11 minute read
Ovzon: A greater calling to connect and protect
Ovzon 3, which launched successfully early this year, is both smaller and more powerful than other GEO satellites and is specifically designed for the missioncritical operations performed by Ovzon’s defense, public safety, emergency services, and NGO customers. The satellite is expected to be fully operational by midyear and represents an important milestone for the 18year-old Swedish company. We interviewed Per Norén, Ovzon’s CEO, to delve into the company’s near-term agenda and discuss the opportunities that lie ahead.
Crispin Littlehales, Executive Editor, Satellite Evolution Group
Question: Ovzon was founded in 2006 with the mission of driving mobile satellite solutions. How has the company evolved over the years?
Per Norén: From the start, Ovzon’s founders set out to create the smallest mobile satellite terminals with the highest throughput. They were excellent engineers and were the first to build terminals the size of a laptop. Rather than being a 1-to-3-meter antennas with tripods that needed to be assembled and geared exactly towards the satellite, these were able to be carried in a backpack and connect automatically within minutes. Customers included Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), as well as media outlets that needed connectivity in specific situations and very remote areas.
Then Ovzon signed its first big customer—the US Department of Defense (DoD)—which is still very important to the company. The DoD set requirements for mission critical satellite communications in areas where there is limited to no infrastructure or where the users must not be seen or heard. DoD customers also need guaranteed connectivity.
It was our customers who wanted us to be the integrator and provide both the terminals and the satellite service because they liked the performance and innovation of our solutions. Thus began our evolution into being a fully integrated service provider with satellite capacity networks and the last mile unique capability of delivery through the terminal to the end user.
We’ve been focused on our customers from the beginning, developing terminals that find the satellite fast by themselves. Our mobile satellite terminals don’t have to be in open space to find the signal. They are in a specific configuration with resilient and secure communication channels. It’s all about providing the highest communication capability with guaranteed performance in a mobile environment so that users can move around and not be jammed or disconnected.
Question: You assumed your leadership role with Ovzon in 2021. What attracted you to the company and what has surprised you most in your role as CEO?
Per Norén: During my entire career, I have been attracted to unique and specialized organizations that become the best in the world at what they do. I have taken on business and leadership assignments that have required solving hard problems plus I have the portfolio of leadership capabilities, experiences, successes, and failures that fit very well into building a world class company. Having been born in Sweden and having lived in the US for almost 20 years, the international aspect of Ovzon attracted me as well.
Ovzon had components that are very important to me when I consider a new leadership role: the competence level, skills, and mix of capabilities of its people; a customer-oriented culture; unique technologies and a global perspective. Ovzon was like an unshaped diamond with all the pieces there, but it needed to be built, scaled, nurtured, and strategically positioned to grow and deliver value to all stakeholders.
Ovzon also has committed owners who have been there for a long time. They have the guts and vision to invest in the people and this uniquely integrated end to end service.
What surprised me the most Is that there is not a problem that we cannot solve technologically. There is not a customer need that we cannot address. There are very few companies that have made it through what Ovzon has made it through in terms of technical development, service delivery, understanding customers, and scaling ubiquitously.
In the satellite business, there are only a few examples of extreme success. A company might look great from the outside, but the profitability and sustainability are not there. I sleep well at night, though, because I have great owners, a great board, great leaders, and people coupled with superb technology, and the ability to deliver services with the highest performance, mobility, and resiliency.
Question: Performance, mobility, and resiliency are mission critical to your SATCOM-as-a-Service offering. Who are some of your current customers and how are they using your systems?
Per Norén: Our customer base consists of organizations that need mission critical SATCOM-as-a-Service. Our largest group are defense customers who are on the ground, in the air, and on the water and who use both manned and unmanned vessels. There is also the national security aspect which demands intelligence and data gathering as well as decision making.
The second largest is public safety, including fire and rescue services as well as police and border control professionals. Fire and rescue workers not only need to react when there is an incident, they also need to be proactive and predictive to mitigate or even avoid catastrophes. Many of these customers are seeking unmanned capabilities to do surveillance so that they can know if something is going to happen ahead of time. We fit that brief very well with our small antennas and terminals that offer resiliency and redundancy and high data throughput.
Our service is also used to help with refugee situations where there are men, women, and children pouring into an area and there’s no connectivity. These individuals sacrifice their lives to get to a better situation and their needs must be met. For example, we worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Colombia where our equipment was used to ensure there were health services for those who lived in the jungle, far from any infrastructure. Indeed, many NGOs functioning in dire situations and executing rescue operations depend on us to provide the only reliable way of communicating.
