Exclusive Interview: Peeyush Vaish, Partner & Telecom Sector Leader, Deloitte India

Deloitte is one of the largest Management Consulting firms in the world. The company has over 300,000 employees across the world, and works across various verticals. One of its key areas of focus remains telecom, as it has been heavily involved in the field. Most recently, it has been acting as the Resolution Professional for Reliance Communications.

Mr. Peeyush Vaish is a partner at Deloitte India, and is the Telecom Sector Leader at the firm. He is a Shri Ram College of Commerce alumnus, having completed his Bachelor's in Commerce from there. He has rich experience of working at the top level accounting and management firms, including Ernst & Young, where he was Associate Director, KPMG, and now Deloitte India.

In an exclusive interview with Voice&Data, Mr. Vaish talks about satcom, and how the industry is set to shape the future of communication in India.

Satcom has been present for the past 3-4 decades, what has been the primary force behind this resurgence?

Traditionally, satellite technology has been applicable for broadcasting but with the rapid growth of Internet based applications. However, over the past few years, satcom is focusing on the system design for data services and is being used on a commercial level for a variety of applications.

The renewed interest and resurgence is motivated by requirement of technological advancements in the country to realize its objective of Digital India and Broadband for All, i.e., shift towards important e-services like tele-education, telemedicine, switch from linear media broadcasting to media streaming, need for bridging rural-urban gap by extending broadband coverage to rural areas and moreover, the advancement of 5G is set to drive an impetus towards Satellite Communication.

ISRO has been working on the upliftment of satellite communication in the country. As such, it has deployed satellite technology for applications that can bring socioeconomic benefits for our nation.

India has emerged as the hottest destination for satcom players and operators. Why do you think India has so much potential for satcom?

With just over 600M internet users over a population of 1.3B, India exhibits one of the largest telecom opportunities. With timely pro-business policies, the investments in satellite communication have significantly boosted since the Government has welcomed private players to participate in space activities including satellite communications and manufacturing of aerospace products. Startups have also shown keen interest in the Satcom space given the Government’s growing focus on ‘Make in India’ initiative. Many have managed to receive funding and are working on identifying opportunities to resolve industry wide issues.

Areas such as Backhaul for telcos, connectivity in rural areas, government/military contracts will attract domestic and international players to take advantage of the positive market forces for Satcom in India. The nation is close to becoming the centre for small satellite launch market which is projected to be valued around $38 billion by 2027. The size and scale of potential buyers including smart grids, railways, fleet management, amongst others, is unmatched as compared to the rest of the world.

Each Satcom player right now has a different set of priorities regarding their products and services. What are the priorities for India and would any single satcom player be able to meet them?

Globally Satcom players are trying to grab a piece in Indian market right now, as the Indian satellite market is growing and ISRO is taking up new initiatives to boost the satellite communication launch in India. Currently Satcom operators are focusing on different areas to enter Indian market. While few are aiming at wholesale market, others are planning to launch services at low cost to the consumers by 2022.

India’s priority regarding satellite communication is “Internet connectivity in the rural areas and high speed”. India ranked 128^th in mobile broadband speed and 72^nd in fixed broadband speed in September 2019 in a global index. Satellite communication can prove to be very beneficial in providing internet connectivity in rural and remote areas as compared to fiber connectivity which involves very high cost and maintaining networks in difficult terrains is tough. The bottom line is to provide low-cost internet is such areas, and Satcom can address the issue of digital divide.

Satellite connectivity will also play a major role in integrating 5G and IoT applications along with realizing the goal of Digital India program. The best practice in such scenarios is utilizing constellations of LEO satellites due to low latency, low cost, low power, and small size terminals.

Recently, the government scrapped NLD licensing requirement for satcom players, which they required to provide backhaul to telcos. How much do you think this will influence satcom players’ decision to deploy in India?

This decision is vital for boosting the expansion of satellite communication in India. Further, it will help telecom operators to use satellite capacity of existing VSAT permit holders to provide broadband. Till date only National Long Distance (NLD) license providers have been allowed to provide the digital resources required to carry long distance telecom services. However, most of the VSAT service providers lack NLD licenses.

