This move comes as low-orbit satellite (LEO) service providers Bharti Enterprises-backed OneWeb, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon begin to form a strong foothold in the country
Tata Group’s National Radio & Electronics Company (NELCO) is reportedly very close to signing a commercial pact with Canadian firm Telesat for launching fast satellite broadband services in India under Telesat’s Lightspeed brand.
In a conversation with The Economic Times, Nelco’s managing director PJ Nath disclosed, “Nelco and Telesat will have a master services agreement (MSA) to provide Lightspeed LEO (low-earth orbit) satellite services in India… We are in the process of finalising details of the commercial arrangements.”
However, Nath added the company that Nelco has “no plans” to float a separate joint venture company with Telesat.
This move comes as low-orbit satellite (LEO) service providers Bharti Enterprises-backed OneWeb, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon begin to form a strong foothold in the ocuntry.
Telesat is the fourth global (LEO) satellite operator after OneWeb, SpaceX and Amazon that is keen to enter India’s satellite services segment. It proposes to offer satellite broadband services on the 28 GHz band, popularly known as the Ka-band globally.
Telesat plans to invest almost $5 billion to build a global constellation of 298-odd LEO satellites, and its global Lightspeed satellite internet services (including in India) are planned by 2024.
Like OneWeb, the Tata-Telesat combine plans to operate on a business-to-business (B2B) model in India. Telesat’s satellite bandwidth capacity will be offered to telecom operators for cellular backhaul in remote and inhospitable regions where mobile infrastructure is weak, reported the publication.
“Our focus segment is B2B, and main markets would be cellular backhauls/mobility, remote village connectivity and (meeting) enterprise needs for reliable connectivity with fibre-like latency in rural areas via satellite,” said Nath.
He said the combine will put in an application to the government for various statutory approvals, including landing rights after the upcoming new Spacecom policy clears the air on the rules for setting up in-country satellite gateways by overseas non-geostationary satellite system operators or LEO satellite service providers.
Nath said both Tata and Telesat will also explore ways to bring down the cost of end-user access terminals to make satellite broadband affordable in India.
Telesat is working with a global ecosystem of hardware makers to bring to market affordable user terminals, he said, adding that the company “embraces an open architecture approach and is open to local collaborations with commercial and government partners”.
The Tata-Telesat foray into the relatively nascent fast broadband-from-space segment comes as experts see India as a key satellite internet market with almost a $1 billion annual revenue opportunity.
