The Satellite Show 2020 was a hardware-centric haven that reveled in the more grounded side of the new space race.

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

March 13, 2020

13 Slides

Like a lot of things in recent days, the Satellite Show in Washington DC, ended earlier than planned as the DC health department, on Wednesday, recommended that all events over 1,000 people be postponed due to the spread of COVID-19.

From the stage, the satellite provider executives were eager to discuss 5G, but not as a big threat to their existing broadband businesses.

At first, 5G will simply be a money-spinner for satellite backhaul, according to Pradman Kaul, CEO of the Echostar subsidiary Hughes Network Systems. "The number of cells will increase dramatically, and it should result in this backhaul business growing significantly, and satellites can do that as good as any other technique, any other technology," Kaul said during the Tuesday morning panel keynote.

"Clearly, it's going to be a competitor to our satellite business," Kaul said, but noted that in the next five years, he believed that most investment would be in high-density cells and in covering densely populated cities. "We're focused on the unserved and the underserved markets and we'll continue to do that and, while 5G will encroach on it and some on the edges, I still think there's enough of a business in the unserved and underserved markets, satellite world," he said.

Outside of the big speeches, there was a lot of big hardware on the show floor and some good gimmicks as well. Here's a sample of what we saw in the not-too-densely populated show, as the event's attendance looked to be about half of its expected number of around 15,000 people.

Click on the photo below to launch the "slideshow":

Figure 1: We have liftoff! SpaceX sponsored a coffee counter outside the main registration area and it was easily the most popular stand at the whole show. SpaceX sponsored a coffee counter outside the main registration area and it was easily the most popular stand at the whole show.

Or click here to see the images on a single page. And wash your hands when you're done.

Phil Harvey, US Bureau Chief, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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