Intelsat reaffirms 2016 expectations
April 28, 2016
By Chris Forrester
Satellite communications giant Intelsat reported that its Q1 revenues topped $552.6 million ($602 million same period last year) in the three months to March 31st, and a slight improvement on market expectations.
Intelsat said that its contracted backlog now stands at $9.3 billion (down from $9.4 billion as at December 31st).
President/CEO Steven Spengler said the operator is pursuing 5 operational priorities as it positions for future growth. ”Our strategy is centered on continuing to provide infrastructure to our current sectors, such as media, network services and government, but with an emphasis on services and innovative technologies that will position us to compete for approximately $3.1 billion in incremental revenue opportunity through 2021 for sustainable, new applications with high traffic volumes and that feature attractive growth rates. The applications comprising this growth opportunity include broadband for enterprise, wireless infrastructure, Internet of Things (“IoT”), and commercial aeronautical and maritime mobility and government.”
Helping this growth target is the arrival of its I-29e satellite which is now in full service and clients are transitioning to the new – highly efficient – satellite.
Spengler added: “The balance of our 2016 launch program remains largely on-track, with only a
slight in-service delay of three weeks for one of our satellites. Launch provider ILS notified us that Intelsat 31 is now scheduled to launch on May 28, 2016, delaying its in-service date and revenue start to early in the Q3.”
“Since February 22nd, 2016, Intelsat has signed nine additional Intelsat EpicNG agreements with customers, spanning applications including mobility, enterprise and fixed and wireless infrastructure and featuring a long-term, global commitment from aeronautical broadband leader Gogo. Of the total megahertz contracted during this period, substantially all is incremental business. Contract terms on the Intelsat Epic satellites continue to be favourable, with the average contract length ranging from five to six years, longer than that of the average fleet-wide network services contract.”