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In announcing in its recent budget request that it would buy 50 more UAVs of the extended range category, the Pentagon sent a strong signal to the satellite industry that more communications-on-the-move (COTM) for UAVs would be needed in the coming years.
Recent news items from around the world give a strong indication as to the path that governments will follow in procuring satellite capacity in the coming years. The issue at hand is finding an answer to the ever increasing demand for bandwidth, and the solutions lies either with commercial satellites or a growing number of government-owned platforms. This means the impact on commercial operators’ revenues for government bulk leasing is at risk of declining, and here is why:
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EO data is often seen as fulfilling a 'public' service, much like toll-free highways serve the transportation and tourism industry. So if giving away free data seems to be the norm for the vast majority of users (have you seen a bill after using Google Earth recently?), why make users pay for it? 