Race to the stars as satcom giants prepare for India launch

India's satcom market heats up as Airtel, Jio, and Starlink vie for dominance, promising I new connectivity solutions amidst regulatory hurdles

- VERNIKA AWAL

Until 2020, India's space economy was controlled only through the central government and its central space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation. Since the introduction of a privatised space economy and dedicated space and geospatial policies, one key sector that quickly became fully ready to fire on all cylinders is satellite communications, a crucial industry globally.

Even before the official launch of its services, satcom has already become a highly competitive global industry.

A large part of the popularisation was thanks to Elon Musk and his tryst with Starlink, the satcom broadband offering via SpaceX. Now, in India, years in the making, the entire satcom market is standing on its toes as regulatory hurdles keep it from launching full-fledged services.

THE KEY PLAYERS

Pursuant to the service and its outreach are three key and very visible corporations that are vying for a pie of India's burgeoning market. Two of the three include the private telecom operators in India, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. Airtel plans to offer its satcom service in partnership with UK-headquartered satellite operator OneWeb and US-based communications technology provider Hughes. For Reliance Jio, satellite operations are provided in partnership with Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES-which itself is currently undertaking a USD 3.1-billion takeover of fellow satellite operator Intelsat.

Beyond the two, the third entity set to compete for space in the satcom race is Elon Musk's Starlink, which operates its own set of satellites and its own network operations. Jeff Bezos-backed Project Kuiper, which is also interested in India, will be a fourth entrant, but its services are not imminent since its satellite launches have yet to take place.