Telesat and Nelco are going to kickstart commercial satellite communications or satcom services together by 2024 with a focus on offering affordable tariff to ring fence business-to-business (B2B) customers in a developing market that would also have the US-based SpaceX and UK-headquartered OneWeb stakes.
Nelco Managing Director & Chief Executive PJ Nath said, “We want to partner with Telesat. Their services will be live by the latter half of 2024, which we will be bringing to India to offer to our customers.” He also added that the prices have not been fixed as yet with continued discussions happening around it. About the deal terms between the two companies, Nath said that there is still a long way to go for the service to be launched in 2024, and the business strategy is being worked out currently.
The satcom industry is set to see a massive growth following technology advancements, light-touch regulations and heightened demand in data services. Elon Musk-headed SpaceX and Sunil Mittal-driven OneWeb posed as arch rivals in the yet-to-launch broadband space.
Indicating a strong relationship with Dan Goldberg-headed Telesat, Nath said that their partnership was on-going, and are already working together in many areas, and are in talks with the government for permissions, and fine tuning strategy, while the exact details would take another few months to close. “We also need to take into consideration that in remote locations, having a LEO satellite network would be an optimal solution, as compared to fiber networks. The terrain, as well as geographic location would make it difficult to lay down cable networks, as well as for telecoms to reach these areas,” Nath added.
Previously, the two companies said that they collaborate on areas such as terrestrial facilities, commercial distribution and regulatory frameworks, and the Mumbai-based company, as a part pof arrangement, would offer Telesat low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite services with superior enterprise connectivity in India.
