The updated version of the highly successful 2001 report focuses on the evolution of the broadband satellite market over the past 12 months and forecasts growth across multiple segments and regions over a five-year period.

The report concludes that, despite stagnant growth for most IP-based satellite services, opportunities are emerging through solutions development and penetration of unique vertical market segments.

Enterprises and (to a lesser extent) consumers now show an increased willingness to implement a satellite solution for specific IP-related applications. Enterprises alone generated $720 million in global IP-related satellite revenue in 2001, which represented 45% of the total broadband satellite market.

Consumer broadband satellite revenue was estimated to be $89.2 million in 2001 and was realized almost wholly through the launch of new two-way platforms. With an additional $752 million in global ISP backbone revenue in 2001, it is clear that broadband satellite revenue is not minor in size.

Despite the large amount of current revenue in the sector, significant hurdles exist for future revenue generation. The pending merger between EchoStar and Hughes/DirecTV has stalled progress in the consumer sector and will likely delay broader service rollout by 12-18 months. Take-up of IP multicast services in the majority of enterprise vertical segments has truly been disappointing.

The ISP backbone business is faced with declining lease costs, extreme competition and ever fewer opportunities. And despite the apparent opportunity to serve enterprises with access or networking services, many enterprise-focused vendors are forced to fold in the face of unrealized revenues and competition with Hughes Network Systems and Gilat (84+% combined market share).

"The broadband satellite market was never able to support the number of competitors that emerged during the height of the dot-com boom," states Christopher Baugh, principal analyst of Northern Sky Research and author of the report.

"However it is clear that both a current and future broadband satellite market exists. While we expect the market to still be constrained by supply, high costs, intense competition and technology limitations, Northern Sky Research expects total sector revenue to conservatively grow at 26% annually and thus reach $6.48 billion in global revenue in 2007."

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