Satellite
transponders are a part of the payload of a satellite and are
used for receiving and transmission of uplinked signals. A single
satellite may contain around 15 to 35 transponders. The signals
transmitted from earth are received by the satellites at very low
power level due to the big distance difference between the
transmitter and the satellite. The transponders on the satellite are
configured to perform at different frequency range for different
transponders to amplify the low power signals received. The high
power amplifiers (HPA) present in the transponders perform the
function of amplification. The amplified signals are then
re-transmitted back to earth by the satellite.
The
global market demand for satellite transponders is constantly
increasing primarily due to the increase in growth of new subscribers
for Ku-band frequencies. Ku-band frequency is primarily utilized for
data, voice and video communications and thus is the most favored
frequency. Additionally, the increasing adoption of Ka-band frequency
for high-bandwidth broadcasting and communication has also positively
impacted the growth of the satellite transponders market. Subscriber
upgrades has been another driving factor for the growth of this
market. The growth in application sectors such as maritime broadband,
in-flight communications and machine to machine (M2M) have also been
boosting the growth of satellite transponders market. The expected
diversification and increase in applications in the coming years can
be expected to further boost the market.
By
frequency band, the global satellite transponder market can be
segmented into C-band, Ku-band, Ka-band, X-band and others. Ku-band
is the most widely utilized frequency band and holds the largest
market share by revenue. They are primarily used for commercial
satellite communications such as direct broadcast and voice broadcast
among others. Ka-band is the highest performing frequency band apart
from also being the most adopted band.
One
of the primary reasons of the fast adoption is the Ka-band’s
ability to compete against the traditional digital subscriber line
(DSL) technology. Government and military applications are mostly
limited to X-band and thus very few commercially operated satellites
are equipped with X-band transponders. Thus this segments growth is
expected to be much lesser as compared to Ka-band and Ku-band.
Due
to the requirement for large antennas and owing to the availability
of vast coverage, C-bands are mostly used for maritime communications
and is expected to record good growth during the forecast period. The
others segment covers frequency bands such as S-band and L-band. The
lack of proper infrastructure and the high growth of economy is
expected to render South America and Middle East, covered under ROW,
the highest adopter of satellite transponders during the forecast
period.
Some
of the key companies leading the satellite transponder market are
Arianespace SA (France), Intelsat S.A. (Luxembourg), Thales Alenia
Space (France), Airbus Group SE (Netherlands), Boeing Company (U.S.),
Lockheed Martin (U.S.), Orbital ATK, Inc. (U.S.), Loral Space and
Communications, Inc. (Germany), INVAP S.E. (Argentina) and Eutelsat
S.A. (France) among others.
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