By Catie Owen | Regional Content & Insights Lead
Published: 09 October 2026
Executive Overview
For decades, the satellite telecommunications sector occupied a specialized corner of the global connectivity ecosystem. Historically regarded as a niche utility reserved for maritime vessels, remote desert expeditions, and rural outposts beyond the reach of traditional fiber optic cables, satellite technology was rarely viewed as a pillar of mainstream communications infrastructure.
Today, that narrative has fundamentally reversed. Propelled by rapid advancements in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations, shifting enterprise demands, and an escalating corporate obsession with network resilience, satellite communications (satcom) has evolved into a strategic, mission-critical component of modern telecommunications.
In the leadup to the flagship Capacity Europe conference, Olivier Gommes, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (CTIO) at Marlink, sat down with industry analysts to discuss this paradigm shift. As a premier managed network service provider, Marlink has positioned itself at the nexus of this transformation, partnering with traditional telecommunications operators to weave satellite and hybrid architectures into enterprise service portfolios.
As satellite technology transitions from a niche alternative to an absolute operational necessity, telecom operators face a critical question: How can they harness these complex architectures to deliver seamless, resilient solutions for their customers? This article explores the changing customer landscape, the operational hurdles of enterprise-scale deployments, the convergence of multiple orbits, and the future outlook for satellite infrastructure in a hyper-connected European digital landscape.
Detailed Chronology: The Evolution of Satcom in Mainstream Networks
To understand where the industry stands today, it is essential to trace the trajectory of satellite adoption over recent years. The journey from experimental trials to large-scale production environments has accelerated dramatically, shifting the strategic priorities of telecommunication providers worldwide.
The Era of Isolated Deployments (2020–2023)
At the dawn of the decade, satellite integration was largely experimental. Enterprises viewed satcom primarily through the lens of disaster recovery or point solutions for unreachable geographical sites. Telecommunications operators offered satellite connectivity as a siloed, tertiary product rather than an integrated component of their core service portfolios. Technical limitations, high latency associated with traditional Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, and steep hardware costs kept satcom on the fringes of mainstream enterprise architecture.
The Hybrid Awakening (2024–2025)
As digital transformation initiatives accelerated across Europe, the limitations of purely terrestrial networks became increasingly apparent. Incidents involving subsea cable cuts, localized power outages, and soaring bandwidth demands forced enterprises to re-evaluate business continuity strategies. During this period, the deployment of next-generation LEO constellations—such as the rapid expansion of Starlink and OneWeb—began to bridge the performance gap between terrestrial fiber and satellite links. Operators started moving away from siloed satellite trials, exploring hybrid network models that combined 4G/5G, fiber, and satellite backhaul.
Mainstream Production and Scale (2026 and Beyond)
By 2026, satellite integration crossed a vital threshold, shifting from isolated implementations to large-scale production environments spanning thousands of enterprise locations worldwide. Telecommunications providers are no longer asking if they should incorporate satellite into their portfolios, but how they can do so efficiently without overwhelming their internal operational resources. Satcom has officially cemented its status as an indispensable pillar of modern digital infrastructure, driving new revenue streams for telcos as the acceleration of cloud computing, AI, and edge applications demands absolute network uptime.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Shifting Customer Demands and Technological Realities
The rapid mainstream adoption of satellite technology is driven by a fundamental shift in what enterprise customers expect from their network service providers. According to Marlink’s Olivier Gommes, the modern enterprise buyer is no longer solely concerned with basic connectivity; instead, they demand a sophisticated balance of resilience, application performance, and robust cybersecurity.
The Triad of Enterprise Needs: Resilience, Performance, and Security
In Gommes’ experience, contemporary enterprise customers evaluate network infrastructure through an interconnected lens. Connectivity cannot be viewed in isolation from cloud services, IT architectures, and security frameworks.
- Resilience and Business Continuity: With global supply chains, financial transactions, and cloud-based operations relying on continuous uptime, organizations can no longer afford downtime caused by terrestrial network failures. Subsea cable vulnerabilities and land-based infrastructure disruptions have highlighted the urgent need for diverse, independent connectivity paths.
- Rapid Site Deployment: Traditional fiber rollouts can take months or even years of regulatory approvals, civil engineering, and physical cabling. Satellite allows enterprises to establish high-speed, secure sites in a matter of days.
- Application Performance: Modern enterprise applications—ranging from real-time data analytics to AI-driven automation—require low latency and high throughput. The emergence of multi-orbit strategies (combining GEO, Medium Earth Orbit, and LEO) ensures that service providers can tailor performance profiles to exact application requirements.
