By Chris Forrester
Steve Collar welcomed SmallSat participants to Amsterdam in the Netherlands as a Dutch resident of 25 years, and explained how his new role at SWISSto12 had come about, and what the company offered. He was previously CEO at SES.
Collar told delegates that the industry that everyone in the room was involved in, was ‘cool’. Indeed, SWISSto12 was on a terrific journey, with 40 patents in its portfolio and was the first emerging player to win a contract to get a satellite to GEO. Making our satellites smaller, cheaper and thanks to 3D additive manufacturing helped propel the business to its present place.
But, he said that broadcast, and DTH in particular and a key revenue earner for satellite operators was absolutely in decline. Broadcast revenues to the satellite industry peaked in 2015.
He suggested that industry mergers and acquisition activity was profound although some of the marriages had yet to settle down. “I think Direct-to-Device offers tremendous potential although in my view satellite is not likely to replace ground-based connectivity.”
“Smaller, faster and cheaper” was SWISSto12’s mantra, he said. “By being more nimble we can offer flexible satellites for our clients, and these depend on HummingSat. Every nation on the planet now better understands that satellite solves their demand for sovereign independence.”
