Despite an industry slowdown, satellite applications still hold promise for certain market segments, industry analysts said at the Satellite Internet Applications & Opportunities conference in Arlington, Va.

Christopher Baugh, principal analyst with Northern Sky Research, LLC, said those segments include online homes without terrestrial service options, transitioning direct broadcast service subscribers to broadband services, and mobile and airline customers.

Ways to acquire more market share include utilizing every technology - wireless, fiber optics, cable, or DSL - in one portfolio and forming partnerships with regional distributors and technology providers to improve service, he said.

In addition, broadband Internet providers must do more than transport data.

"Companies want more than bandwidth. They want services, and they want value-added (products) to the link," he said.

Jose del Rosario, strategic analyst with Frost & Sullivan, said the battleground for the deployment of broadband infrastructure will be large metropolitan areas, where businesses are located, and wealthy suburban areas.

But providing the ability to browse the Internet is not enough to drive broadband satellite services to their maximum potential, del Rosario said.

"For broadband services to take off within the next few years it has to be transactions-based, corporate intranet friendly with applications for e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile commerce)," he said.

Phil McAlister, director of the Futron Corp., said his company expects the customer base for broadband satellite services to rise dramatically after 2007.

That rise will be seen primarily among residential customers but also small and home office customers.

"It's hard to focus and isolate specifically what is enabling that growth in the out years, but essentially ... the demand around the mid part of the decade will start to overwhelm the terrestrial supply significantly," McAlister said. "So every new user is potentially a satellite user."

To improve market share, satellite broadband providers should bundle their service with direct-to-home service, just as cable providers are bundling cable TV with cable Internet service, McAlister said.

They should also offer tailored Internet content, he added.

Finally, satellite broadband providers need to reduce the price of their service, he said.

If prices were more competitive in the U.S., Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the number of subscribers could grow from about three million in 2005 to more than 35 million by 2010.

With more competitive pricing in China, India and Russia, the number of subscribers could climb to more than 40 million, he said.