In IFC, multi-orbit is losing to LEO only
Credit: Gilat
Just a month ago in Washington DC, “multi-orbit” was the talk of the show at Satellite 2025. Multi-orbit, in aviation industry parlance, refers to the concept of pairing GEO and LEO services to achieve optimal service levels. LEO provides raw capacity and low latency. GEO provides video streaming, hub city coverage, and expanded geographic coverage (where LEO is not authorized). But the cracks in that thesis, which were already evident at Satellite 2025, became a fissure last week when Airbus reshuffled its line card for the company’s flagship HBCplus program.
But first, what’s wrong with the multi-orbit thesis? Panasonic COO, John Wade, who was previously the President of Commercial Aviation for Gogo for 12 years, was arguably the first major executive to question the multi-orbit orthodoxy. In 2023, just as Panasonic was concluding a major GEO capacity expansion with Intelsat, Eutelsat and APT Satellite, Wade declared the company’s new tagline was “leading with LEO.” Others are now joining the bandwagon.
Nancy Walker, Anuvu’s Chief Commercial officer, recently told ViaSatellite Magazine: “when we say multi-orbit, we mean LEO 99% of the time and GEO when we need it.” Not exactly a glowing endorsement of GEO, and that’s from a company with two smallGEOs in orbit.
Gogo is likewise repositioning to LEO as it faces a frontal assault from Starlink Aviation in its core business aviation market. Gogo struck a OneWeb distribution agreement in May 2022 followed by the unveiling of a OneWeb Electronically Steered Antenna (ESA) co-developed with Hughes. Finally in December 2024, the company acquired Satcom Direct, giving it a second ESA pathway along with highly complementary market access. The company’s investor pitch deck declared “LEO/ESA is the catalyst for dramatic penetration rate acceleration” in the Business Aviation sector.
Aircraft builder Airbus, who’s influence as an over IFC is almost unparalleled, apparently agrees. The HBCplus program, which serves as Airbus’ “pre-approved list” of hardware vendors and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), made a conspicuous shift in the direction of LEO. GetSat/Thales, which was selected to provide a dual-beam Ku-band antenna is apparently getting the axe in favor of a single-beam ESA optimized for LEO. But the biggest changes were in the Ka portfolio, where Viasat GX was removed in favor of Hughes and Amazon, neither of which currently possesses global Ka-band coverage.
Viasat, with 13 active GEO Ka-band satellites on orbit, was the natural choice for an IFC partner in a GEO-centric or multi-orbit world, but until recently Viasat lacked a credible LEO strategy. Earlier this month, Viasat inked a partnership with Telesat to distribute the company’s LightSpeed service, but the move was apparently too little, too late for Airbus (Telesat is trailing Amazon by ~2 years). The Viasat/Telesat combination should represent a compelling offering for airlines that value a multi-orbit solution and/or a (non-Amazon) Ka-band LEO service, and could become increasingly important to Viasat as more airlines opt for a LEO-only approach.
Echoing this point, Starlink Aviation, which serves business and commercial aviation sectors, recently announced that it has more than 3,000 aircraft committed to its LEO service. The vast majority, if not all, are presumably flying LEO only.
LEO constellations are offering blazing data rates, better look angles, and lower latency than their GEO counterparts. If GEO operators can’t find meaningful competitive differentiation, they risk ceding the IFC market to lower orbits.
SOURCE: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/04/airbus-adds-amazon-confirms-hughes-removes-viasat-gx-from-hbcplus/