Date: October 9, 2026
Author: Catie Owen (Adapted by Global Infrastructure Insights)
Read Time: 12 minutes
Executive Overview
For decades, the satellite communications industry occupied a specialized corner of the global telecommunications ecosystem. It was widely categorized as a boutique utility—a high-cost, low-bandwidth fallback solution reserved almost exclusively for maritime vessels, remote rural outposts, and adventurous expeditions into the world’s most geographically isolated frontiers. Traditional terrestrial networks, comprised of deep-sea optical fiber cables and vast cellular grids, held an unassailable monopoly over mainstream enterprise and consumer connectivity.
However, the architecture of global connectivity is undergoing a seismic transformation. As modern enterprises digitize at an unprecedented rate, demand for continuous uptime, instant site deployments, and absolute geographic redundancy has skyrocketed. In response, satellite technology has evolved from a marginalized fallback into a foundational, high-performance component of mainstream telecommunications infrastructure.
Ahead of the highly anticipated Capacity Europe conference, Olivier Gommes, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (CP) at Marlink—a premier managed network service provider—sat down to discuss this paradigm shift. According to Gommes, satellite is no longer just an alternative option; it is a vital, strategic imperative for telecommunication operators seeking to future-proof their service portfolios. As Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations expand and hybrid network models mature, telcos are increasingly turning to managed service partners to navigate the intricate operational realities of next-generation space-based connectivity.
Detailed Chronology: The Evolution of Satellite in Mainstream Telecoms
To understand how satellite technology achieved its current status as a core pillar of telecommunications, it is necessary to examine the rapid evolutionary milestones that have characterized the sector over recent years.
Phase One: The Periphery (Pre-2023)
Historically, satellite communication was defined by Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites. While these systems offered vast geographic coverage, they suffered from significant latency issues due to their extreme altitude (approximately 35,786 kilometers above the Earth). Consequently, GEO satellite connections were largely restricted to voice communications, low-speed data transfers, and applications where real-time responsiveness was secondary to basic availability. During this era, telecommunications operators viewed satellite services through a siloed lens, treating them as specialized add-ons rather than integral parts of their core infrastructure investments.
Phase Two: The LEO Disruption (2023–2024)
The commercialization and deployment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations fundamentally altered this dynamic. Operating at altitudes ranging from 160 to 2,000 kilometers, LEO satellites dramatically reduced latency to terrestrial levels while simultaneously multiplying available bandwidth capacity. Enterprises began experimenting with satellite trials not just for remote sites, but as active secondary paths for business-critical operations. During this transitional period, market awareness expanded rapidly as early adopters realized the potential of blending terrestrial fiber with orbiting assets.
Phase Three: Scaling to Production (2025–2026)
By 2025 and into 2026, satellite connectivity crossed the threshold from isolated pilot projects into large-scale, enterprise-grade production environments. Telecommunications providers began moving past the experimental phase, systematically embedding satellite options into their core service portfolios. Today, thousands of business locations worldwide rely on hybrid networks that seamlessly orchestrate traffic across 4G/5G, fiber, and multiple satellite orbits. This shift has turned what was once a technical novelty into a mainstream enterprise expectation.
Shifting Customer Demands and the Rise of Hybrid Architectures
The catalyst for satellite’s modern prominence is not merely technological advancement, but a fundamental evolution in customer expectations. Modern enterprises operate in an environment where network failure translates directly into severe financial loss and reputational damage.
According to Olivier Gommes, customer inquiries have shifted decisively away from basic remote connectivity toward comprehensive network strategies.
"For telcos, satellite has become something customers increasingly expect to see as part of a connectivity portfolio," Gommes noted in his briefing with industry analysts. "Enterprise customers are asking about resilience, back-up connectivity, rapid site deployment, and extending connectivity into locations where terrestrial services aren’t always practical."
The Balancing Act: Resilience, Security, and Performance
Modern businesses evaluate connectivity through a triad of critical metrics:
- Resilience: The ability of a network to maintain operations during localized infrastructure failures, natural disasters, or subsea cable outages.
- Security: Enterprise-grade encryption and secure virtual private network (VPN) integrations that protect sensitive data traversing space-based relays.
- Application Performance: Low-latency, high-throughput capabilities capable of supporting cloud-native applications, real-time video conferencing, and heavy data workloads.
Achieving this balance requires a multi-layered approach. Because no single connectivity medium—whether fiber, cellular, or satellite—can fulfill every operational requirement in isolation, service providers are increasingly adopting hybrid models. These architectures dynamically route data packets across the most optimal available path based on real-time network conditions.
Navigating Operational Complexities: The Role of Managed Service Providers
While the commercial appeal of integrating satellite capacity is undeniable, telecommunication operators face significant operational hurdles when attempting to build these capabilities entirely in-house.
