LEO Constellations kick off the “Space Race” for Satellite Broadband

Entry of some Pioneering Private Players into Satellite Broadband Services will ensure high-speed Internet services in the remotest part of the country and the world. How will this impact the current mobile broadband services in the country – we explore.

By Voice&Data Team

Back in 2010 when Airtel acquired Zain’s mobile business in Africa for close to $11 billion Sunil Mittal, the man who started the Telecom revolution in India, shared with a select group of journalists his vision to go global.

One of the key focus areas for him then was to connect people from Kenya to Colombo to Kashmir under a global company. Eleven years later, even as Airtel has spread its mobile telephony network across the length and breadth of India and 14 countries in the African continent, the Bharti Group has embarked onto new frontiers through a venture that gives impetus to its global ambitions.

In July 2020 Bharti won the bid to acquire a 45% stake in OneWeb, a UK-based company that had plans to launch a constellation of hundreds of satellites orbiting in the low earth orbit (LEO) and capable of delivering wireless internet connectivity at affordable prices to any corner in the world. The move was a little unexpected because Bharti had earlier acquired a stake in the same company in 2015 along with a consortium of investors including Virgin Group, Qualcomm, Hughes, and Airbus. But it had later exited the London-based company.

In the meanwhile, thousands of miles away in the United States, Elon Musk-backed satellite broadband company Starlink and Jeff Bezos owned Project Kuiper had also triggered a space race through LEO satellite constellations. These satellites operate at just 600 – 1500 km from the earth’s surface, which enables very low latency in the range of 25-40 msec, which is comparable to terrestrial connectivity including fiber.

Space Race with LEO

LEO satellite constellations can provide high capacity as well as allow flat panel antenna with lower size.

Table 1: The mmWave Tussle

The traditional satellites or geostationary satellites operate at 36,000 km. While the higher altitude allows two or three satellites to cover the entire Earth, there are issues related to latency due to its height. LEO satellites revolve at an altitude between 160 to 2,000 kilometers.

Beaming Down Broadband

Latency is a problem when it comes to mission-critical data services which need real-time data access – like health or mission-critical applications in industry. Since LEOs are physically closer to the earth, it doesn’t take as long for data to move from your home to a satellite to a wired ground station and back.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has put more than 1,000 of its Starlink satellites into low-earth orbit as part of a plan to provide broadband Internet to underserved communities around the world.

Amazon has also announced that it plans to put its first prototype Project Kuiper satellites in orbit by the end of 2022 with a similar goal in mind. These companies are trying to go after billions without access to the Internet as well as businesses that operate in far-flung and remote areas. This includes airlines, cruise ships, fishing trawlers, mountainous regions, islands where delivery of online education and shopping is a problem.

Schematic of Orbital

LEO constellations want to cover the globe with thousands of their satellites. A low orbit satellite is a new thing in the space race. Elon Musk with his Starlink satellites and Jeff Bezos with Project Kuiper have already made known their intent for the future. Speaking at the unveiling of the Indian Space Association, Sunil Mittal had shared his vision: “the space race has truly begun and India will play a leading role in this through OneWeb”.

Table 2: Spectrum Allocation Challenges

In October 2021, OneWeb already had 322 satellites in orbit. Since then in December 2021, it launched another 36 Satellites by ArianeSpace from Balkonur Cosmodrome to bring its total in-orbit constellation to 394 Satellites - which is 60% of its planned constellation of 648 satellites. OneWeb has an arrangement in the form of a Letter of Intent with New Space India Ltd. (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It aims to launch satellites in India this year. And start offering high-speed, low-latency connectivity services in India by late 2022.

India Gameplan

In India, such a constellation will be very useful given the dismal fixed broadband infrastructure. There are less than 50 million fixed broadband users in the country. Most of the population is dependent on mobile phones to access data services. But even the mobile data network outside the top 100 cities is quite erratic in most places. “Over 60 percent of subscribers on incumbent operators’ networks are still on 2G. The operators are under huge financial strain so they are unable to roll out 4G networks fast enough to meet the growing demand. Low orbit satellites could fill that gap,” said a telecom industry veteran.

Table 3: The Satellite Communications Industry

Mobile operators also have to keep upgrading their networks from 3G to 4G and now 5G. Each upgrade requires the purchase of a fresh spectrum and investments into rolling out new networks. In comparison, investment into a satellite network is a one-time event with minimal additional investments required.

Orbits of Satellites

Challenges

But there are many challenges before the Satellite services go live.

One big concern would be around the pricing of services. Satellite-based connectivity is known to be expensive compared to terrestrial networks. For example, Starlink’s satellite broadband service was expected to be offered in India at Rs. 1,58,000 in the first year.

This will include end-user equipment for Rs. 37,400 and Rs. 7,425 per month for the service. after the initial first year, the cost for using satellite broadband services will be `1,15,000 per year. The other issue could be around devices. Traditional mobile phones are not equipped to receive satellite signals so the service provider will have to set up an earth station and then transmit the signals in a way that can be read by a normal smartphone. “There is also the issue of network resilience especially if you have multiple satellites operating in an area. The network has to be planned to precision in a manner that data sessions don’t drop if a person is moving,” said a network planning expert.

