ROUNDTAble
The communications channel has gone through several phases of connectivity development: from the boom in the mobile sector in the 2000s, to broadband, and later to Ethernet. Could LEO satellite be the channel’s next major revolution? David Dungay explores why the technology is generating excitement, the new revenue opportunities it presents and how partners can get ahead of the curve LEO – the ‘Third Reinvention’ of Channel Connectivity
temperatures. Openreach quoted an eye-watering £30,000 for a leased line, which was so far out of budget it seemed nonsensical. 5G routers weren’t cutting it and so nothing changed until the site’s existing SoGEA circuit failed: BT engineers didn’t arrive for two weeks, a furnace broke down because it wasn’t being monitored properly, and families had to postpone their services. Only then did they present the business case for Starlink, which was up and running within days and enabled them to live stream services. For partners, the implications go beyond solving an immediate connectivity problem. How many similar conversations have stalled because the cost of a leased line couldn’t be justified, or because cellular connectivity wasn’t reliable enough? LEO offers an opportunity to revisit those customers with an entirely different proposition, potentially turning previously unviable projects into new revenue.
What happens when you bring together a provider, a customer, and six partners with more than 150 years of combined experience in the channel, business, and technology, and put them in the same room? You get a discussion free of empty words and exaggeration, yet full of blunt honesty. Comms365 recently hosted a roundtable to discuss the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite opportunity just weeks after launching its own sat365 proposition. Around the table were an existing construction customer, one partner a month into his first install, and several providers weighing up whether satellite belongs in their portfolio at all. But beyond the technology itself, there was a bigger question: could LEO represent the next major opportunity for the channel to generate revenue, strengthen customer relationships and open doors that have previously remained closed? With growing awareness of satellite connectivity and new commercial propositions emerging, partners have an opportunity to get ahead of customer demand rather than simply respond to it.
Satellite Use Cases Naturally, the attention in the room quickly turned to partners already selling LEO services and the customer success stories emerging. One story stood out in particular. A crematorium in eastern England needed a resilient connection to monitor furnace
Resilience vs Primary LEO satellite is a resilience play,
something you bolt on underneath fibre… right? Not necessarily, according to the end‑customer in the room. Coinford, a construction company situated near Gatwick, manages 35 active sites predominantly in areas with poor connectivity. The company’s IT director gave a clear account of their connectivity progress. They started with 4G routers before moving to 5G across all sites. This worked relatively well until one location failed and left staff flailing. After that, Starlink became the go-to connection option. Each site now has a small 9U cabinet containing an SD-WAN device, a switch, and the Starlink router, with the dish mounted directly on the cabin roof. The performance difference was staggering. Sites went from around 40Mbps on a SIM to 200-300Mbps.
David Dungay
34
01732 759725
Powered by FlippingBook