SD-WAN router company Peplink became an Authorized Technology Provider for Starlink. The initial application of Peplink routers is on cruise ships, where its advanced hardware accepts links from multiple Starlink satellite terminals on large cruise ships, enabling over 1 Gbps capacity. Peplink had been working with Starlink hardware and made some of its successes public in October of last year, where two of its selling partners had used Peplink’s bonding of multiple connections to create reliable connections for emergency communication services, and on small boats last August. These public demonstrations apparently got Starlink’s attention, and now the two companies are official partners.
Starlink, of course, is changing the communications industry significantly with its satellite broadband services that boast thousands of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, besting the service from older technology like Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) systems. We make forecasts and calculate market shares for both LEO and GEO markets and are particularly bullish on LEO. Peplink’s products are being used in places that historically had little or no network coverage, and the company is carving out new market opportunities in areas including Enterprise Routers (like those used on the cruise ships), 5G indoor (for instance, in manufacturing locations), mobile routers (for mass transit, public safety). By identifying these new markets, Peplink’s products intersect multiple growth markets we research, like Branch SD-WAN, Enterprise Cellular, and mobile routers/ruggedized Ethernet & Wi-Fi.