ISRO committed to expanding ways to work with private sector, and help improve people's lives: Dr. S. Somanath

Hughes Communications India Pvt Ltd announced the commercial launch of broadband satellite and managed network services. HTS broadband service combines Ku-band capacity from Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 satellites, along with Hughes' Jupiter platform ground technology. This will deliver high-speed broadband services across India, including the most remote areas beyond reach of terrestrial networks.

The service supports apps such as Wi-Fi hotspots for community Internet access, managed SD-WAN solutions, backhaul to extend mobile network reach, and satellite Internet for small businesses.

Partho Banerjee, President and MD, HCI, said: "With support from ISRO, we are happy to announce the commercial launch of India's first HTS broadband service. Available country-wide, HTS broadband from Hughes underscores our long-standing commitment to bridging the digital divide, delivering multi-megabit high-speed broadband at affordable rates. This new broadband service will address connectivity gaps, improve network performance, and support the high-bandwidth requirements of government organizations, financial companies, cellular operators, mining and energy companies, among other businesses, large and small, helping to connect India to a limitless future.

"HTS does the same thing using a spot beam. Currently, Hughes runs over 1 million subscribers in the USA. Hughes started services in early 2001. We are now bringing the technology in the country. Hughes also has had a merger with Airtel Satellite Division." Hughes had entered India nearly 30 years ago.

Shivaji Chatterjee, Executive VP, HCI, said many investments are now going into niche technologies, such as satcom. HTS is truly an evolution, and a revolution. There is frequency re-use, spot beams, and multiplied capacity. Multiple spot beams are created and connected across the country.

HTS is now a game-changer for satcoms. You get higher capacity, multi-Mbps speeds, compact VSATs, higher uptime, much lower cost-per-bit, and greater user experience. Today, HTS has been driving satcoms capacity/growth globally. India has been a late entrant to commercial HTS capacities and services.

ISRO's HTS satellites are maximizing capacity over India. Eg., GSAT-11 satellite has 7424MHz total capacity. There are four gateway locations. 1Gbps capacity was contracted and now, under-contracting. DoT is enabling the HTS regulatory framework. It is sharing ISRO HTS gateway infrastructure, permitting cellular backhaul and WiFi backhaul under VSAT license, revised TEC permitting high speeds and compact terminals, reduced levies (NOCC, WPC) for lower price-per-bit, permitting mobility on land, water, and air, etc.

Hughes HTS is powering an all-inclusive Digital India. It can also fast-track the completion of BharatNet. Community WiFi service can also be done. For SMEs, there is high-speed satellite business broadband service available. There is the under-served demand for satcoms HTS broadband.

Hughes supports LEO, MEO, and GEO satellite systems. It won the largest contract with Indian Oil. GEO and LEO are going to be complementary elements in future satellite broadband services. Hughes has extensive investments in GEO with Jupiter satellites, ground systems, and broadband services. It is also partnering with OneWeb. New growth areas include 4G/5G backhaul, mobility services in the air, retail and broadband, HughesNet, WiFi, and bridging the digital divide across India.

Growing optimism in India

Presenting the keynote, Dr. S. Somanath, Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission, and Chairman, ISRO, noted: "Thanks to the continuous efforts by the Government of India, there is growing optimism and excitement about enhancing public-private partnership in India's space ecosystem. At ISRO, we care committed to exploring and expanding the ways that we work with the private sector to help improve people's lives, and bridge the digital divide.

"With the new HTS capabilities powered by ISRO's satellites, we are confident that HCL will continue to deliver excellent quality satellite broadband services, and further enhance the connectivity experience that accelerates India's digital transformation. With its inherent advantages and ubiquitous nature, the new HTS service will play a pivotal role in extending broadband connectivity to the remotest locations, difficult to reach otherwise, and create economic opportunities to boost the local economy. The benefits are overwhelming. That will be the driver for HTS.

"Satellites can provide connectivity for aircrafts and ships. GEO will be a leading technology. Many times, the lives of satellites are much longer. Some may have shorter lifespans. Future satellites that we put up may be different. Frequencies may also change, based on demand. We are going to build more, based on the market demand. We will be building better and more flexible satellites in the future." He complimented Hughes for their service.

Dr. Suneel Kumar Niraniyan, Director Carrier Services-1 (Telecom Licensing Division), DoT, said ISRO has played a great supporting role for providing a Digital India. Satcoms can extend services to the remotest areas. Government of India announced the satcoms policy in June 2020. Private sector is now showing lot of interest. We granted licenses to OneWeb and another player. Later, user terminals will be introduced for moving platforms.

Satcoms is also playing a major role in backhaul for 4G/5G. DoT also did away with NOCC charges for transponders. For IoT devices, we have also done away with the fees. ISRO is also working on connecting locomotives with satellite tracking, leading to lot of efficiency increase in Indian railways. Spectrum usage for space services is also under the consideration of DoT.

In the Q&A that followed, Shivaji Chatterjee, HIL, said they also provide 5G backhaul. Ground segment technology has already been tested. In India, 5G networks need to get rolled out. We are currently doing testing with BSNL. For SMEs in the North East, we see demand for all SME services. 25% demand is from Arunachal, and 25% demand is from Kashmir and Ladakh regions. We are focusing on these areas. We are trying to provide mobile plans such as 1GB per day with HTS.

Dr. S. Somanath, said that providing service through a service provider is a different thing. We have already transferred at least 10 satellites for commercial activity to NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL). To provide a national requirement is a government responsibility. India now joins the select group of nations offering HTS services. The Indian operator will be NSIL, which also looks to becoming a global provider.

He added that you can put up a satellite that is software-driven. You can shape the beams. Antenna will be new type. Frequency changes can be also done, using tubes and solid-state devices. We would like to offer this as a commercial services. PSLVs launch is also there. We will be handing over the operational launch to NSIL. We also need to design and build satellites in future, and change the model in due course. Bigger satellites will also be built in India.

Partho Banerjee, said HIL is currently offering B2B services. We are definitely going to be cost competitive. B2C is different segment. We will also be competitive on this platform. We are working with OneWeb.