First Latin American Satellite Communication & Broadcasting Summit Held in Mexico City
by Virgil Labrador, Editor-in-Chief
Mexico City, June 10, 2014—The first the Latin American Satellite Communication & Broadcasting Summit (LATSAT) organized by Euroconsult in Mexico City was a big success. Held at the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel from June 4-5, 2014, over 100 executives from all over the Americas attended the event.
LATSAT was supported by the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Mexico’s Ministry of Communication and Transport, which hosted a dinner reception at the historic Museo del Telegrafo (Telegraph Museum) in Mexico City during the event.
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| Over 100 satellite executives from the commercial and government sectors all over the Americas attended the first LATSAT congress in Mexico City organizd by Euroconsult. |
Various speakers took turns in extolling the opportunities in the Latin American satellite market. They pointed out that projects of providing broadband access, e-governance along with the developments of Direct-to-Home (DTH) and HDTV will be the engine of growth for the satellite industry in Latin America. As a result, it is expected that in the next five years these type of projects will increase the requirements of satellite capacity in the region by as much as 30% or more.
The opportunities in the Latin American satellite market was discussed in detail in the panel on “Leading Commercial FSS Operators in Latin America” which featured speakers including: Javier Recio, VP of Sales and Marketing, Eutelsat Americas; Carmen González-Sanfeliu, Regional Vice President, Latin America & Caribbean Sales, Intelsat; Elias Zaccack, Senior Vice President, Commercial Americas, SES; Ignacio Sanchis, CCO, Hispasat; Lincoln Oliveira, General Director, Star One; Paul Bush, Senior Vice President, Business & Corporate Development, Telesat; and Erwin Mercado, Vice President of Sales, Latin America, ABS.
Among the newer players in the Latin American market is Hong Kong-based ABS, which is planning to launch in the first quarter of 2015, an all-electric satellite, ABS 3A, which will have coverage in Latin America. Erwin Mercado, ABS’ VP of Sales for Latin America said that they are very bullish about the prospects in the Latin American market, even if they are relatively new in the market where there are a lot of established players. He said that there is enough demand to justify several players in the market.
Carmen González-Sanfeliu of Intelsat said that Intelsat will have five new satellites in the next two years serving the Latin American market in anticipation of the growing demand in the region. She also said that in the face of intensifying competition, you might see more cooperation among satellite operators, citing their recent strategic partnership with Hispasat in the region.
The influx of new satellite operators in Latin American plus the new national satellite systems initiated by countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and others begs the question whether there is any danger of overcapacity in the region’s future. However, panelists seem to agree that there is sufficient demand in the region in the near term to accommodate all these new satellites.
Other panel session delved on various topics including “Prospects for VSAT Services and Solutions,” “Universal Access Programs,” and “Prospects for Broadband Access Over Satellite,” among others. In these sessions, representatives from government and commercial operators provided details on government programs to promote broadband access to rural and remote areas, e-governance and other projects that will be driving demand for satellite services in the region.
All in all the two-day conference covered a broad range of issues, with high-level participation from both commercial and government side of the satellite business in the region. Lorraine Whitfield, Euroconsult’s Director of Events said in her closing remarks of the conference, that LATSAT will be an annual event and invited everyone to the next conference in 2015 to be be held again in Mexico City.
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Virgil Labrador is the Editor-in-Chief of Satellite Market and Research based in Los Angeles, California. He is the author of two books on the satellite industry and has been covering the industry for various publications since 1998. Before that he worked in various capacities in the industry, including a stint as marketing director for the Asia Broadcast Center, a full-service teleport based in Singapore. He can be reached at virgil@satellitemarkets.com
