ICRA: Satcom to be the Next (R)evolution in Broadband Space

ICRA, in a press release, said that satcom has been "gaining prominence globally". It also added that many players are entering this space and are in the process of launching a constellation of LEO satellites.

Satcom the Next Logical Step in Broadband

Satcom mainly scores over the traditional network in inaccessible terrains and remote areas; it has wide geographical coverage and good broadcasting capabilities. However, satcom remains expensive and requires a lot of approvals, apart from being prone to weather disturbances. Despite all these, satellite communication is touted to be the next advancement in the broadband space.

Sabyasachi Majumdar, Group Head & Senior VP, ICRA, said, "satellite communication will remain crucial for broadband inclusion of a lot of remote and sparsely populated areas which have not been connected through terrestrial network. Several foreign players are eying this market, and have launched/are in process of launching a constellation of satellites to cover the earth, including One Web, Starlink, Amazon, etc."

Satcom can complement the existing network infrastructure by providing a redundant network. It can also act as a backhaul network, bridging the digital divide by delivering broadband in remote areas.

ICRA also added that LEO satellites have overcome the issues of low speed and high latency; these problems have been deterrent in widespread adoption of satcom. However, this is changing fast; the US has more than 4.5 million subscribers and EU has more than 2.1 million subscribers.

On the other side, India has only about 0.3 million enterprise subscribers. Last mile connectivity has traditionally been a problem with satcom. Moreover, India has a lot of restrictive policies to operate in this space.

"There have been a lot of policy related uncertainties, including vague licensing regime and lack of clarity on spectrum frequency and allocation, which can act as deterrents to the proliferation of this technology", Majumdar added.

He also said, "In India, if the operating environment eases, it is expected that the satcom user base will rise to around 1.5-2 million by 2025, generating a revenue of around ₹5,000-6,000 crore annually".