Business economics of the satellite ground segment

There was another panel discussion on the business economics of the satellite ground segment, in the event hosted by SIA-India.

K. Krishna, CTO and VP, Hughes India, moderator, noted that things are getting digitalized and virtualized today. Gateways are now being offered as a service.

Sanjeev Kumar, CMD, TCIL, and Chair, said there were not many services being offered in the nearby islands, especially Lakshadweep. There was no match between revenue and cost of spectrum. There was also an issue with SLA. Heavy rainfall in the region also added to the problem. There was no connectivity via Ku and Ka bands. We need to make satellite connectivity more affordable. Costs can be lowered and the SLAs can be improved.

Kenneth Olafsson, Regional Sales & Business Director Asia, KSAT, said, we are looking to optimize costs, and especially on the ground side. People are outsourcing their services even more today. We are also invoved in apps.

Col. Rani Hellerman, VP International Business, RBC Signals said they are provider of global satellite data communications products. A model is to aggregate satellite capacity for customers. We announced an agreement with Inmarsat recently to aggregate capacity and provide solutions.

Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO, Dhruva Space, noted they are working on ground segment, offering products and services. They are trying to set up telemetry and telecommand services.

Dr. Ms. Laura Roberti, Director for Spectrum and Market Access, Telesat, said they are a public company. It has a new constellation -- Telesat Lightspeed, composed of 298 state-of-the-art LEO satellites, with two landing stations in India.

Ravit Sachasiri, Business Development Director Market Region APAC, SSC Space, said the Swedish Space Corp. provides space subsystems, space and satellite operations, rocket and balloon systems, including experiment equipment, launch services, aerospace engineering services, and airborne maritime surveillance systems.

Kenneth Olafsson, KSAT, said we take care of the complicated parts across many countries. Key constellations can reduce time to market with frequency co-ordination on the ground. Gateway locations are filling up. We feel India is a big market and we can have gateway location here. We are looking for the stable, reliable, and low-cost regulatory environment. We need to keep costs down. Terrestrial is critical for all the huge constellations.

Ravit Sachasiri, SSC Space, said customers today are looking for a solution, and not gateway. We need to have 100Gbps download daily, according to some. SSC is now designing solutions for customers. If they have a hyper-spectral imaging solution, we can deal with that. We can provide value add to current customers. There are new missions that require additional reliability and availability.

Col. Rani Hellerman, said there is a big change regarding revenues. We have to now get more customers. We have about 80 antennae, some owned and some shared. We have software for matching satellite with ground station. We have lot of requirements from India. We are checking the availability of ground stations for India.

Dr. Ms. Laura Roberti, Telesat, talked about gateway and SP licence. We agree with TRAI for separation of SP and gateway licenses. One, it underlines the separation will lead to effective deployment of terrestrial network. SPs can use gateways, without deploying one. Another, the current link in the unified license between SP and gateway is that it will make them the super SP managing the gateway. The lnk may create monopoly and redundancy.

Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO, Dhruva Space, said shared gateways can bring connectivity to remote regions. A customer wanted sensors in remote locations. We are working with small satellite companies for IoT solutions. Integration of gateways is relevant for the business. We need to be mindful of the type of solution being offered. Prices have changed over the years. We now need to be faster, cheaper, and reliable for solutions. India is set to gain. Policies are framed after looking at other policies in the other markets.

Krishna said the cost of operations has to be less. If given a free hand, what would be the wish list?

Kenneth Olafsson said that predictability and regulatory environment are the key for India. For a foreign operator, we need to see what it is to work on local level. The ecosystem needs partnerships for clear value add. You need to be in India to sell your services. We need to get licenses approved. Connectivity, local partner, and regulation are all important.

Col. Rani Hellerman agreed, and said they want local coverage for their satellites. We are looking at regulations. Interest from India for supporting the space segment is huge. We are looking at cheaper and reliable solutions. We are looking at shared satellites.

Ravit Sachasiri, SSC Space, said working with India is two-fold. We have to go over regulatory hurdles. It should be as simple as possible. There should be clear partition for the different licenses and fees. One ground station could also serve several customers. We need to be careful about missions. Likewise, Indians looking to work outside are also looking at regulations. Customers can get access to international services and entities, and vice-versa.

Krishna said that there is an issue of spectrum. Dr. Ms. Laura Roberti, Telesat, said we are worried by idea proposed by India to auction spectrum for satellite services. There are no other precedents. Satellite operators in mmWave can share satellites. It makes sense for spectrum to be assigned properly, and not auctioned.

Talking about regulations, Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO, Dhruva Space, the process needs to get better. It can help with innovation and international participation. There needs to be change in customs and regulations for testing ground equipment. We also need collaboration between large companies and startups. We have an MoU with SSC for utilizing each other's ground stations. Auction for satellite services should not be done. It may kill startups from entering. There are few players, and you want more companies to come in.

Krishna said licensing is now getting simplified. There is a committee formed for simplification for processes. Technology of play is currently the remote areas. We are bringing down the costs and SLAs.

Sanjeev Kumar, TCIL, said the government has taken lot of positive steps. We are able to meet Indian consumers needs. Satellites will play a unique role to connect the unconnected.