A joint venture between Reliance Industries' Jio Platforms and Luxembourg-based SES to provide gigabit fiber internet has won approval from India's space regulator to operate satellites there, a government executive said.
The three approvals issued to Orbit Connect India – which aims to provide satellite-based high-speed internet access – come as companies from Amazon.com to Elon Musk's Starlink are vying for the go-ahead to launch satellite communications services in the largest area in the world. populated nation
Authorizations are not previously reported. They were awarded in April and June by India's National Space Promotion and Authorization Center, known as IN-SPACe. These allow Orbit Connect to operate satellites over India, but further approvals are required from the country's telecom department to begin operations.
Reliance, which owns Jio, did not respond to an email seeking further details.
Inmarsat, another company hoping to provide high-speed internet via satellite, has also won approval to operate satellites in India, IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka told Reuters. Two more companies, Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon.com's Kuiper, have come forward.
OneWeb, backed by Eutelsat's Bharti Enterprises, received all its approvals late last year.
According to consulting firm Deloitte, India's satellite broadband services market is expected to grow 36 percent annually over the next five years to reach $1.9 billion (roughly Rs. 15,875 crore) by 2030
Globally, the race to connect the world's rural areas through the space-based Internet is accelerating. Amazon plans to invest $10 billion (roughly Rs. 83,553 crore) in Kuiper, which was announced in 2019, the year SpaceX began deploying its first operational Starlink satellites.
Last week, Sri Lanka gave Starlink preliminary approval to provide internet services there.
Goenka said that the more companies involved in the sector in India, the better off consumers would be.
“The comparatively low prices of communication services in India will force global players to push for innovation to bring down their prices,” said Goenka, the former CEO of carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra.
“This is already happening in many industries such as automotive, where multinational OEMs had to innovate to meet Indian consumers' expectations of high performance and low cost.”
IN-SPACe will also soon authorize private companies to operate ground stations, he said, which would allow satellite operators to download data as they pass over India.
Prime Minister Modi's government, which just won a rare third term, has been pushing for the development of India's space industry.
This year, it opened the door to foreign direct investment in the sector, saying foreign companies could invest in the manufacture of components and systems or subsystems for satellites up to 100 percent without authorization.
As a result, investor interest has “increased significantly”, Goenka said.
“Last year the investments in private companies were 2 to 7 million dollars. This year they are talking about 20 to 30 million dollars,” he said. “Proof of concept passed.”
© Thomson Reuters 2024
