Mobile Satellite Firms Scrambling To Secure Partners on the Ground

摘要

The world's five mobile satellite services (MSS) companies are seeking to use a U.S. regulatory quirk to leverage their modest ventures into multibillion-dollar businesses by adding a nationwide network of ground stations that would permit their satellite systems to reach practically the entire country. But they have at best 12-18 months to secure big-spending partners to help them pay for those ground networks, according to industry officials. Beyond that point, either competitive market forces, U.S. regulatory deadlines or both will likely consign anyone without a partner to the role of also-ran in the development of future wireless networks using spectrum in the United States that had been initially set aside for mobile satellite services.