By Catie Owen
Published: October 9, 2026
Executive Overview
For decades, the telecommunications industry pigeonholed satellite technology. In the collective imagination of mainstream network operators, satellite was a specialized, last-resort remedy: a high-latency, high-cost solution reserved exclusively for remote maritime vessels, offshore oil rigs, desert expeditions, and sparsely populated rural communities where laying fiber-optic cables was economically unviable. It sat safely at the periphery of the global network architecture—functional, but fundamentally disconnected from the core business of mainstream urban telecommunications.
That paradigm has fundamentally shattered.
Today, satellite communications (satcom) occupy a frontline, strategic role within mainstream telecommunications and enterprise network portfolios. Driven by surging demand for uninterrupted business continuity, rapid site deployments, and uncompromising network resilience, satellite has graduated from a niche tool to an indispensable pillar of modern digital infrastructure.
Ahead of Capacity Europe 2026, Olivier Gommes, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (CTIO) at Marlink—a global leader in managed network services—sat down to discuss this seismic shift. According to Gommes, the ongoing metamorphosis of satellite technology is not merely altering how remote areas connect; it is redefining how enterprise organizations, telecom operators (telcos), and service providers design, secure, and protect their entire digital ecosystems.
As the industry converges in London for the 25th-anniversary edition of Capacity Europe, the message is unequivocal: ignoring or dismissing satellite is no longer an option for forward-thinking connectivity providers.
Detailed Chronology: The Evolution from Periphery to Core
To understand how satellite reached its current status as a linchpin of modern telecommunications, one must examine the rapid convergence of orbital innovation, enterprise need, and operational necessity that has unfolded over the past several years.
The Era of Isolated Trials (Pre-2024)
Until recently, satellite integration within mainstream telecom portfolios was largely experimental. Telcos viewed satellite products through the lens of niche deployments or isolated proofs-of-concept. If an enterprise client required a backup link for an extremely remote mining outpost, a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system was bolted on as an afterthought.
During this period, technological barriers—such as higher latency, restrictive data caps, and bulky, power-hungry terminal equipment—prevented satellite from competing directly with terrestrial fiber or high-speed cellular networks. Consequently, the relationship between terrestrial telcos and satellite operators remained siloed.
The Leap to Production Scale (2024–2025)
The tipping point arrived as enterprise dependencies shifted. As digital transformation accelerated across every sector—from finance and logistics to retail and healthcare—organizations could no longer tolerate downtime. Traditional terrestrial infrastructure, while robust, proved increasingly vulnerable to physical cuts, environmental disasters, and geopolitical disruptions.
During this 12-month window, satellite deployments rapidly transitioned from localized trials to large-scale, production-grade environments supporting thousands of enterprise locations globally. Service providers began actively baking satellite options into their primary architectures, realizing that modern businesses required a multi-path connectivity strategy that seamlessly merged terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs).
The Mainstream Multi-Orbit Reality (2026 and Beyond)
Today, the conversation has moved past mere viability into sophisticated orchestration. The deployment of advanced Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations—alongside traditional Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) networks—has transformed satellite into a high-speed, low-latency asset.
As Gommes highlights, market awareness has matured exponentially. Enterprise customers and service providers alike are no longer asking if satellite works; they are actively evaluating how multiple orbital technologies, hybrid networks, and cellular architectures can interlock to deliver unbreakable, end-to-end digital experiences.
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Drivers of Satellite Integration
The rapid ascent of satellite infrastructure is propelled by a convergence of evolving customer requirements, multi-orbit capabilities, and structural vulnerabilities in traditional terrestrial networks.
Shifting Customer Demands: Resilience, Speed, and Security
A few years ago, customer inquiries regarding satellite were almost exclusively centered on geographic reach: “Can you get a signal to this remote location?”
Today, the dialogue has completely evolved. Enterprise customers approach their service providers with a tripartite mandate balancing resilience, application performance, and robust cybersecurity.
According to Gommes, modern enterprise requirements include:
- Instantaneous Site Deployment: Setting up temporary or permanent business locations in days rather than waiting months for terrestrial fiber trenching.
- Guaranteed Business Continuity: Mitigating the risks of network outages through automated, high-speed satellite failover links.
- Extended Enterprise Edges: Connecting IoT devices, automated logistics hubs, and mobile assets operating beyond the reach of traditional 4G/5G cell towers.