The Multi-Orbit Landscape and Flexibility
The current market offers a staggering array of options. Different constellations, varying orbital altitudes, and diverse service models all play distinct roles in the modern connectivity stack. For service providers, managing this complexity requires absolute flexibility.
Marlink has navigated this landscape by remaining entirely agnostic to specific satellite technologies, operators, or orbital architectures. This agnostic approach enables service providers to evaluate client needs on a case-by-case basis, curating custom hybrid solutions that seamlessly blend terrestrial and extraterrestrial assets.
Official Insights: Perspectives from Marlink’s Olivier Gommes
Speaking ahead of his participation in the Snapshot Presentations: Key developments shaping Europe’s digital infrastructure panel at Capacity Europe, Olivier Gommes emphasized that the greatest challenge for telecom operators is not understanding the technology itself, but managing the operational overhead that comes with it.
"For telcos, satellite has become something customers increasingly expect to see as part of a connectivity portfolio," Gommes explained to Capacity. "Enterprise customers are asking about resilience, back-up connectivity, rapid site deployment, and extending connectivity into locations where terrestrial services aren’t always practical."
Despite surging demand, Gommes warned that many service providers are reluctant to shoulder the complexities of managing multiple satellite operators, navigating diverse technology roadmaps, certifying equipment, and handling multi-model support.
This operational friction has created a vital market position for managed service providers like Marlink. By sitting between the complex satellite ecosystem and the service provider, Marlink harmonizes disparate networks and technologies into a single, integrated service offering. This abstraction layer simplifies the go-to-market process for telcos, allowing them to deliver advanced connectivity without expanding their internal engineering overhead.
Furthermore, Gommes cautioned against a common pitfall in the industry: focusing too narrowly on the connectivity product while ignoring the operational infrastructure beneath it.
"A service like Starlink can appear very straightforward initially, but enterprise-scale deployments quickly introduce additional requirements around billing, logistics, network integration, security, installation, support, and service management," Gommes noted.
As enterprise customers come to expect these operational requirements as standard, service providers must leverage experienced managed service partners to handle the backstage complexities, ensuring that customer service and platform management do not become compromised.
Future Outlook: The Next Decade of Satellite-Terrestrial Convergence
As the digital revolution accelerates, the convergence of satellite and terrestrial networks will redefine the boundaries of global telecommunications. Looking toward the horizon, several key trends are set to shape the European digital infrastructure landscape over the coming years:
1. The Rise of Multi-Constellation Dominance
The commercial maturation of upcoming LEO constellations—alongside the continuous expansion of established networks like Starlink and OneWeb—will inject unprecedented capacity into the global market. Gommes highlights that upcoming constellations, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper, will play an instrumental role in reinforcing 4G/5G LTE links, providing robust cellular backhaul for remote and densely populated areas alike.
2. Reinforcing Subsea and Terrestrial Arteries
Recent geopolitical and environmental disruptions to subsea cables have underscored the fragility of intercontinental data transit. Satellite infrastructure is increasingly recognized as a vital insurance policy for global traffic. By providing an independent, diverse connectivity path, satellite networks ensure that international data highways remain operational even when physical terrestrial cables are compromised.
3. The Commercial Imperative for Telecommunication Operators
For European telcos operating in intensely competitive, business-centric environments, ignoring satellite is no longer an option. As digital reliance deepens, secure, reinforced, and hybrid telecommunications networks represent vital capital investments. Satellite technology offers forward-thinking operators a lucrative business opportunity—one that will soon become indispensable in maintaining competitive market advantage.
Conclusion
The transformation of satellite communications from a niche utility into mainstream core infrastructure marks a defining chapter in telecommunications history. Through the strategic insights of industry leaders like Marlink’s Olivier Gommes, it is clear that the future of connectivity lies not in choosing between terrestrial and extraterrestrial networks, but in their seamless integration.
As industry decision-makers gather in London for Capacity Europe 2026 (October 13–15), conversations surrounding multi-orbit flexibility, operational management, and infrastructure resilience will take center stage. For telecom operators willing to embrace the complexity of hybrid networks, satellite is no longer just an alternative path—it is the gateway to the future of global connectivity.
To connect with industry leaders across fiber, data centers, cloud, and AI infrastructure, and to hear more from Olivier Gommes and other digital infrastructure experts, register to attend Capacity Europe 2026 in London.
