The post-Covid economy will be increasingly dependent on telecoms to keep its supply chains running. Lockdown and working from home have already been a major boost for telecoms firms, who have been investing heavily in 5G to meet the perpetual demand for more bandwidth. But if the move away from cities continues, quality of coverage will also become more important.
Starlink aim to solve this with comprehensive orbital next generation internet, based on satellites rather than terrestrial landlines and line-of-sight telecom masts. In some respects, 5G and satellite are complementary; but in some use cases satellites may mean significant competition for established telecom providers. Figure 1 below shows the credit position and recent trends for some of the key 5G direct or associated service providers and equipment manufacturers [please continue below to access full report].
Figure 1: 5G Firms: Credit Status and Trends