Policy Challenges

The biggest roadblock that OneWeb, Starlink, and other satellite players could be facing in a country like India is the lack of clear policies. To be clear, satellite-based broadband services have been offered in India for many years by the likes of Hughes Networks. However, these services were limited to the enterprise market and have been based on geostationary satellites.

Then there is the complicated history. A Bengaluru-based startup called Devas Multimedia had attempted to roll out a pan India satellite network in collaboration with ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix in 2005. But this deal was scrapped in 2011 after it came to light that Devas was being given S-band spectrum bundled with the satellite transponders. In 2010, the S-band spectrum was auctioned for 3G services for which the Government received top bids from mobile operators. This kind of issue could crop up yet again to derail the LEO players’ plans in India if not addressed through a Policy Framework.

While LEO players including OneWeb and Starlink have demanded spectrum in the 28 GHz band or so-called mmWave, existing mobile operators also claim this band for IMT / 5G services and want it to be auctioned. In fact, mobile operators want the entire band up to 29.5 GHz. Based on discussions with people in the industry it is further understood that LEO / satellite players are of the view that auctioning spectrum for satellite services will kill the business model. OneWeb feels that the spectrum for earth stations should be assigned administratively and on a case-by-case basis, as these are used only at very specific locations rather than a nationwide assignment basis.

Jeff Bezos backed, Amazon Internet has said that internationally, most administrations such as Sweden and US assign spectrum administratively for a Ground Station as-a-Service (GSaaS). Starlink has echoed similar views. “Frequency assignment policies should be designed to incentivize efficient utilization of spectrum rather than revenue maximization in the short-term that will ultimately cost consumers,” Starlink said adding that “any uncertainty” on the ability to use frequencies on a long-term basis would deter investments and limit the growth of satellite-based internet services to all Indians.

Interestingly, this has created a difference of opinion in the Indian mobile industry between operators. “Spectrum is a requirement only for the small perimeter of the gateway landing stations and unlike terrestrial network, this is not used all over the geographical region of the country. Since this assignment of orbital /spectrum resources for satellites is globally coordinated at the ITU level and given administratively the world over, the same priority and methodology should also be followed by the Indian administration,” said one of the largest mobile operators in its representation.

On the other hand, another large mobile network has countered this: “The satellite providers who intend to establish Earth Station Gateway in India should do so in partnership with respective service providers only. They don’t have any case of providing any telecommunication services or for establishing of the core network,” an official said. Government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has also demanded an outright auction for the satellite spectrum. So there is a clear division of views.

According to a report titled “mmWave Bands, 24.25 GHz: May 2021” by the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), 108 operators in 45 countries/territories are investing in mmWave in the form of tests/trials, acquisition of licenses, planning deployments or engaging in deployments. 133 operators in 22 countries/territories have been assigned mmWave spectrum enabling operation of 5G networks. This has been quoted by TRAI in its consultation paper.

Roll-out plans

But despite these challenges and regulatory uncertainties, LEO players are going ahead with their Indian plans.

LEO Satellite Clusters

OneWeb has already commenced building two gateways required for the interface between the internet and satellite network. OneWeb aims to become operational in India from the middle of this year, providing backhaul services to telecom operators, as well as distributing services to many large enterprises, small to medium businesses, and government operations through partnerships with broadband services providers such as Hughes.

Network Systems

Canadian satellite major Telesat is also in the fray and will be conducting trials in India soon, using their operational low orbit satellites. Telesat has partnered with Nelco, a Tata group company, with an aim to offer enterprise broadband services based on Telesat’s LEO satellites. The Canadian company is also exploring other local partnerships with Indian companies for the terrestrial connectivity of its LEO network. Through these partnerships, Telesat aims to explore site locations for gateway landing stations and Points of Presence in India

Starlink seems to be the most aggressive of all the LEO players. At one point it had even started taking pre-booking from customers in India – but that plan was put on hold by the Department of Telecom after it received several complaints. Registration of customer bookings is not permitted for telecom services without appropriate permissions, acceptance testing (AT), and announcement of the date of launch of services.

For instance, Delhi-based NGO, Telecom Watchdog, wrote to the Department of Telecommunications on September 29, stating that Starlink was asking customers to pay a deposit of `7,350 so that they could be served on a first-come-first-serve basis. Sanjay Bhargava, the then Starlink Country Director India, Space X, said in a social media post that it would be easier for them to get approvals from the government if they receive a high number of pre-bookings from customers in India. As of October, pre-orders in India had crossed 5,000 customers. However, Bhargava recently quit the company.

Despite this debacle, Starlink Satellite Communications has said that it intends to apply for all the applicable licenses to commercially launch its satellite-based internet services in India. In the meanwhile, the Satellite industry is waiting for the government to announce the Satcom Policy that will make it clear how the spectrum will be given to satellite operators. Until then Starlink, OneWeb, Telesat, and Kuiper will continue rolling out their network in other parts of the world. Indian consumers may have some more waiting to do.

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