NAICS 51741Industry · 5-digitnational market

Satellite telecommunications

SoftwareTelecom BSS/OSS & Revenue Management 517

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing mobile and fixed telecommunications services over satellite network facilities operated by them or by distributing the services of other satellite network operators. These establishments typically serve a business clientele (telecommunication carriers, private business networks, broadcasters) but can also provide services to individual customers that are beyond the reach of terrestrial networks (e.g., high speed Internet). — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 79
Under 10 employeesA: 70%
Establishments · USA: 460
Employment · USA: 8,690
Payroll · USA: $1.1B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–44051%

5–91519%

10–1979%

20–49810%

50–9945%

100–19956%

200–4990—

500+0—

Of 79 Canadian establishments with employees, 70% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario3342%

Quebec1418%

Alberta1418%

British Columbia68%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Information, US · opened 2020

79.6%

1 year

59%

3 years

45.7%

5 years

30%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 517, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

national competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 517 Telecommunications

Facilities-based telecom is closed. Resellers and regional internet providers exist on regulated wholesale access and thin margins.

Who sets the price: An oligopoly, under a regulator.
The software it runs on: Billing and operations support systems.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 5174 Satellite telecommunications covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 5174

Satellite Connectivity Reseller & Remote NetworksOne thing must be true

binding constraint: defensibility

Nobody with ordinary resources launches satellites, and the pre-screen cut this group on capital. But the definition also covers firms distributing the services of other satellite operators, and that is what most of the group is: 79 Canadian establishments, 55 of them with fewer than ten people [A] — integrators putting terminals on mine sites, vessels, northern communities and backup links for enterprise networks. That business needs a van and a dealer agreement, not a constellation. The cut is that the thing being resold is losing its price, and the new supplier does not need a reseller. Telesat, Canada's operator, reported 2025 revenue of $418M, down 27%, and adjusted EBITDA of $213M, down 45% [A], as demand for geostationary capacity fell away. Its answer is to become a low-earth-orbit operator itself: $708M of capital expenditure in 2025 and a further $1.0–1.2B planned for 2026 on Lightspeed [A] — a 2026 commitment of more than twice the $418M the whole company earned in 2025. The reseller sits beneath that fight. Its historic margin came from the scarcity of capacity and the difficulty of installing and pointing a terminal; low-earth-orbit services ship a self-installing terminal and sell to the end customer directly at a published price. What is left is integration labour — mounting, networking, managed service for an industrial site — a small field-services business whose supplier is also its competitor, not a telecommunications margin. Billing and operations software for this sector is screened separately at 517.

NAICS 51745 vendors named10 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 517 Telecommunications

Telecom BSS/OSS & Revenue ManagementExecution decides

binding constraint: distribution

Incumbent Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX)

The single most concentrated buyer set in this research: a few dozen carriers per continent, each running procurement cycles measured in years with incumbent systems integrators embedded for decades. Top five vendors take 54–60% of revenue. Fast growth (13.95% CAGR) that a new entrant has no path to reach — there is no SMB tier of telecom carriers to start with.

NAICS 5175 vendors named6 sourced figuresOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Information and cultural industries, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Managers in communication (except broadcasting) One industry 77.8%

Librarians, archivists, conservators and curators One industry 74.8%

Technical occupations in motion pictures, broadcasting and the performing arts Mostly one sector 43.1%

Library, correspondence and other clerks Mostly one sector 41.3%

Photographers and support occupations in arts and culture Mostly one sector 31%

Managers in art, culture, recreation and sport Mostly one sector 30.4%

Technical occupations in libraries and public archives Mostly one sector 29.5%

Support occupations in art and culture Mostly one sector 23.6%

Graphic and interior designers Mostly one sector 14.1%

Computer, software and Web designers and developers Mostly one sector 10.3%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 12.8%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 6.1%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 4.3%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 3.9%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 3.1%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 2.9%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 2.2%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 2.1%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 2%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 1.1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 51741. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
517410	Satellite telecommunications	79	screened at 5174