India satellite broadband “by mid-2023”
October 4, 2022
By Chris Forrester
India’s secretary for telecommunications Kalyanaraman Rajaraman believes that Indian users will likely be able to access satellite-based broadband connectivity by the middle of 2023.
The department of telecommunications has already sent its reference to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to auction the spectrum in the 27.5-28.5 MHz band, which is essential to rollout satellite broadband services.
“We are waiting for TRAI to send their recommendations on the satellite spectrum band to be put on auction,” Rajaraman said at India’s Mobile Congress event. “We expect the process to complete in about 9-10 months.”
There are plenty of businesses waiting to get started. The UK/Bharti Group-backed One Web (currently in the process of merging with Eutelsat) and Jio Satellite Communications, a unit of Reliance Jio have already received letters of intent from the government to rollout satellite communications services.
Also waiting are Elon Musk’s Starlink and the Jeff Bezos-backed Project Kuiper, both of which have their eyes on the Indian market.
Rajaraman added that the user device ecosystem will develop in about next couple of years when manufacturers will start coming in.
“India is a very diverse country. So therefore, if you look at the remotest regions, I think it would require this kind of devices which are affordable at the same time and are resilient to this kind of the geography,” he said.