Multi-orbit connectivity advocate SES is increasingly fielding requests from airlines for it to bid directly for their inflight connectivity business, according to management.

The Luxembourg-headquartered firm, which operates both GEO and MEO satellites, is accustomed to supporting the IFC industry though partners, providing GEO capacity to aero ISPs and integrators — the likes of Panasonic Avionics, Thales, and even Viasat.

Its mobility business, which is part of the firm’s Networks division, is enjoying nice momentum, achieving 11.1% year-on-year revenue growth in the first half of the year, including “single high-digit growth in aviation for new contracts” in support of IFC partners, management said during a 1H 2024 earnings conference call.

SES is also a managed service provider (MSP) under Airbus’ linefit, supplier-furnished HBCplus IFC program and has already been selected by an Airbus single-aisle customer to provide its multi-orbit MEO/GEO service for the undisclosed carrier’s new A320 family aircraft.

“In our IFC business, there is massive demand. Today, a lot of our business in that segment is through our partners,” SES chief executive Adel Al-Saleh said during the call.

He added:

We are getting pulled into a lot more airlines asking us to bid direct. In some cases, we include the partners, in some cases, they really want us to be bidding direct. So, we see the momentum and the opportunity of new airlines turning on connectivity in their airplanes to be very robust going forward.

This approach does not mean that SES is currently vying for work as an aero ISP (though that role will come in time when it completes its acquisition of Intelsat in the second half of 2025.)

“SES is not going direct to airlines now even though it can with [Airbus] HBCplus being a MSP. Instead, our strategy is to work with CSPs (Connectivity Service Providers) who provide complementary functions, primarily the ones related to ISP,” company senior vice president of aviation product management Aditya Chatterjee told Runway Girl Network in a post-earnings Q&A.

“Likewise with our latest announcement of SES Open Orbits, we intend to create a network which supports open architecture by combining standard technologies whenever possible to streamline implementation and ensure adaptability to the future,” added Chatterjee.

“We are choosing to develop the digital platform to integrate SES and partner networks around the world. The partners we have chosen to work [with] have the market access and knowledge to bring the SES Open Orbits service to regional and local airlines.”

SES Open Orbits espouses open architecture

SES Open Orbits is billed as being a “fully interoperable Ka-band platform” that combines the GEO and MEO networks of SES; plus service from NEO Space Group (NSG), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF); China Satcom subsidiary AeroSat Link (ASL); and Hughes Communications India (HCI), a JV between Hughes and Bharti Airtel Limited.

SES is already working to further grow the Open Orbits network. Chatterjee confirmed to RGN that SES is presently “discussing with additional SNO partners for selected areas of coverage”.

When responding to airline RFPs with its Open Orbits proposition, SES is offering Safran Passenger Innovations’ nextgen Ka-band terminal (inclusive of the ThinKom Solutions Ka2517 VICTS antenna), i.e. Airbus’ chosen terminal for the Ka-band under the airframer’s HBCplus program.

SES, through Safran Passenger Innovations, is also working on offering SES Open Orbits on Boeing aircraft via the Boeing TSA (technical service agreement) process.

SES Open Orbits is a retrofit-ready complement to these airframer linefit programs.

Describing the Open Orbits global Ka-band network in more detail during the recent C21 virtual conference, Chatterjee said:

We first off enable what we call open architecture. There is no closed part of this system. Any single equipment or component of the connectivity at least, the connectivity model, the connectivity offering can be procured individually, from specific partners, granted, but at the lowest level, they are available on a non-exclusive basis. That’s number one, it is a scalable open architecture.

What it also lets you do is [it can]  … enable a regional strong partner to join this ecosystem, if you will, and offer the overall service, and it’s a global service, to their regional airlines. It’s not closed. You can use that.

And finally, which is, I think, the most fundamental part of this is the assets used for the network are owned by multiple partners. One company such as us could own certain GEO assets, could own our MEO assets, other companies, other regions, other SNOs from other regions would bring in their assets and together we have created a seamless Ka, in this case, network, where CSPs or ASPs or ISPs can come in, bring their airlines and provide their airlines and their passengers a very superior global quality of experience.

Crucially, from a systems integrator standpoint, none of the aero ISPs own any proprietary hardware under this model. Nor do the network providers. And SES can model its solutions on the airframers’ offerings.

“What we do is we use the OEMs and their open architecture offerings for connectivity and make that available through, if you will, the I/ASPs to the airlines or directly to the airlines. It’s a new model,” explained Chatterjee.

“We don’t believe in going into the airlines and talk about retrofit, linefit, all of these elements which are very, very typical, critical because we are not the experts, we bring in the experts. They come in with us. And as an example, just so you can see how the offering could be made valid, we have relationships with the HBCplus ecosystem. We have the relationships with the Boeing TSA system. We have relationships with system integrators, and that combination of an OEM and a system integrator can offer any method of terminals, etc, open for the airlines to be installed in either a new aircraft or an existing aircraft. And again, as I say, if you look at the sub-component level, there is nothing proprietary about this. So that’s the idea.”

(As mentioned, however, SES will acquire that expertise with the Intelsat buy. A satellite operator and aero ISP, Intelsat has meaningful Ku-band IFC content in the world fleet and a strong backlog, with both GEO and multi-orbit GEO/LEO IFC solutions on offer. Intelsat is also a Ku-band MSP under the Airbus HBCplus program, which will be supported by an Airbus-supplied Safran Passenger Innovations terminal based on Thales/Get SAT’s dual-beam electronically steerable antenna. With Intelsat under its wing, SES will be a major powerhouse in IFC.)

In addition to being part of SES Open Orbits, SES, Hughes and Bharti Airtel Limited are members of the Seamless Air Alliance. And OneWeb, now Eutelsat OneWeb, is a founding member of the alliance (it will power the LEO service portion of Intelsat’s new multi-orbit IFC solution).

What SES is describing via the Ka-band Open Orbits network seems to mesh nicely with Seamless’ way of thinking.

“The Seamless Architecture and Interoperability Expert Group is led by Boeing and Airbus. The airline OEMs are anxious for standard equipment installation that can be easily customized as compared to accommodating network-unique hardware configurations. The Airbus HBC+ program offers tangible evidence,” Seamless thought leader Peter Lemme recently told RGN.

“The Seamless work programs are focused on driving software-defined or card-level interchangeability around a standard platform. Service providers can focus more on their own networks while depending on standardized equipment and provisions. Airlines can be confident that their aircraft can be configured easily to work with different service providers rather than rip-and-replace.”

Related Articles:

• Intelsat quietly grows backlog for multi-orbit inflight connectivity
• Managed service pedigree drives Hughes IFC gains including at Airbus
• Seamless Air Alliance seeks industry convergence with ESA partnership
• Airbus lays out ultimate vision for connected aircraft
• Undisclosed airline inks Airbus, SPI deal to take HBCplus as BFE
• SES to be prominent aero player with plan to buy Intelsat for $3.1b
• ThinKom on unsticking airlines with a sticky multi-orbit antenna

Featured image credited to Jason Rabinowitz