Ksenia Drozdova, Deputy Director General & Head of the Business Development – RSCC
As a satellite communications operator, RSCC must ensure that its technical equipment remains operational round-the-clock under whatever circumstances: particularly, in times of worldwide emergency, the sensitivity of subscribers to high-quality communications increased manifold. Accustomed now to a certain level of consumption of HD or UHD television content and receiving Internet traffic at 100 Mbit/s, the subscriber is not ready to settle for a compromise and stays immune to arguments that traffic has increased. We can say that the pandemic has brought home with renewed sharpness the traditional question of any corporate investment committee – the cost of saving on capital investments in the short term and the company’s ability to reach its targets in extreme conditions. Like no other recent phenomenon, the pandemic has exposed all the vulnerabilities of terrestrial and satellite telecommunication networks, becoming a serious test of skill and creativity for all operational units. I can proudly say that RSCC has proved to be 100% ready to work in present-day realities.
For us, the situation has turned out to be even more dramatic. Concurrently with having to function in the context of the rampant pandemic, we had to swiftly transfer the customers of the Express-AM6 spacecraft Ka-band to other satellites. On behalf of RSCC, I am taking this opportunity to express our thanks to the Hughes and Eutelsat teams for their input into arranging the support and transfer of our Hub to another satellite within an extremely short time. This is especially valuable because many of them did their telework in self-isolation, supporting the teams in every way they could.
The insidiousness of the pandemic, of course, has made adjustments to our work – the services unrelated to the production cycle were transferred to a remote office, but otherwise the company continues to operate normally. Our customers have not felt any changes. In our work, we, of course, use forms of telecom services – remote offices, corporate and external video conferencing, and many other platforms, which support work with external Internet resources (electronic trading platforms, databases, distance learning, webinars, etc.). I can say that many Internet resources were clearly overrated, we had to bypass many tools, as they had not proved themselves useful in the extreme conditions. In general, I may repeat myself, but this has been a kind of moment of truth for the products and services. The closure of borders and the suspension of the movement of goods for an indefinite period has raised with particular acuteness the issue of localization in the full production cycle. International integration of production processes, which reduces production costs and is investors’ delight under normal circumstances, has played a cruel joke: operators cannot fulfill the signed contracts on the communication network – the equipment is not understaffed. This is a new challenge and a topic for thought. Back in February, analytical reports of large agencies predicted an explosive increase in maritime VSAT, IFC and other communication services on the move. Over the past three months, we have fully felt the fragility of the world and the emphasis has shifted to the remote capabilities of full-fledged individual consumption offices! Entire sectors of the economy, including the advertising market, air transportation, and the tourism business, ceased to exist in three-month-old models. This will affect related businesses in one way or another and, of course, may affect the business of any telecom operator. Over the past three months, we have witnessed and participated in the change of industry majors – the swiftness of changes is psychologically very difficult to absorb. We are beginning to grope for new business models.
Speaking about personal experience of working in the COVID-19 environment, I have been particularly impressed by the fantastically responsible work attitude of each and every employee in our company and our friends and colleagues abroad. A real feeling of partnership and belief that together we can address problems of any complexity. I believe what we have witnessed is a high example of the engineers’ feat in the name of the people of this planet!
