Comtech’s company-wide blog — Signals — has debuted, offering timely information about the company’s financial and operating performance and how our technology meets the needs of the markets we serve.
This blog is being initiated at an exciting time for Comtech: the firm’s markets, customers and the technologies they need are all transforming, as businesses and governments everywhere are making significant investments in communications infrastructure.
As the company has noted over the past six months, Comtech itself is transforming: with new leadership, significant investment capital for our strategic initiatives as well as advanced technologies that the firm believes put Comtech in a leading position in two key end markets. Whether an investor, a customer or someone simply looking to learn more about how new technologies are changing the way we connect and communicate, this is the place to do it.
Stepping back, the markets Comtech serves has two key features: they’re large, and they’re growing in terms of importance. The customers, who include mobile network operators (MNOs), global industries, governments, and defense departments and agencies, all need communications and data transmission solutions that work every time, all the time and they are investing in meeting this need.
It’s why Comtech has coined the term “Failsafe Communications Market,” which describes the critical communications infrastructure that people, businesses, and governments turn to when, no matter where they are (land, sea, or air), and no matter what the conditions are (from armed conflict to natural disasters), they require durable, trusted connectivity.
Now, more than ever, it is clear that the Failsafe Communications Market is underpinned by multiple long-term, durable, growth drivers. Certainly, on the heels of a global pandemic, rising geopolitical tensions, and increasing instances of devastating natural disasters, businesses and governments everywhere are re-evaluating their communications infrastructures.
Setting aside what we might consider increasing “event-driven” demand, the most important demand driver Comtech sees? It’s the ongoing, and extraordinary, connectivity that defines this modern era. In addition to posts related to earnings, you’ll see the company use this space to discuss how they are commercializing this connectivity via the firm’s pipeline of contracts. Ahead of more specific articles about new wins, however, it makes sense to spend some time articulating how Comtech views their markets in general.
Mobile communications have served to not only connect people (in June of 2021, Strategy Analytics published data showing over half the world’s population now owned a smartphone) but everything around us, thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT). In fact, recent research by Ericsson estimates that around 18 billion IoT devices will be connected in 2022 alone.
Not only are there more people and more devices connecting and communicating, those people and devices are using exponentially more data. Thanks to advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), connected devices are becoming smarter and are trusted to behave autonomously. This includes everything from robots on factory assembly lines to the self-driving cars on roads today.
However, for those devices to work consistently and safely, they must connect, and remain connected, to secure networks all the time. More plainly, for example, it would be difficult to sell the Department of Transportation (and, the people driving on the same roads) on the idea that an 80,000 pound, autonomous, transport truck works, 80% of the time.
Further, data can be reincorporated into communications systems to increase their effectiveness. Using Comtech’s own next-generation 911 solutions, as an example, the company products has that route calls quickly and accurately as well as provide first responders with precise location data, caller information, live traffic, weather, routing, and DOT camera feeds, all into a single Common Operating Picture (COP). The Comtech platform securely links life-saving data directly to emergency service providers and first responders, improving response times and outcomes in any situation.
Finally, the firm is witnessing an important convergence taking place in the Failsafe Communications Market, thanks to advances in technology. Vast constellations of satellites are being deployed, by multiple global businesses, to facilitate always-connected communications and data transmission. Those constellations provide the capacity to supplement and bridge gaps in existing cellular communications networks. They mean 911 systems can operate when cell towers are down. They mean people can connect when there are no cell towers in the first place. It means that expertise in Satellite and Space communications confers a competitive advantage in 911 and Public Safety infrastructure, and vice versa.
For all these reasons, at Comtech, the company is incredibly excited about the future. While Comtech is excited about the strategic long-term direction of the firm’s markets, the company is also optimistic about the near-term, as well. Comtech expects to be able to formally announce several new contract awards that validate the capabilities and sophistication of the firm’s products to some of the most demanding customers in the world.
Comtech looks forward to staying connected with all — please reach out to them if there are any questions — if you’d like, subscribe to receive Comtech’s email alerts at this direct link…
