Telcos tackle B2B satellite monetization

Deals between satellite operators and telcos have multiplied in 2026. Announcements have largely focused on which companies are partnering on direct-to-device satellite connectivity. But behind the considerable hype around satellite, several telcos are also looking at how to profitably build satellite connectivity into enterprise service offerings.

Today, satellite connectivity is firmly positioned as complementary to terrestrial mobile networks, not a replacement.

One of the reasons for this is a simple matter of physics. As Tom Sjöberg, Director, Business Change management, Elisa points out: “Satellite connectivity requires plain sky to work properly and it is still unsure how it will work without a proper sky sight.”

There is also a matter of cost. Telcos’ competitiveness relies on them providing the best mix of ease-of use, coverage, and cost-effectiveness. Currently, “terrestrial IoT connectivity (such as 2G, 4G, and NBIoT) outplay satellite connectivity in terms of data transfer price,” explained. This leaves satellite cornering areas where there is no terrestrial coverage, such as oceans or rural areas. This can translate to revenue opportunities for communications service providers (CSPs), notably in the IoT services space. All depends on where they sit in the value chain.

Elisa’s Sjöberg believes that “rather than treating satellite as a commodity or simple roaming add-on, telcos must offer outcome-based solutions—such as guaranteed uptime, actionable AI insights, and secure data sovereignty—to high-value B2B customers.”

This would enable CSPs to differentiate from enterprise satellite connectivity services already available on the market. In March, for example, the satellite service company, MTN launched a “click-to-deploy” low earth orbit (LEO) satellite service on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace. MTN aims to provide enterprises with “last-mile connectivity and secure cloud backhauling to any remote site in the world” in as little as 24 hours.

But telco network operators will need the right skills and systems if they are to offer outcome-based solutions: “Monetizing integrated satellite and terrestrial connectivity hinges on telcos transforming from mere data providers to orchestrators within an evolving value chain," according to Sjöberg.

Elisa has been taking part in TM Forum Catalyst AI-powered supply chain and new revenue opportunities with satellite–mobile convergence - Phase III. The Catalyst team has been exploring how to unify satellite connectivity, mobile networks, and intelligent edge capabilities to support real-time tracking, situational awareness, and predictive decisioning for global logistics. This includes using AI agents to analyse multimodal data across air, land, and sea to detect risks, anticipate delays, and recommend optimisation.

Work within the Catalyst has highlighted to the importance of modern, flexible IT platforms that can support new ecosystem plays.

“Success depends on overcoming traditional traps like slow in-house development and outdated billing systems, and instead embracing plug-and-play integration that leverages their trusted relationships and national compliance, making the inherent complexity invisible to the end user,” according to Sjöberg.

Part of the Catalyst's aim is to use AI to automatically identify issues and solutions across different networks.

Developing AI agents to securely analyze multimodal voice, text, video, and sensor telemetry data across hybrid networks, however, is highly complex, Sjoberg points out. It requires “expertise in model compression for edge devices and temporal correlation to synchronize data across 5G towers and satellites.”

Hendrik Oppenberg, Executive Consultant, CGI, and Wolfgang Robben, Executive Consultant, Project Manager, Space, CGI, also took part in the Catalyst and point to the importance of considering the context when building AI agents.

"The newest set of AI tools ... are an orchestrator that has some some specified tools at hand. It might be an LLM, it might not be an LLM, it depends on the topic," explains Oppenberg.

"A good AI agent is a deterministic program that has access to AI for input/output. Having those really specialized on [a] container ... is more feasible than huge ...AI on prem somewhere," says Robben.

"It's smaller AI that understands anomalies, for instance, in the temperature curve or in deviation from a projected route [or deviation] from SLAs. AI on its own, can take matters, or at least notify the operator."

At the same time. a critical game changer is the standardization of the "unified core," specifically through the adoption of 3GPP Release 17 (and beyond) standards for Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), explains Sjöberg.

“Without this specific technical collaboration, the "seamless service layer" ... for global logistics remains a collection of fragmented, expensive, and incompatible silos,” he explains. “With this standardization, also device manufacturers will join the movement.”