Managing a modern hybrid network requires dealing with a fragmented ecosystem of disparate satellite operators, proprietary hardware standards, evolving regulatory frameworks, and complex certification processes. Furthermore, deploying enterprise-grade satellite terminals—such as those associated with high-throughput LEO networks—introduces heavy administrative burdens regarding billing, global logistics, on-site installation, ongoing maintenance, and 24/7 technical support.
For many traditional telcos, absorbing these operational overheads is neither practical nor cost-effective. This structural challenge has created a vital market opening for specialized managed network service providers like Marlink.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
THE MANAGED SERVICE ECOSYSTEM
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| [ Diverse Satellite Constellations: GEO, MEO, LEO ] |
| (Starlink, OneWeb, Amazon Leo, etc.) |
| │ |
| ▼ |
| [ Marlink: Technology-Agnostic Managed Network Integration ] |
| - Unified Billing & Logistics |
| - End-to-End Security & Compliance |
| - Seamless Network Orchestration |
| │ |
| ▼ |
| [ Telecommunications Operators & Enterprise Customers ] |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+By positioning themselves directly between the underlying space infrastructure and the end-service provider, companies like Marlink abstract away the underlying complexity. Operating as a technology-agnostic partner, Marlink bridges the gap between different constellations, orbits, and service models. This allows telcos to offer robust, multi-orbit satellite solutions to their clients under a unified service-level agreement (SLA) without needing to manage the complex engineering machinery behind the scenes.
"A service like Starlink can appear very straightforward initially," Gommes warns, highlighting a common pitfall for service providers. "But enterprise-scale deployments quickly introduce additional requirements around billing, logistics, network integration, security, installation, support, and service management."
Supporting Context & Market Metrics
The integration of satellite into mainstream telecommunications is occurring against a backdrop of rapid industry transformation across Europe and global markets.
- The Multi-Orbit Explosion: The market is no longer dependent on a single orbital tier. The convergence of Geostationary (GEO) assets for broad coverage, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) for balanced latency and throughput, and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations—including SpaceX’s Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, and Amazon’s upcoming Project Kuiper—has given service providers an unprecedented array of architectural choices.
- Terrestrial Backup and Subsea Resilience: Recent vulnerabilities and disruptions in subsea fiber-optic cables have placed network resilience at the top of corporate and governmental agendas. Telecommunications authorities across Europe are actively mandating diverse, independent connectivity backups. Satellite networks provide an essential out-of-band redundancy layer that is entirely decoupled from terrestrial infrastructure.
- Capacity Europe 2026 Milestone: As the industry gathers in London for the 25th anniversary edition of Capacity Europe, over 3,500 to 4,000 decision-makers from across the digital infrastructure ecosystem—spanning fiber optics, data centers, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence—will confront the reality that terrestrial and space infrastructure must merge into a singular, cohesive digital grid.
Official Statements and Industry Insights
Olivier Gommes’ insights underscore a fundamental shift in how digital infrastructure is conceptualized. Connectivity can no longer be viewed as a series of disconnected silos.
"Connectivity, network performance, cyber security, cloud and IT, and applications are increasingly interdependent, so decisions in one area can have implications across the others," Gommes emphasized.
This interconnected reality means that service providers must approach network architecture holistically. Choosing a satellite partner solely based on peak bandwidth or initial cost without evaluating how the service integrates with existing cloud pipelines, security frameworks, and local cellular grids is an invitation for operational failure.
Furthermore, Gommes remains bullish on the long-term prospects of enterprise satellite adoption:
"We’ll continue to see strong uptake for enterprise connectivity, particularly where resilience and rapid deployment are important. Just as importantly, satellite will play a growing role in protecting network infrastructure and supporting business continuity strategies."
Future Outlook: The Indispensable Role of Satellite in the Digital Revolution
As the global economy accelerates its digital transformation, driven by artificial intelligence, edge computing, and real-time data analytics, the demand for resilient, ubiquitous connectivity will only intensify.
For European telecommunications operators navigating densely populated business hubs as well as remote industrial corridors, satellite infrastructure represents an immense commercial opportunity. No longer viewed as a peripheral technology for maritime or remote desert operations, satellite is now a front-line defense against network outages and a crucial enabler of agile enterprise expansion.
Over the coming years, the boundary between terrestrial and space-based networks will continue to blur. Direct-to-device cellular connectivity, advanced software-defined networking (SDN) over hybrid links, and automated multi-orbit switching will become standard operational procedures for top-tier telcos.
Organizations that recognize this convergence—and leverage experienced managed service partners to navigate the backstage operational complexities—will be best positioned to thrive in the next era of global digital infrastructure.
Olivier Gommes will elaborate further on these themes during his participation in the Snapshot Presentations: Key developments shaping Europe’s digital infrastructure panel at Capacity Europe. Industry professionals and decision-makers are encouraged to connect with global leaders in London to explore the evolving intersections of fiber, cloud, AI, and satellite infrastructure.
