Revolutionising telecom services

Privatisation of geospatial data, imaging, and connectivity is enabling the telecom industry to rationalise various expenses and achieve more optimised outcomes

- VERNIK AWAL

Two days before the end of 2022, the Government of India notified the liberalised geospatial policy. This not only kickstarted efforts to create new subsidised startups but essentially gave birth to a whole new industry. Two years on, this fledgling industry is becoming a crucial support and features provider for bigger industries, with telecom being one of its key customers.

In essence, what geospatial startups provide to the likes of Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea include a wide range of high-resolution satellite imaging to gauge terrain and topography for new regions to expand or maintain telecommunications services, improve network latencies strategically, optimise management of resources, and get an on-demand supply of high-resolution organised data that address issues like network congestion in Tier-I towns.

While all of this sounds exciting, what makes geospatial services in the telecom industry one to watch for the future is that work on it, by startups and big corporations alike, has only just begun.

GENERATING OWN DATA

The exciting bit about India's geospatial data sector is that it represents several homegrown startups that are taking their services to the global markets. One such entity is Bengaluru-headquartered Pixxel, which uses a constellation of satellites in a low-earth orbit (LEO) configuration to offer a wide range of services such as super high-resolution satellite imaging, as well as processed granular data of the surface as a service to clients.

In various media interactions before, Awais Ahmed, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pixxel, has said that most of its clients lie outside of India. However, geospatial data represents an increasing opportunity for new technology adoption-making this the right market that tech and telecom vertical teams of IT services companies are also turning to.