Editor's Note:

President Xi Jinping is scheduled to tour satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat on Thursday as part of his state visit to the UK. The London-based company provided satellite data to help search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Ahead of President Xi's visit, Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat, shares his insights into China's market for mobile satellite communications services in an exclusive interview with the Global Times. 

Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat Photo: Courtesy of Inmarsat

 

Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

With third- and fourth-generation telecom services becoming increasingly prevalent in China, it seems to many average smartphone users in the country that mobile broadband coverage offered by the nation's telecom operators represents the whole picture of wireless Internet access.

That's certainly not the case, as demand for mobile satellite communications services in China - a vast country with very diverse geography - has grown strongly across the board. That has made the small, specialized industry serving niche communities, which are normally only reachable over satellite communications, increasingly visible.

There is lots of demand in China for mobile satellite communications services in maritime and aviation transport. That applies not only to business jets but also commercial airliners. There is also robust growth from media businesses to support mobile newsgathering.

Many different types of Chinese companies are adopting mobile satellite communications services, ranging from very local capabilities inside China, to extended broadband communications in remote and rural areas, and even to fishing villages. We also see increasingly that large multinational Chinese companies are adopting mobile satellite services to support their globalization.

The two highest-growth businesses globally for Inmarsat, the world's largest mobile satellite services operator, are aviation and machine-to-machine services. China is expected to also have high growth in the area of mobile satellite services being deployed in aviation, which enables connectivity to the cockpit and aircraft operational systems, as well as passenger connectivity.

It's especially noteworthy that in the wake of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 tragedy (Inmarsat provided satellite data to help search for the missing Boeing 777), we've seen renewed interest from airlines and international air safety bodies to introduce mandatory tracking. To prevent a similar tragedy from happening again, Inmarsat has offered a new service called Black Box in the Cloud. That would allow people to stream in real-time voice data records and file data record information from the cockpit in an emergency, providing enhanced situational awareness, which could be very important in a situation like that of MH370.

People found it hard to believe that a Boeing 777 could just disappear. There is a need to restore confidence among air passengers by showing that we can track aircraft effectively and that we can get situational awareness from aircraft so we can take appropriate action. Chinese airlines have shown a keen interest in adopting the new techniques.

As for machine-to-machine connectivity, which is about the Internet of Things enabled via big data and increasing sophisticated management of networks of machines, China, rising as a high-tech hub and an innovative country, is adopting these new techniques using mobile satellite capabilities to drive more efficient businesses and new business models.

Also, satellite services' reliability and resilience to cyber attacks are particularly attuned to the needs of Chinese users, who have become increasingly concerned about information security and privacy issues. It should be recognized that cyber resilience is becoming more and more of a problem as machines start to talk to each other. 

Satellite services are inherently more cyber resilient, as they are heavily encrypted, and they don't touch the Internet until you want them to. They essentially constitute a private network in space. And that is very valuable if you're looking to survive a cyber attack, or if you're looking to raise certain mission-critical services to the level of resilience that you need.

The individual consumer segment is also set to become promising in China, with the government moving to promote longer holidays in an attempt to boost tourism. That would mean rising demand for broadband connectivity on the move. With devices that enable mobile satellite commutations connectivity becoming increasingly affordable, and increasingly attractive in terms of design, it is believed that mobile satellite services will gradually become a part of everyday life.

That being the case, satellite broadband communications will play a role in enabling a digital society to expand further in China. The biggest single obstacle, it appears, is how to get the message out to people about the relevance of mobile satellite services.

As regards the impact the business can have in China, I would say that China is an incredibly vibrant industrial country, and it's still growing. Though people talk about the slowing economy in China, the growth rate is still far greater than in other parts of the world. It remains a very exciting economy to serve in terms of that kind of growth.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Li Qiaoyi based on a recent interview in Beijing with Rupert Pearce, CEO of London-based satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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