Satcom: Anshu Prakash to Meet Satellite Companies, Telcos

DoT secretary Anshu Prakash will next week meet diverse industry stakeholders, including telcos, tech startups, IoT players and global satcom companies such as OneWeb, Hughes Communications and Inmarsat. The telecom secretary will discuss a roadmap to manufacture satellite communications gear locally. These include gateways and related infrastructure like IoT devices, CPEs, antennae systems and sensors.

DoT To Meet Satcom Players to Discuss Spacecom Policy

The DoT Secretary has called the meeting ahead of the upcoming Spacecom policy. This will also include discussions to create an enabling regulatory regime for global LEO satellite constellation operators to establish in-country gateways in India.

Since ISRO only meets about half of India's satcom requirements, India's dependence on foreign satellites won't go anywhere anytime soon.

In an internal invite to the industry shareholders, DoT's satellite cell said, "the draft Spacecom policy circulated by Department of Space (DoS) emphasises increased participation of the commercial Indian industry to provide space-based communications, and an interactive session chaired by the telecom secretary is planned with industry on July 12 to develop a satcom infrastructure ecosystem, with the possibility of using indigenous components in satellite gateways and also fostering local equipment manufacturing of CPEs, IoT devices, antennae and sensors".

The invite added, "with new technologies like high-throughput satellites and LEO satellite (constellations) getting deployed, the interactive session would also discuss the requisite regulatory framework for establishment of satellite gateways in India to support operations of international satellite operators".

Starlink, Amazon Not to be At the Satcom Meeting

Top representatives of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Saankhya Labs, Skylo Technologies, Bharat Electronics and C-DoT will participate. Also, officials from TRAI, Niti Aayog, DoS, DRDO and IIT Chennai will also attend the meeting. However, the DoT has not invited Starlink and Amazon to the meeting. They, like OneWeb, are also setting up LEO satellite constellations to deliver high-speed satellite broadband services globally, including in India.

On the matter, a senior DoT official, clarified that the department had "not barred participation of Starlink and Amazon". The DoT further clarified by citing that these companies are not DoT licensees.

Incidentally, just days before, OneWeb chairman Sunil Mittal said OneWeb is talking with Sasken Technologies. Along with this, he also said that OneWeb is talking with ISRO's commercial arm NewSpace India and some Israeli tech companies. The company plans to sharply cut user access terminal prices before launching fast satellite internet services in India.

OneWeb, he said, would also build two satellite in-country gateways or ‘ground stations’ that would be ready by February-March 2022.