Advisory

Independent advisory for people who buy from, invest in, or regulate the satellite industry

Before I ever sold any of this, I bought it and ran it.

I spent ten years at A.G. Edwards. Starting in 1991 I designed, engineered and operated a two-hub, 700-node Hughes satellite network across the firm's offices, owning the selection, the engineering, the contracts and a good share of the operations. When it went down it was my problem, not a vendor's. Then I supervised the twenty-person wide area network (WAN) engineering team that built a 700-node frame relay network across the same footprint and ran the two together as one hybrid.

So I have made the call every enterprise buyer eventually makes about which traffic belongs on satellite and which belongs somewhere else, with my own budget and my own operations team living with the answer. That question has not changed. Only the orbits have.

Only after that did I cross to the other side, and I have been there since 2001. PanAmSat and Intelsat during the fleet-scale Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) era. iDirect Technologies on the ground-segment platform side. Then a $60 million enterprise and channel account base across 20,000 customer locations at Spacenet and SageNet, and eight years running enterprise broadband services at Viasat.

Both chairs, in that order. That is what you are buying: I know what the operator across from you is thinking and what their cost structure actually looks like, and I remember exactly what it costs the customer when the deck turns out to be optimistic.

Who this is for. Investors evaluating satellite operators, ground-segment vendors, or Direct-to-Device (D2D) ventures. Enterprise and government buyers procuring connectivity across GEO, Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and multi-orbit services. Corporate development teams testing an acquisition thesis. Policy and regulatory professionals who need the commercial mechanics explained by someone who has lived them.

How engagements work

Project engagement. 15 to 25 hours per month against a defined scope and a defined term, billed monthly. For corporate development teams working an acquisition thesis, buyers running a procurement cycle end to end, or investors who want a named advisor on a sector position rather than a one-off call. I hold two of these at a time, so availability is genuinely limited.

Fixed-scope deliverable. A written assessment on one company, one sector position, or one procurement decision. Fixed fee, fixed turnaround, delivered as a document with a call to walk it through. Three shapes: a technology or vendor landscape scan, a requirements-to-vendor capability mapping, or a full segment assessment with primary interviews. Scope is agreed in writing before the work starts. See the Research page for more details on commissioned reports.

Consultation. A single video call for a specific question, two-hour minimum. Useful when you need one thing settled rather than an engagement.

Expert network calls. I take calls through Tegus, AlphaSense, Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), Guidepoint, True North Insights, and Third Bridge. If your firm already holds a subscription, that is the fastest route to an hour of my time. For anything beyond an hour, coming direct is usually both faster and cheaper for you, since the network's margin sits on top of my rate rather than inside it.

Where I add the most value

Enterprise satcom economics. Ground-segment platforms and their real switching costs, multi-orbit service strategy, and how operator sales organizations actually behave when they are losing.

Diligence support. Independent assessment of a target's technology position, customer economics, and competitive exposure. I read the same filings the bankers read. The difference is I know which claims in a management deck are real and which are aspiration.

Procurement advisory. If you are negotiating satellite capacity or managed services, I can tell you what the vendor's cost structure looks like, where the negotiating room actually is, and which contract terms will hurt you in year three. I have been on both ends of that negotiation, including the end where you have to operate what you signed for.

Multi-site enterprise networks. Distributed footprints are their own discipline: hundreds or thousands of locations, mixed transport, and an operations team that has to keep all of it running. I have engineered one, bought one, and sold into thousands of them.

Multi-orbit strategy. Not "should we use LEO." The real questions: which traffic belongs on which orbit, what the ground segment has to look like to make that portable, and what it costs to be wrong. I ran a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network across 700 sites before the industry had a name for it.

How I work. Engagements are conducted remotely by video. Client site visits and meetings with a defined agenda are available and quoted with travel. All work stays within publicly available information and general industry experience. Where a former employer's business is material to an engagement, I disclose it before the work starts.

Availability. I take on a limited number of engagements at any one time and I will tell you honestly when the next opening is.

Background, in brief. Principal, Satellite Insights LLC, publishing Satellite Insights Weekly, an independent satellite communications intelligence publication. Previously Senior Director of Enterprise Broadband Services at Viasat, Senior Director of Enterprise and Channel Sales at Spacenet and SageNet, which acquired Spacenet in 2013, and Director of Enterprise Sales at iDirect Technologies and at PanAmSat and Intelsat. Before that, ten years at A.G. Edwards engineering and running the firm's satellite and wide area networks, and United States Air Force communications, Top Secret clearance. Program Committee member, Society of Satellite Professionals International. Based between the United States and Spain, working with clients in both markets.

Sample of the published work:

• Is iDirect a Smart Buy?
• The Independent and Regional Satellite Ground-Segment Layer: A 2026 Map
• Who Gets Bought Next in Satellite M&A. One Seller Has Already Told You
• The Multi-Orbit Mirage: How GEO Operators Are Retiring the Fleet They Can't Fill

Getting in touch. Email glenn@satelliteinsights.com with a sentence or two on what you are trying to figure out. If it is not a fit, I will say so and, where I can, point you at someone better placed. You can also schedule a brief 20 minute meeting with me on Calendly.