TECHNOLOGY UPDATE ROGER HORNER SHARES HIS TECHNOLOGY PREDICTIONS FOR 2024 Written by Roger Horner
Roger Horner The following Technology Update article is the last one that the amazing Roger Horner has sent to The Islander, literally hours before his very sudden passing on 8 February 2024. Roger has shared his knowledge and insights in each of every Islander issue since April 1997. This makes him the most loyal and committed contributor to our publication and is a testament to the wood he was carved out of. He co-founded e3 Systems after arriving in Mallorca by sailboat, 28 years ago. He was an inspiring and impressive, yet approachable gentleman.
Roger Horner was the founder and CEO of e3 Systems since 1996 until his sudden passing last month. He has been a contributor for the Islander Magazine since 1997.
He was an important member of the Mallorca yachting community and he is already being missed by so many who are now processing the shock and sadness of his sudden passing. Our hearts go out to his wife and two daughters and the e3 Systems team. In the next Islander Issue we will publish a more extensive and, without doubt, inspiring obituary for Roger.
F
or us, 2024 has started with a considerable amount of business activity. More and more yachts are signing up for Starlink, several of which require upgrades to their networks to get the benefit of the increased bandwidth distributed around the yacht. It’s been interesting to observe how yachts have used Starlink over the northern hemisphere winter, whether they’ve been in port, in the yard or in full cruising mode in the Caribbean, as we come to the end of the first full Starlink Maritime calendar year. It’s also been very interesting to review how Starlink has disrupted the legacy airtime services, primarily VSAT GEO, 4G/5G, and L-band services. The end of the dinosaurs! The SpaceX Starlink disruption has seriously hit the con-
42
Industry Insider
ventional satellite industry across the board, from satellite builders, rocket launchers, antenna manufacturers, satellite operators, satellite airtime providers, integrators large and small. For a great proportion of 2023 the larger conventional organisations, the dinosaurs, have kept their heads buried in the sand and have been unprepared to accept that they are under threat! They simply have not believed it will affect them. They have had a rude awakening! This disruption heralds the end of the dinosaurs and the start of a new level playing field. They are having to rethink their whole business strategy; from what they sell to how they can afford to support it. For example, the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) of a VSAT satellite provider has dropped considerably this last year. Every user still requires the same level of support, even though they are using less bandwidth, and the cost of
The Islander #318