Edinburgh / Paris / Washington D.C. / Montreal / Yokohama / Sydney, 2 September 2022. – Space consulting and market intelligence firm, Euroconsult’s Ground Segment Market Prospects report predicts the ground station segment to remain stable in the next decade with an annual growth of 1.4% and an expected market value of US $3.6 billion by 2031, driven by the growing demand for data and services.
Despite this stability, there will be a transformation towards very high throughput connectivity and non-geostationary (NGSO) constellations. NGSO constellations already count for most of the growth causing a huge surge in market value to the commercial user terminal segment. The overall satellite data traffic is projected to have a 7.8% compound annual growth by 2031. This will contribute to the acceleration of electronically steered flat panel antenna development, capable of tracking multiple satellites.
According to the report, the defence segment is facing a demand around the development of core ground stations and user terminals. The ground segment in general is predicted to see a transition from a role of hardware to technology suppliers. Software-definition will become key as satellite operators prefer virtualization rather than physical hardware, reducing costs and improving flexibility.
Ground Segment as a Service providers, especially Earth observation providers, are shifting the cost from capital expenditure to operating expenses. The report states, however, that the market will deflate as it matures to US $200 million by the end of the decade.