Question: What sets Ovzon apart from other satellite operators?
Per Norén: What sets us apart besides our integrated services is the design of the satellite itself. Most of the existing GEO satellites that were built in the last twenty years and have regional or fixed beams. While they cover a large area, you can’t change the throughput or the security or the communication ability in a crisis. Ovzon 3 has five independent, steerable antennas which can be directed within minutes. These spot beams provide a combination of power density (EIRP) and antenna receive performance (G/T). You can concentrate the energy of the satellite or the beam onto a specific area. This capability is necessary for our customers who are on the frontlines dealing with emergency situations. They need to be able to operate in a GPS denied environment and not be jammed or disturbed. Our customers also need to be able to move quickly from on point to another.
Ovzon 3 has a powerful in-orbit On-Board-Processor (OBP) that directly connects deployed terminals across multiple beams when teleports are degraded, destroyed, or otherwise unavailable. Think of it as a software-enabled gateway in the sky. The OBP can create a closed loop communication system between the terminals we have in our networks. This is like a sovereign capability for governments that can be used for protecting, supporting, and connecting with other nations as well as providing a unique capacity within their geographic domain. It drives interoperability between countries because you can share the service with others.
Question: The Ovzon 3 satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 3, 2024. Can you provide details on this “small GEO” and how it works?
Per Norén: Weighing 1,500 kilograms, Ovzon 3 was designed in a modular fashion and built by Maxar Technologies using a Legion-class bus and electric propulsion. It was the first geostationary satellite small enough for the Falcon 9 rocket to land back on Earth again and not on a water platform. It is also the first commercial satellite to use Redwire’s Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) unfurlable wings which were first demonstrated on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. The smaller size and weight, coupled with the solar array wings and electric propulsion system means the satellite is likely to exceed its documented lifetime of 15 years and last up to even 20. What’s more the OBP design enables us to do upgrades to the ‘satellite’ from the ground.
Question: What are the key challenges you are facing as you prepare Ovzon 3 to be fully operational?
Per Norén: I believe we have retired a lot of risk by having it produced, launched, and on its way to orbit. We did a lot of preparation on the ground systems as well. The satellite is fully healthy, and we are able to continuously track it. Our production partner, Maxar, is currently managing the orbit raising. They will then hand over satellite operations control to Eutelsat which will manage that for us.
There were no issues during all the tasks and checks that took place during and after launch, so I believe it is going very well. We see a straightforward orbit raising process and the satellite should reach its destination sometime in the early part of June. We should be fully operational and entering service by mid-year. Of course, this is the space industry, and things can happen, but we are not nervous about it. We are excited and focused on getting it ready to be utilized by our customers. The big opportunity here is how fast we can deploy it and with whom, because we have a lot of new customers interested. As I mentioned, we’ve moved all the way from the field teams up to government level strategic discussions around our capabilities. Who will be the first to have our satellite run their own network and their own beam in a sovereign, integrated way? Our challenge or opportunity is how quickly will we get to full capability utilization of the satellite, which is a very different challenge to have compared to many other players experiencing anomalies and technical difficulties.
Question: Where do you see Ovzon headed in the next one to five years?
Per Norén: Ovzon has gone from being very broad and trying to do many things to focusing on offering integrated service for mission critical operations. We will use our proprietary technology and solutions and the innovations we’ve developed to continue to serve those core markets in the short term. But then I believe we’ll be able to expand into other domains.
Ovzon 3 covers one third of the Earth and I foresee us making decisions to create at least two, if not more satellites over the next five years. We will have a global network where we serve the world’s critical missions with connectivity via satellite relay. We will also have new applications and technological advancements. We’ll be connected to cloud-based capabilities where data and analytics will be used to drive efficiency, predictability, and decision making.
All of that is part of our future but first comes first and we need to make sure that what we are doing works flawlessly. We need to scale in a smart way and drive a profitable business but never let go of these three fundamental principles: customers first, people always, and ubiquitously being smart about business.
This is not an industry for the faint of heart. Our company needs to rely upon its ability to attract, develop, and retain people who believe both in the mission and the company and who can thrive in the environment and the culture. It’s not just about market share and money, it’s about being the best in the world at what you do. Although we recognize there is a future in other areas, for now, we have a greater calling to protect and connect the world and humanity.
