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In many countries around the world, satcom is fast gaining momentum. Companies both big and small are looking at the sector. And it is not just limited to companies anymore - countries are looking at the sector with geopolitics in mind.
Satcom will become one of the preferred means of connectivity. Till that happens, here are the last week's developments in satcom.
Subsidies, Incentives and Policy Changes in Satcom
Last Monday, reports came that DoT will soon ask TRAI to unveil a comprehensive discussion paper on a new licensing framework for low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations operators. The new licensing framework will apply to sector players like Starlink, OneWeb and so on. These developments come at a time when these global players are looking at India for a potential $500 million opportunity in satcom. The fact remains that there are still a few policy hurdles to overcome.
On the same day, US' Federal Communications Commission said that a total of 2.31 million US households have signed up to take part in a temporary $3.2 billion broadband subsidy program created by Congress in December. Over 1,000 broadband providers have agreed to take part in the program. However, the funding will run out soon on the program. Whether and how the Congress will choose to extend the program and how it would pay for it is still a question.
Incidentally, on the same day as well, China's tech city Shenzhen said that the city will offer up to 300 million yuan ($47 million) in financial incentives to satellite communications players shifting their operations to the city. Shenzhen is preparing to push to become an innovation hub for satellite development. The city’s economic planning agency said that it will support satcom projects with up to 40% of total investment.
Further down the week, things looked tumultuous for the sector in India. Satcom providers Hughes Network Systems, Inmarsat and Viasat have urged Indian authorities not to allocate half of 28 GHz spectrum to telcos for 5G. The companies said that such as move will impact their throughput and geographical reach. This will have long-term repercussions for 5G and satcom in India, depending on what the Indian Government decides.
A Slight Problem Takes A Chunk of Internet Down
On Tuesday, a bug in the systems of Fastly, a CDN service provider, took out a big majority of popular sites such as Reddit, The Guardian, Spotify, Stackoverflow and so on. This outage caused mass panic across the social media.
However, Fastly was able to detect and resolve the issue within an hour of it first starting. By the end of the day, it had fixed the issue permanently. The CDN service provider said that a customer changing their settings triggered the bug. It said the bug was in a software update shipped to customers on May 12.
Industry Updates
Reliance Jio Brings JioCare on WhatsApp
Reliance Jio on Wednesday rolled out its JioCare on WhatsApp, an AI powered self-service tool users can use on WhatsApp. This will allow users access to Jio WhatsApp Recharge, Mobile number portability and so on. Users can access the tool by messaging ‘Hi’ to 70007-70007.
Reliance Infratel Fraudulent No More
On Thursday, SBI said that it will move to withdraw the fraud allegations against RCom’s tower unit, Reliance Infratel. Also, the bank has filed a petition in NCLT for the same via an affidavit. The move came over fears that Reliance Jio, who will buy the company's assets, may pull out of the deal.
Illegal Telephone Exchange Listened to Military Personnel Calls
On Thursday, Karnataka Police, and Military Intelligence (Southern Command) together busted an illegal telephone exchange network. Using a network of 6 telephone exchanges, the perpetrators were converting international calls to local calls. Also, they were recording information from Indian army exchanges, and personnel.
Huawei Sets a Target on Driverless Car Tech
On Thursday, a Huawei Technologies executive said that the company aims to develop driverless car technology by 2025. Huawei has moved to smart e-vehicles after US sanctions pulverized its global smartphone business.
Ajai Puri COAI Chairman for One More Term
COAI on Thursday said that Ajai Puri, COO, Bharti Airtel, will stay the Chairman of the industry association for 2021-22. COAI also said that Pramod Kumar Mittal, President, Reliance Jio Infocomm, will continue as Vice Chairman of the association.