Furthermore, these connectivity needs do not exist in a vacuum. Gommes emphasizes that network performance, cloud computing architectures, cybersecurity protocols, and mission-critical applications are deeply interdependent. A change or failure in one tier directly impacts the others, requiring holistic, managed network strategies.
The Multi-Orbit Renaissance: LEO, MEO, and GEO
The technological renaissance currently sweeping the satellite sector is anchored by the proliferation of diverse orbital constellations. Each orbit brings distinct advantages to the table:
- Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Characterized by low latency and high data throughput. The expansion of established networks alongside emerging heavyweights like Amazon’s Project Kuiper ensures that LEO capacity is increasingly leveraged to backhaul robust LTE 4G and 5G cellular links.
- Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) & Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO): Providing vast coverage footprints and high-capacity trunking capabilities, serving as stable backbones for enterprise-grade applications.
Faced with this cornucopia of options, telcos and enterprise buyers encounter a paradox of choice. The sheer variety of constellations, orbits, and proprietary technologies makes managing individual vendor relationships a logistical nightmare.
This complexity has cleared a vital path for managed network service providers like Marlink. Operating as technology-agnostic intermediaries, these providers sit between the raw satellite ecosystem and the end-user service provider, knitting together multiple networks into a single, cohesive, and simplified service package.
Official Perspectives: Insights from Olivier Gommes
In the lead-up to Capacity Europe 2026, Marlink’s CTIO, Olivier Gommes, offered a candid assessment of the current telecommunications landscape, warning operators against common strategic missteps while painting an optimistic picture of the future.
Avoiding the "Connectivity Trap"
One of the most persistent pitfalls identified by Gommes is the tendency for service providers to focus too narrowly on the physical connectivity product while ignoring the sprawling operational framework required to support it at scale.
"A service like Starlink can appear very straightforward initially," Gommes explained to Capacity. "But enterprise-scale deployments quickly introduce additional requirements around billing, logistics, network integration, security, installation, support, and service management."
When enterprises roll out satellite links across thousands of global sites, the administrative overhead explodes. Telcos that attempt to manage these multi-vendor ecosystems entirely in-house often compromise customer service quality in favor of exhausting platform management. Gommes argues that partnering with experienced managed service providers allows telcos to offload these backstage complexities while preserving a seamless, high-touch experience for their end-users.
Protecting Network Infrastructure and Subsea Diversity
Beyond enterprise site connectivity, Gommes highlights satellite’s crucial role in safeguarding global critical infrastructure.
Recent global conversations surrounding the vulnerability of subsea fiber-optic cables have underscored the urgent need for diverse, independent connectivity paths. Because terrestrial and subsea pathways are susceptible to physical damage, natural disasters, and geopolitical interference, satellite infrastructure acts as an essential fail-safe.
By serving as a complementary piece of infrastructure, satellite underpins national and international business continuity strategies, ensuring that global data flows remain uninterrupted even when primary maritime cables are compromised.
Future Outlook: The Indispensable Business Opportunity for Telcos
As the digital revolution accelerates, the trajectory of satellite technology points toward deeper integration, broader enterprise adoption, and profound commercial opportunity.
For European telecommunications operators navigating an increasingly competitive, AI-driven, and cloud-reliant landscape, satellite is no longer a peripheral novelty. It is a vital financial and operational investment. Integrating secure, high-performance satellite capabilities into mainstream service portfolios enables telcos to capture new revenue streams, win enterprise accounts demanding absolute uptime, and future-proof their network architectures against unforeseen disruptions.
The transformation is complete. Satellite has stepped out from the shadows of remote outposts and positioned itself squarely at the heart of the modern telecommunications ecosystem.
Join the Conversation at Capacity Europe 2026
To dive deeper into these transformations, industry leaders can catch Olivier Gommes as he takes the stage during the Snapshot Presentations: Key developments shaping Europe’s digital infrastructure panel at Capacity Europe 2026.
The landmark 25th-anniversary edition of the event runs from 13–15 October in London, bringing together an estimated 4,000 decision-makers and C-suite executives from across the global fibre, data centre, cloud, and AI infrastructure communities.
For more information or to secure your place among the industry’s foremost pioneers, visit the official Capacity Europe Registration Portal.
