Euroconsult has forecasted that satellite capacity revenue in the global maritime market will nearly double over the next decade, with a compound annual growth rate of 7%.

According to the firm's recently-published research report on Maritime Telecom Solutions by Satellite, growth is expected to be driven mainly by increasing data consumption across all major maritime segments and the adoption of new generation broadband satellite services.

"Onboard bandwidth requirements keep growing which is driving the maritime market in a direction quite beneficial to satellite communications," said Wei Li, Senior Consultant at Euroconsult and Editor-in-Chief of the research report. "We have observed growth in both ARPU and installations.

Over the next year, a number of High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems will become available in the maritime market, aimed at delivering three times more capacity by the end of 2014 and six times more capacity by the end of 2016. This additional capacity will drastically change the relationship between supply and demand in the market, and enable a range of new applications for the maritime community."

Euroconsult confirmed the number of terminals used for global maritime satellite communications grew at around 4% in 2013, while revenues at the satellite operator level increased by over 10%.

The total size of the market reached about 348,000 active terminals in 2013 that generated more than $760 million in revenues at the satellite operator level. Established MSS services and the fast developing VSAT business contributed to the overall growth of the maritime satellite communications market.

Competition between players is intensifying on the eve of the HTS era. All major players are devoted to locking in a maximum number of vessels. The market is, however, expected to diversify in terms of end-user requirements.

Rather than technologies or frequencies, the success of satellite communications players will largely depend on understanding their customers' needs, the scale and efficiency of distribution channels, as well as the cost/quality effectiveness of their offers.

Now in its third edition, Maritime Telecom Solutions by Satellite provides an in-depth view of the sector dynamics, analysis and forecasts for the maritime satcom market.

Eight comprehensive sections provide a detailed analysis of trends and prospects within the major addressable maritime market segments, including merchant shipping, fishing, passenger ships, leisure vessels, offshore, and government. The report includes maritime infrastructure revenues by technology, MSS terminals by application and VSAT terminals by frequency band and segment, (MSS and VSAT).