Read More: T-Mobile + SpaceX Direct Satellite-to-Handset Service: Lots of Hype and… »

Is Direct Satellite-to-Device the Largest Opportunity in Satcom’s History?

By | November 17, 2021
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The direct satellite-to-device (DS2D) market is expected to reach $35 billion by 2030, and counting 400 million average monthly subscriptions driven by 5G technology (according to NSR). This is about $7/month. This highlights a very sensitive business case: constellations cost billions to deploy and operate; they need a refresh every 5-10 years. With much of… Read More: Is Direct Satellite-to-Device the Largest Opportunity in Satcom’s History? »

Latency in LEO Satellites vs. Terrestrial Fiber

By | July 7, 2021
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Latency is a key differentiating parameter for new communication networks such as LEO satellite constellations and 5G. The interest in latency has increased as the value proposition for these networks hinges on enabling latency-dependent applications. This got some competing technology options nervous. For instance, LEO satellites provide as much as 20x round trip delay advantage… Read More: Latency in LEO Satellites vs. Terrestrial Fiber »