According to VSAI (VSAT Services Association of India), VSAT service providers have installed 2,50,000 VSAT terminals across India which required NLD service authorization. One of Satcom’s focus is to uplift the internet and voice services in remote and inaccessible zones; the DCC (Digital Communications Commission) decision can significantly help Satcom players to improve ease of doing business in that area.

Satcom is being talked about as more of a consumer opportunity than an enterprise one. How large is the enterprise market for Satcom in India?

The Indian satellite market has grown tremendously since last 4 years. As such, it has attracted a lot of global attention and companies are trying to enter the Indian market. The current priority of India is to bridge the digital divide; ISRO has been already working on the same. Along with that, ISRO has also launched earth observation satellite in 2020 for disaster management, forestry, and agriculture. Satellite technology can add value to 5G mission critical applications like air navigation systems. LEO constellations will assist in next generation IoT devices which use high data rates and low latency. 5G enabled satellites will enhance user experience in terms of video streaming and online gaming which is an enhanced mobile broadband application (eMBB).

While private Indian satellite companies have immense opportunity to leverage the country’s massive consumer base to push the OTT and DTH via satellite market, the development of technologies like autonomous and unmanned vehicles can uplift the IoT based satellite programs. Enterprises like banking, education, healthcare and airlines nowadays use satellite connectivity for business operations. As per TRAI, the enterprise satcom services requirement has grown by 5% annually. Large organizations such as railways, health agencies and internal security agencies could be one of the largest buyers of Satcom services over the next 5 years.

India still has quite a substantial population for which internet access still remains far away. Can satcom solve India’s deep-rooted connectivity issues?

Despite the technological advancement and efforts by the government and telecom service providers, internet penetration remains a pressing issue. A large portion of Indian population still does not have access to the internet; almost 70% (648 million) of rural India still remains unconnected and bad connectivity in urban areas is a prolonged problem. Also, service providers are hesitant to allocate a large capex for remote locations; telcos have to wait for a long time for their investment to return for such locations. Contrary to this, the data usage in India has seen a 25%–30% rise in 2020-21 at 11 GB/user/month. It is also likely to grow exponentially with Government initiatives like PM-WANI, which aims at installing Wi-Fi hotspots across the country by the end of 2021.

The solution to India’s connectivity issues can achieved through deployment of High Throughput satellites (HTS) using LEO constellations. Satellite technologies can make last mile connectivity cheaper; the cost of bandwidth has been decreasing and will come down further in near future. HTS systems coupled with multitasking and caching can improve connectivity issues for rural India, enabling offline usage. In addition to this, satcom does not have supply side issues, problems due to extreme weather conditions, etc. Satcom has become even more viable option due to flexible capacity allocation, increased FDI and private participation.

LEO satellite operators are the latest and greatest in Satcom. However, the scale of their satellite deployments has some worried about crowding and possible approach of Kessler’s syndrome. Do these worries hold merit?

LEO satellites orbit closer to the earth, normally from 500 – 1500 km from earth’s surface and suffer fast orbital decay. This is due to the gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach. This requires a periodic rebooting or replacing the older satellites leading to a daunting issue of space debris. As per Kessler’s syndrome, collisions between each object in space orbit can cause a cascading effect generating more debris. This can cause further collisions and can lead to a chain reaction. However properly designed satellites can help reduce the amount of space debris present.

According to ESA, since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, there have been 5,990 launches (excluding failures). The number of satellites placed in space are about 10,490. Out of these, 6,090 are still in space and 3,300 are still functioning. ESA also estimated approximately 550 collisions and explosions have occurred and debris was detected in earth’s orbit.

It is inevitable that the amount of space debris will grow overtime, and even more currently due to upcoming Satcom systems. However, the government must control and monitor the access to LEO space. Agencies are trying to come with systems that can slow the down the speed of objects (debris), so that it enters atmosphere and burns up.