The satellite unit of Reliance Jio Infocomm, Jio Satellite Communications (JSC) has applied to the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for global mobile personal communications via satellite services (GMPCS) license.
JSC was incorporated in October 2021 and competes against heavyweight names in the broadband-from-space segment such as Bharti Group backed-OneWeb, Elon Musk’s Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and the Tata-Telesat. These companies have already made ground with launch plans imminent to provide connectivity in India.
According to an Economic Times report, Jio’s entry was widely anticipated as the telco put across strong views lately around the mode of allocation of satellite spectrum, satellite gateway operations, and the choice of airwave bands at various stages. But this is the first official move by its satellite arm to pitch for a full-blown satellite services permit.
JSC, according to the report, may lease or resell satellite bandwidth capacity to offer cellular backhaul connectivity services to rural or remote corners where mobile broadband connectivity is weak. Jio’s new satellite arm may be open to providing satellite broadband services to potential clients in different trade verticals comparable to aviation and maritime, the report said quoting unnamed sources.
Since the launch of the government’s Digital India initiative in 2015, nearly 178,000 villages have been connected with optical fibre. There are 250,000 more villages to be connected. Experts predict that with the upcoming ‘Open Space’, satellite broadband services can be a $500 million-plus near-term market opportunity.
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