Satcom a vital reinforcing rod of the broadband pillar of digital India

India is committed to the Vision of Digital India and it is well known that Digital India has nine pillars, the first and foremost of which is “Broadband Highways”. Strong pillars need good reinforcing rods. In this case, the Broadband pillar requires the adequate reinforcing-rods of modern satcom for ubiquity, without which it’d be very weak or non-existent in rural, remote or inaccessible areas or in exigencies. 

Broadband availability is perhaps the single most important differentiator between a developed and inclusive economy and a developing/under-developed one. Developed economies have a large section of their population accessing the Internet through a high speed ubiquitous broadband connection, if not the entire 100%. While smaller-sized countries like Korea, Japan, Germany and many EU Countries have been able to connect most of the mainland with Optical Fibre, the bigger-sized ones like USA, Australia, China have done so with a combination of terrestrial technologies and Satcom. India, with its goal of ‘Broadband for All’, has huge opportunities in this field.

Satellite broadband, suitably designed and applied, can be very cost-effective and competitive since satellite technologies have undergone remarkable evolution in the last two decades, achieving breakthrough efficiencies and increases in performance. Today’s satellites are akin to digital processors in the sky, and there are remarkable new technologies still to be developed – more powerful processors, and new encoding and user terminal capabilities that can make user systems more mobile, versatile, responsive, powerful, and yet cost-efficient. Multiple technology trends are converging in the Satellite Industry to offer much more scalable and flexible networks. Very High Throughput Satellites (VHTS), software-designed satellites, constellations and virtualised ground segment are boosting Satcom capabilities across the globe.

Satellite technology is, more or less, essential in disaster management and damage estimation today. High-resolution satellite imagery has today matured to the point which helps construct more accurate damage estimates and precise data can be interpreted to help assess and plan rescue operations in a timely and coherent manner.

In agriculture, crop monitoring using satellites has helped the industry achieve increased productivity as data from satellites for precise weather forecast for farm locations based on field coordinates, remote sensing applications, etc. have become critical in monitoring large-scale crop conditions.

Going forward, 5G too will be transformational in many aspects of the Satellite Industry, estimated to drive about $32.5 billion in cumulative revenues globally for 2019-2029. In fact, satcom will be a necessary part of 5G and the latter cannot be effective without it. For example, emerging use cases such as Connected Cars, Trains and Buses will experience rapid growth with seamless integration of terrestrial and satellite networks and vehicles enabled by 5G, and would be able to roam across networks depending on the application (multicast vs unicast) or coverage.

Looking further ahead, an era of communication mega-constellations for satcom is inevitable and already taking shape. Almost every other month one sees media reports of a corporate or entrepreneur announcing the setting-up of a new venture for a mega-constellation of LEO (Low Earth Orbital) satellites, designed to bring Internet access to anywhere on Earth, whether in isolated locations or industrialized areas. Future communication satellites will also have more on-board processing capabilities, more power, and the ability to handle more bandwidth. Further improvements in satellites’ propulsion and power systems are expected to increase their service life to 20–30 years from the current 10–15 years. With the incredibly growing demand for video and data services requiring larger amounts of bandwidth, there is no dearth of emerging applications that will drive demand for satellite services in the future. Coupled with the continuous innovation and development of satellite technology, this demand will ensure the long-term viability of the commercial satellite industry.

For a country like India especially, to get high speed internet connectivity to each and every citizen in a ubiquitous manner, Satcom becomes a necessity. With the pressing need to rapidly augment bandwidth everywhere, including those at Tier 2 & 3 cities besides suburban areas, Satellite communications is the way forward. The reason being that for the last 20% of our population who live in deeply rural, remote and geographically inaccessible regions, Satcom happens to be the only solution to provide internet access in terms of techno-economic feasibility. It is estimated that the cost of providing terrestrial connectivity in rural regions shoots up by almost 10-20 times, making it economically unviable for terrestrial technologies to reach them. 

To be able to harness these present and potential benefits of the advanced Satellite technologies, developed economies have liberalised their Satcom regulations. We, in India, can be proud to note that the recent modernisation of the TEC Specifications and standards have placed us almost on par with the rest of the world in this respect.

The new TEC specifications/standards now allow freedom and flexibility to the satellite ecosystem to fully exploit the capabilities of the Next Generation Satellite Networks. Removal of erstwhile artificial technical barriers that inhibited carrier speeds, bandwidth, antenna sizes and permitted use of only certain frequency bands, will enable optimal utilisation of the latest satcom technologies. It has the potential to enhance digital connectivity and provide high capacity cellular and Wi-Fi backhaul to all locations within the country, which is particularly relevant in view of the present pandemic scenario, and the path forward to 5G. With its suite of technology advancements and an enabling suitable light touch regulatory framework, Satcom can provide an efficient means for providing various applications to complement 5G terrestrial technologies in geographically challenged terrains, remote and far flung rural areas. 

Some of the notable changes brought about by the new standards/specifications and the consequent benefits to the users are:

1. The barriers/caps on data rates which were earlier pegged to 2 Mbps in STAR Configuration and 4 Mbps in MESH Configuration, have been removed. This would now permit true high-speed, high-capacity satellite broadband proliferation currently available from the flock of Next Generation Satellites, viz. HTS & NGSO Satellites and enable use of satellite based broadband services to the enterprises and citizens.
2. Caps that existed on uplink data rates, which were earlier linked to fixed antenna sizes have also been removed, thereby permitting modern high capacity smaller antenna sizes to cater to huge data throughputs. This will bring down the space, power and cost requirements of the operators, while enabling high throughputs, thereby making broadband through satellites more efficient.
3. These new flexible and liberalised guidelines are not only applicable to communication networks but also to the broadcast networks including DTH. In terms of frequency bands, besides the traditional C & Ku bands, the high capacity Ka bands have also been permitted for use in both broadband and broadcasting, along with flexible and higher power limits (PSD limits) at the satellite antenna. This will pave the way for high-capacity, high-speed broadband networks using Satellites, and better QoS.  

The impact of this modernisation of Satcom specifications to sit in conjunction with a general regime of a Liberalised Satellite communications policy expected through the impending Spacecom Policy, will lend a cost-effective and reliable means to facilitate digital inclusivity and will help bridge the country’s digital divide in a much efficient manner. The growing demand for quality data connectivity and its ubiquitous availability across the entire nation clearly underlines the importance of augmenting and utilising this most potent and effective means for delivering broadband to the masses.

Mainstreaming Satcom would also be a great booster for our missions of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Industry 4.0, since it’d create manufacturing opportunities for the various components newly required in numerous use cases such as IoT, healthcare, agri-tech, supply chain management, transportation, etc., made possible by modern satcom. This would further fuel the economic growth of the country. 

With an enabling policy and regulatory framework that encourages and facilitates any new technology initiative in a tech-neutral manner, Satcom can ensure the expeditious attainment of our national goal of a vibrant and inclusive ‘Digital India’.