Going bullish on satellite broadband business, Tata group company Nelco is said to be engaged in advanced talks with Canada-based Telesat to enter into a commercial pact for launching fast satellite broadband services in India under the latter’s brand Lightspeed, reports Economic Times.
The move by Nelco, if fructifies, will place it directly in competition with Bharti Enterprises-backed OneWeb, Elon Musk led Starlink and Jeff Bezos led Project Kuiper.
Sharing details, Nelco’s managing director PJ Nath said, “Nelco and Telesat will have a master services agreement (MSA) to provide Lightspeed LEO (low-earth orbit) satellite services in India. We are in the process of finalising details of the commercial arrangements.”
Nath however clarified that Nelco has no plans to launch a separate joint venture with Telesat. He also said that the combine will soon put in its application for the varied statutory approvals, including landing rights, after the new Spacecom policy clears the air on the rules for setting up in-country satellite gateways by overseas non-geostationary satellite system operators or LEO satellite service providers.
Globally, Telesat is planning to invest almost $5 billion to build a constellation of 298-odd low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. It plans to launch its services globally by 2024.
Meanwhile, OneWeb and SpaceX’s Starlink are planning to launch their services in India next year itself.