SES is reshaping the connectivity landscape by bridging satellite and terrestrial networks to deliver seamless, reliable service for telecom operators worldwide. In an interview with Fierce Network’s Linda Hardesty, Jean-Philippe Gillet, president of the Fixed and Maritime Vertical at SES, explained how the company’s multi-orbit model—combining GEO, MEO, and LEO satellites—allows it to tailor solutions to diverse customer needs. From connecting remote cellular towers to enabling enterprise and disaster recovery services, SES is providing end-to-end managed connectivity that complements terrestrial infrastructure.
Gillet emphasized that customer expectations have evolved dramatically. Once considered a last-resort option, satellite technology now sits at the core of mobile operators’ strategies. SES’s focus on standardization, including integration with 5G Release 19, ensures that non-terrestrial networks can work seamlessly alongside traditional systems. The company is also exploring direct-to-device capabilities through its partnership with Lynk, bringing mobile broadband and IoT services directly to users anywhere on the planet.
Looking ahead, SES is investing in emerging innovations such as laser connectivity and quantum key distribution, paving the way for secure, high-capacity communication systems. By combining on-the-ground expertise with satellite innovation, SES continues to help operators expand coverage, improve reliability, and prepare for the next generation of global connectivity.
Linda Hardesty:
Well, hello everybody. My name's Linda Hardesty and I'm chief analyst for communications technologies at Fierce Network. And I'm here today with Jean-Philippe Gillet, president of the Fixed and Maritime Vertical at SES. Welcome Jean-Philippe.
Jean-Philippe Gillet:
Thank you very much, Linda. Thank you very much for having me.
Linda Hardesty:
So, I have recently written a Fierce network research report about satellite, and today we're just going to follow up with a few additional questions. My first question is, how does SES work with telecoms and mobile network operators today?
Jean-Philippe Gillet:
SES is providing integrated solutions for the mobile network operator. We support telco and mobile network operator by delivering fully integrated solutions. So, what does that mean? That means that we provide integrated solutions combining terrestrial solutions, multi-orbit solutions including GEO, MEO, and LEO solutions. And what we do with this is we really combining the different support in order to provide the right application on the right support and provide the right type of solutions for our customers. We provide also manage solutions we use and we leverage our network of partners on the ground. And I'm going to use a couple of examples of services we provide.
For example, in Europe, services we provide for Telefónica in Germany where we provide an end-to-end solutions for connectivity to some of the towers. We do that also outside of Europe. We have fully managed solutions in South Africa, for example, in Nigeria or in DRC. And as an example, in DRC we have up to 900 sites that we're providing fully managed. So, what does that mean? That means that we are also delivering solutions on the ground and very often we go to remote locations, very remote where we have people from SES delivering solutions on the ground and really supporting our customers end-to-end.
On top of these type of services, we also provide high throughput solutions in some of the locations where we complement fiber connectivity. That's what we call our trunking gateway solutions and that provides customers with really an alternative and a complement to our terrestrial solutions. We talked a lot about services we provide for connectivity to towers, expanding coverage for the mobile network operators. We also provide solutions for the enterprise and on the enterprise side, it's combining exactly the same technology as what I discussed, but really complementing and expanding the coverage for the enterprise services.
Of course, on top of all of this, we also provide disaster recovery solutions. That is really an important service today. Disaster recovery solutions are really key for our customers. In this time where we know there are some difficulties, potential earthquakes, potential hurricanes, that what we have seen recently, these are very valuable solution to be able to restore connectivity, restore some of the terrestrial network as quickly as possible.
Linda Hardesty:
Great, thank you for that summation. How have customer expectations changed in the past few years and do you expect them to change more in the future?
Jean-Philippe Gillet:
I think this is really where, this is fascinating. It's fascinating because a few years ago, satellite was really the last resort type of solutions and today, satellite is top of mind for all of the mobile network operators. And it's a combination of two things. It's a combination of having new technology and in particular low-orbit technology that makes it easier to deploy, but it's also a combination of having the right technology that is going to be integrated in a seamless way into the terrestrial network. SES has been really at the forefront of the standardization.
Standardization allows really the non-terrestrial solutions to be easily integrated using free GPP, using the future 5G release 19 as part of the technology development. And that makes it very easy for the customers to integrate non-terrestrial solution into their terrestrial networks. The performance expectation has also changed a great deal. Today, now our customers are really aware of the different orbits with GEO and the high reliability that it offers, MEO and the high throughput and the moderate latency that it offers on top of LEO. And having the ability to provide these free orbits for SES is really key as it allows us to deliver the right quality of service for the customers.
On top of this, we see that more and more of our customers are looking for solutions that are tailor-made for them and that's really a change of expectation for the customers and that's really a major development. I think it's also impossible to talk about the customer expectation without talking about direct-to-device. Direct-to-device is a hot topic today and SES is very proud of being involved with Lynk and being an early investor into the Lynk system. And we are partnering with Lynk in order to provide direct-to-device as a complement to our solutions, and direct-to-device could be also more than text and voice. It could be broadband, it could also be IoT services.
Linda Hardesty:
Yeah, direct-to-device is very exciting in the telecom world right now for sure. Okay, one final question. How do SES services differ from what competitors offer? What's the benefit of someone going with SES?
Jean-Philippe Gillet:
The first thing is you have an ability to lease services. You have an ability to deal with a company which has a multi-orbit operations and don't rely only on one solutions. We offer a full portfolio of services, at the same time as we custom design. So, we tend to adapt the solution to the customer requirements. We are very focused on the standard. Our core customers are the mobile network operators. We want to develop solutions for the mobile network operators and adjust the solution to the specific need of the customer. So, we are very much standard-focused, but at the same time, we are customizing the last part of the service.
We have people on the ground and that's really important when we offer solutions that we not only custom design, we do the engineering part, but we know how to install a site in remote location in the DRC, but at the same time, we know how to install a site and provide a maintenance service in Germany. So, it's a combination of all of these services, the ground and the satellite services that makes it different. But we're also looking at the future, we're looking at the future where we are discussing about quantum key distribution. We are discussing about laser connectivity.
We are discussing about the services that's going to be available in the next few years that could generate some additional source of revenue for our customers and we want to develop that jointly with our customers. We talked about that. This is really an exciting time for us to be involved also on the direct-to-device, but we don't look at direct-to-device as a single service. We look at the direct-to-device as something which is fully integrated in our portfolio of services. So, there is a lot of very exciting services that we are pulling together from connectivity to tower connectivity to enterprise customized services, fully standardized up to the direct-to-device on the services of the future.
Linda Hardesty:
Thank you so much, Jean-Philippe. It's been a pleasure to catch up with you.
Jean-Philippe Gillet:
Thank you very much, Linda.
Linda Hardesty:
I would encourage our listeners to check out the new satellite report, which can be found under the research tab on our website. Thank you everyone.