Starlink’s rapid ascent has transformed the satellite communications (satcom) industry. Its unmatched launch cadence, falling cost per Mbps, and swift adoption across consumer, aviation, and maritime markets have placed sustained pressure on traditional geostationary (GEO) operators. Rather than attempting to match LEO constellations on scale or pricing, GEO players are aligning around a pragmatic three-pillar approach - the M3 strategy: mergers and acquisitions, multi-orbit integration, and managed services.
The disparity in capacity between GEO and Non-GEO systems is stark, with non-GEO accounting for nearly 99% of total HTS supply. Given this gap, competing on scale or price is unrealistic. Consequently, GEO players are consolidating and evolving, from being mere capacity providers to becoming orbit-agnostic platforms delivering managed connectivity solutions.

1. Merge - scale and portfolio depth as strategic enablers

Consolidation forms the first pillar of GEO operators’ strategic response. The high capital requirements, long asset lifecycles, and mounting pricing pressures make scale and diversification essential. Through mergers and acquisitions, incumbents can strengthen financial resilience by unlocking capital and operational efficiencies, expanding customer reach, and accelerating access to new capabilities such as non-GEO assets.

A prime example is the SES-Intelsat merger, which combines SES’s GEO and MEO infrastructure with Intelsat’s strong presence in aviation, enterprise, and government markets, creating a robust multi-orbit connectivity provider. In mobility alone, the integrated entity now supports Intelsat’s commercial aviation network of approximately 3,000 connected aircraft, alongside SES’s maritime portfolio delivering fully managed, multi-orbit services to major cruise operators. Similar strategic logic underpinned earlier deals. Eutelsat’s merger with OneWeb brought LEO capacity into its service mix, while Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat reinforced its leadership in global mobility and government segments.

These transactions are not about scale for its own sake, they aim to enable multi-orbit and managed service delivery, safeguard pricing power in premium markets, and reduce reliance on commoditized bandwidth.

2. Multi-orbit - from constellation ownership to orchestration

The second pillar of the M3 strategy centers on multi-orbit integration. GEO operators are increasingly and strategically viewing LEO and MEO as complementary and extended layers within a unified service architecture. The competitive focus has expanded from owning constellations to orchestrating traffic intelligently across orbits, optimizing latency, availability, resilience, and cost.

This shift is evident in recent product developments and innovations. In FY2025, Viasat introduced NexusWave, a maritime connectivity platform that combines GEO, LEO, weather-resilient L-band capacity, and terrestrial mobile networks into a single managed service. Rather than positioning LEO as a standalone alternative, NexusWave incorporates it as one element of a robust, scalable network. Market adoption has been strong, with over 1,000 vessels expected to be contracted by the end of Q1 FY2026, underscoring growing demand for hybrid architecture.

Eutelsat’s latest financial results highlight a similar trend from a different perspective. LEO revenues surged by more than 70% year-on-year, now representing over one-third of its connectivity revenue, while GEO revenues declined during the same period. This divergence signals a structural shift toward low-latency, high-bandwidth solutions. However, this growth stems from a relatively small base of €33.6 million, indicating that the pace must accelerate significantly to match peer performance.

Multi-orbit strategies are enabling GEO incumbents to capture LEO-driven growth while leveraging GEO’s strengths in coverage, efficiency, and broadcast economics. The value proposition is expanding from orbit ownership toward network intelligence and service design.

3. Managed Services - The Economic Core of GEO’s Response

The third and most critical pillar of the M3 strategy is the transition toward managed services. As bandwidth pricing continues to decline, GEO operators are focusing on segments where customers prioritize security, reliability, scalability, and operational simplicity over raw capacity.

SES’s annual report illustrates this shift. Government revenues grew 6.4% year-on-year, driven by rising demand in U.S. and international markets for managed, multi-orbit solutions. These customers increasingly require assured connectivity, secure and scalable architectures, and global service continuity, that multi-orbit systems address effectively. Across fixed and mobility markets, SES is increasing its focus on managed connectivity and data services that extend bandwidth allocation and integrate seamlessly with terrestrial and cloud infrastructure.

In mobility, the strategic rationale behind the SES-Intelsat combination is clear, aviation and maritime customers benefit from a broader service portfolio, unified service management, and access to multiple orbits under a single commercial framework. Eutelsat’s recent results reinforce this trend. While GEO connectivity revenues remain under pressure, LEO-enabled services within managed offerings are scaling rapidly, validating the pivot toward service-centric rather than orbit-centric economics.

Managed services enable GEO operators to defend ARPU and margins by delivering outcomes and performance guarantees, not just selling megabits. This is where incumbents are likely to maintain a durable advantage over vertically integrated, consumer-class focused LEO models.

Conclusion

The GEO industry’s response to Starlink is no longer defensive, it is structural. The M3 strategy of Merge, Multi-orbit, and Managed services reflects a fundamental repositioning away from capacity competition toward service integration and resilience. Financial and operational evidence from SES, Eutelsat, and Viasat shows that while GEO-only models are under pressure, multi-orbit, managed connectivity platforms are gaining initial momentum.

In a market reshaped by LEO, GEO incumbents that execute the M3 strategy effectively will remain central to global connectivity, not as satellite and orbit owners, but as service orchestrators at the intersection of space infrastructure, network intelligence, and customer outcomes.