Global Satellite Capacity Price Drops After Starlink Appears

JAKARTA Euroconsult, a consulting firm for the space sector, shared analysis of bandwidth prices or satellite capacities. The report shows price shifts.

Over the past five years, the price of satellite capacity has continued to decline due to various factors. One of them is because high-throughput (HTS) satellites from geostationary operators and orbital non-geostationary satellites (NGSOs) are increasingly popping up.

One of the most recognized NGSO satellites isStarlink. Since SpaceX has massively supplied the satellite, the global average capacity price has fallen by 77 percent. This decline occurred in just five years.

This decline is more clearly seen in the data market due to the abundance of supply from NGSO (mainly Starlink) and HTS systems, while the video market is experiencing a smaller decline, Euroconsult said in a released report.

Meanwhile, Euroconsult Senior Consultant Grace Khanuja said that satellite operators earn an average per user (ARPU) of US$260 (Rp4 million) per month for each megabit capacity per second.

APPU's revenue in 2023 is influenced by the presence of Starlink. This is because SpaceX's satellite has a very affordable price that triggers structural changes in the services offered in the industry.

The pocket-friendly price of Starlink and the availability of higher service packages have triggered structural changes in the industry from leasing wholesale capacity to a more manageable solution that creates a wave of alignment of interplayer strategies, Khanuja said.

The consultant explained that operators prefer to serve final customers directly through managed services. As a result, service providers switch widely from capacity management and focus on added value.

So far, SpaceX has had more than 5,400 Starlink roadband satellites. Of the thousands of satellites, SpaceX has 2.2 million subscribers from various countries. Thus, it is not surprising that Starlink's presence could change market prices.