Satcom, getting it off the ground fast

Satellite communications services are about to be launched in India with major global players - Starlink, Eutelsat, SES and Kuiper - in various stages of preparations. There is urgency among service providers that have made big investments in launching their satellite constellations to secure a piece of the India action where a large chunk of consumers isn't served by terrestrial networks. Satcom and terrestrial networks are complementary, and come together to provide universal telecom coverage. Apart from bridging India's digital divide, satcom has specific roles to play strategically and in climate and disaster management.

The tech will be deployed with safeguards over data and interconnection, which makes local partnerships necessary. Satcom is currently the more expensive tech and governments subsidise it by allocating radio frequency that is shared among service providers. India wants to increase its footprint in the commercialisation of space, and satcom will be one of the key drivers. To get there, it will have to price spectrum for satcom services competitively, which could create a policy dilemma given the relatively expensive spectrum terrestrial networks buy. On its part, the industry is resolving the issue by seeking synergies among terrestrial and satcom services. Airtel and Reliance have tied up with Eutelsat OneWeb and SES. They are also providing support to Starlink's rollout, which is poised to be the first satcom service available in India.

India has been late to 5G cellular services. But it has made up lost time with a speedy rollout. Satcom will help widen coverage if it is allowed to scale up quickly. GoI and India Inc appear to be on the same page, but the market dynamics may not be as supportive. Satcom will cater to the lower end of India's price-sensitive telecom market. Given its cost structure, satcom players will have to be innovative with their India revenue model to be profitable. Some degree of cross-subsidisation will be inevitable in the global market satcom players are catering to.