Christmas came early for EchoStar Corp. and Dish Network Corp.

EchoStar started 2011 by acquiring the assets of Move Networks Inc., which provides large-scale video streaming on the Internet. It finally reached a settlement of its multimillion-dollar patent litigation with TiVo Inc., clearing up its dispute over TiVo's Time Warp digital-video recording patent. In June, EchoStar completed the acquisition of Hughes Communications Inc., creating a powerhouse in satellite-based video and broadband services. Sister company Dish Network bought the assets of Blockbuster Inc., giving Netflix Inc. a run for its money.

Dish also acquired two bankrupt mobile satellite companies, DBSD North America Inc. and TerreStar Networks Inc., for $2.8 billion and is awaiting the approval of U.S. regulators to combine these companies with Dish's existing service to form a mobile broadband business that could rival Harbinger Capital Partners LLC's LightSquared Co. venture. Together, EchoStar and Dish successfully tapped the capital markets for $4 billion in debt financing in 2011.

But what really makes Dish and EchoStar interesting is what their deals will mean to the space business in the future. The theme is delivering broader, faster mobile communications to an insatiable -- and impatient -- consumer. So are we changing the satellite industry, or is it changing us -- the way we work, travel, relax, relate?

LightSquared, the first wholesale-only wireless broadband and satellite network, concluded $2 billion in equity and debt funding for its world-class, 4G long-term-evolution, or LTE, venture. It lays the foundation for a deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. to share network expansion costs and equipment in a $9 billion transaction aimed at offering wholesale service to consumer electronics companies and telecoms. This is all about meeting rising mobile data demands and staying on course to deliver service to 260 million Americans by the end of 2014 -- an amazing opportunity for consumers desperate for leading-edge service.

After nerve-racking delays beyond its control, ViaSat Inc. finally launched its ViaSat-1 satellite in October, making it the highest-capacity satellite in orbit. What makes this special? Throughput and download and upload speeds faster than anything in space and soon available virtually anywhere in the country.

In November, O3b Networks Ltd. announced it was boosting its constellation architecture of medium-earth-orbit, low-latency, high-capacity satellites by adding a further $137 million to its $1.1 billion in financing to build four more satellites. The expansion of its fleet to 12 satellites will nearly double the network's capacity, providing Internet connectivity to the "other 3 billion" in the developing world -- thirsting for the access and speed we've all come to consider a basic need.

While space-delivered voice, video and data are a fraction of the telecom industry -- which also encompasses terrestrial and submarine fiber, microwave and broadcast -- satellites provide instant infrastructure, though they're capital intensive and custom built. Just ask satellite bankers at Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., UBS, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank AG, Jefferies & Co., ING Groep NV, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman, Sachs & Co. who've arranged $20 billion of debt financing for the satellite sector in this year of economic turmoil and choppy markets.

It means that 2011 has witnessed the planned addition of faster and transportable broadband interconnectivity and more diverse multimedia offerings via satellite than anyone could have imagined when the first iPhone was introduced in January 2007. We've taken for granted how we're going to access ubiquitous digital video and Internet capacity, thinking only about how we're going to decide which applications and which content offerings are going to run our lives.

Most of rural Canada and some in the U.S. were starkly reminded of how prevalent satellite broadband is in our lives when Telesat Canada's Anik F2 satellite went dark for a few frustrating hours in October, disrupting everything from air travel and mobile phone service to TVs, ATMs and credit card shopping.

When we look at 2012 and beyond, the name of the game is efficient capacity growth and management. This will come through new deals among service providers, innovative technologies to increase throughput and access to capital for infrastructure. Our dependence on new LTE and 4G technology, mobile broadband and multimedia via satellite is going to make our heads spin faster than those communications satellites orbiting up in space.

Peter Nesgos and Dara Panahy lead the space business practice at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.