How non-terrestrial networks are finally making satellite more affordable

Details: James Barton; Category: Satellite Networks; 16 July 2025; 15627 views

Cellular operators cannot hope to match the coverage that satellite delivers, but this advantage has long made the technology prohibitively expensive for providing widespread connectivity.

While companies such as Starlink and Amazon Kuiper are using LEO satellite fleets in a bid to disrupt the market and make broader satellite access more affordable, the reality is that their offerings require major capital expenditure, and could struggle to remain profitable in the long-term.

So how can satellite providers find the sweet spot? One answer seems to be the emerging trend of increased convergence between cellular operations and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). This is beginning to lower the barrier to entry for satellite connectivity, with satellite providers seeing opportunities to connect millions more devices – both for consumer and enterprise use - by tapping into connectivity in areas where cellular signals cannot reach.

But how exactly is this enabled? Andrew Cavalier of ABI Research explains that the term ‘NTN’ is used loosely, but within the satellite community it refers definitively to a standard – a set of rules developed by the 3GPP to enable a more seamless network between satellites and terrestrial networks. This is achieved via terrestrial gateways or teleports that are connected to the 5G core, enabling the 5G waveform, signals and protocols to be transmitted through satellites, thereby creating a single, seamless network.

“When you talk to people outside of the space community, they might refer to NTN as any satellite or aerial connectivity solution, which is not technically wrong, but it does cause a bit of confusion”, says Cavalier.

NTN vs LEO

Adoption of this standard is somewhat fragmented across the market. Cavalier notes that several of the most hyped LEO fleet providers, such as SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile and Lynk, are not adopting the protocols and the standards put out by the 3GPP. Instead, they are partnering with operators and using the cellular waveform owned by these partners – they lease spectrum through which they can provide their services, whereas the NTN standard stipulates that satellite operators in this architecture must use their own waveform.

“This is a very different approach, and there's a lot of debate now whether this provides a good quality service”, says Cavalier. “The LEO satellites are quite small. The closer to the earth, the beam coverage is quite small, and you're still needing to travel hundreds of kilometres up to try to connect this phone all the way to a satellite.”

He notes that link budget – the measure of a signal’s received power - and speed are both issues, plus the service is only accessible in the region where the telco can operate; under the NTN standard, the satellite operator can provide services via their spectrum wherever they are licensed. The various players in the market are sceptical about their options; some, including SpaceX, are trying to enter the market quickly to gain market share, but Cavalier argues this isn’t necessarily the right approach – really, satellite providers should be looking to drive partnerships. The ability to connect to people anywhere – particularly in life-threatening situations such as natural disasters –represents a huge competitive advantage and therefore revenue opportunity. Cavalier notes that this is driving unification in terms of partnerships and new services.

Brian Aziz, Head of Global Sales at Iridium, concurs that terrestrial and satellite operators have identified the need for convergence, particularly following the 3GPP’s Release 17 standards, which support satellite connectivity. Iridium is a LEO provider, but has been in the satellite space for decades, with globally licensed spectrum and a fleet in active orbit – compared to some of the newer companies, Aziz argues that this is the firm’s differentiating factor.

“By partnering with global MNOs we're allowing their customers, whether it be on the consumer side or the IoT side, to roam onto our network as their use cases require”, says Aziz. “A lot of MNOs serve IoT verticals and markets, they have enterprises that deploy assets - sometimes in remote parts of the world - and utilising that same MNO SIM card or eSIM, they'd be able to roam onto networks as needed and then roam off as they go back into terrestrial coverage.”

NTN for IoT

This convergence helps to expand the scale of satellite IoT use cases while reducing the cost. Aziz notes that following the introduction of 3GPP standards, it’s now more common for customers to deploy a single IoT module that features both a satellite transceiver as well as cellular mode, rather than two separate units.

“That same single module that supports LTE/5G cellular connectivity will also support satellite connectivity, so there's no change in the hardware to manufacture an end device, or the cost to the customer”, says Aziz. “There is no additional hardware, there is no new antenna, there's no new battery, there's no change. It's a software stack that's being built and designed to enable that connectivity onto the satellite network. That translates into lower cost devices for users that want to enable satellite connectivity.”

This facilitates use cases on both the consumer and enterprise side. Cavalier cited a case study in which Intelsat connected heavy machinery for mining, which mitigates risk for personnel but requires a constant network connection – and this can be challenging at a remote site. If for whatever reason the connection drops out, having the satellite layer ensures a backup to keep the connected, semi-autonomous vehicles functional – and in addition, it expands their range, allowing them to operate in a wider area.

“Another example is agriculture - there's a lot of devices now that are getting used to connect and monitor crops, or the conditions of the farming environment. If they're in a remote area, this satellite connection is especially useful”, said Cavalier.

Bringing down cost barriers

On the consumer side, Aziz notes that NTN and cellular convergence enables a pricing model in line with what a user would expect from a typical cellular service. “From Iridium’s perspective, the plan is to come into the market extremely competitive, and lower that barrier to entry in terms of satellite operations. There will be always some sort of premium for the satellite connectivity because it is more expensive to operate than the terrestrial side.”

However, NTNs will enable higher customer volumes, and this is likely to drive costs down – satellite operators will reduce prices if they’re reaping the benefits of being part of a larger cellular ecosystem.

“I don't think that the price for utilisation is going to be a barrier anymore”, says Aziz. “I don't think that the price of hardware and devices will be a barrier anymore because it's going to be on that same device they're buying today. Because a user will have the seamless ability to move from terrestrial to satellite, it should also make it a very simple deployment.”

“As these devices and these services proliferate, the scale will cause a reduction in price and make them more affordable”, agrees Cavalier. “A big component of this is the proliferation of satellites themselves. As more capacity and more services and more competition comes online, the price war is inevitable.”

Large new constellations are launching from different markets, such as Amazon Kuiper from the US and SpaceSail from China, but will compete for the same markets, so they will need to find ways to differentiate themselves. Cavalier notes that established companies such as Iridium and GlobalStar can no longer afford to leave unaddressed markets off the table, and so are providing more competitive pricing. Cavalier expects the level of variance and flexibility to reach the point where customers can pay for exactly what they need, with tiering providing different levels of connectivity. For example, while Apple and GlobalStar have an agreement in place that allows Apple users to access emergency services via satellite for free, users would need to pay more for a package that provides text messaging or data.

“There's a lot of question marks about LEO - a lot of countries and companies have announced they're going to launch it, and what they're going to figure out is that LEO is really expensive. It's very capex intensive, and it's not so easy to maintain, because you have to constantly launch and deorbit these satellites - it's not like you just plant it and leave it, like a lot of telcos might have to do. There's a lot of costs that go into running these, and I think ultimately this is going to be the challenge of bringing down costs for a lot of these companies.”

NTNs could be the solution to this, but of course the costs must be balanced with customer expectations. If customers will only consider services without paying the satellite premium, satellite providers will hit a limit on keeping their business cases viable. But at this point, with NTNs making satellite more affordable than ever and enabling IoT and enterprise use cases across the sector, there is a lot of promise.