Hughes began as a VSAT company. How has the business evolved?
We started as a VSAT company. Back then, those were only geostationary VSATs. But later, customers needed more bandwidth, more diversity, better speed, and more applications. They wanted to work faster. So we branched into managed services. Today, our satcom and non-satcom businesses are about the same size. We are not just a VSAT company.
How do you see the entry of Starlink and OneWeb changing the satellite communications market in India?
With this kind of high-speed performance, low latency, global economics, and high capacity, it is going to open up this market. A lot of enterprises today use VSAT as the last resort when nothing else is available. This is because the cost is high and performance is not as good as terrestrial communication. But now you have a technology whose cost is not very high, and its performance is like terrestrial communication — sometimes even better. This technology takes a big leap forward. We will be able to win back existing customers and serve rural markets better.
What are the biggest opportunities for Hughes as satellite connectivity expands?
Rural India is ready for it because it needs it badly, and the government also wants it. I would say projects funded by the Universal Service Obligation (USO), directly and indirectly, are another area. This covers all kinds of mobility, whether maritime or in the air. Government applications — such as the military, home, and paramilitary forces — are another major opportunity because our borders are in some of the toughest terrains.
What is holding back a large-scale deployment of low-earth orbit satellite services in India?
Regulatory approvals have been a hurdle because this is a complicated technology. Earlier, you would have a gateway in India and the satellite over India. It was a manageable ecosystem. Now satellites keep moving and talking to one another, and the gateway talks to satellites outside India. To understand that ecosystem and create a regulatory security framework is complicated. On top of that, there are geopolitical complications and conflicts.
What is the one regulatory measure the government should take in the near term?
Give security approvals with whatever conditions you want. And do it quickly.
How much investment could satellite operators need to establish gateway infrastructure in India?
An entity like Starlink, which has so many satellites and is planning bandwidth in terabits in India, needs to invest at least a few hundred million dollars in gateways. Companies like Eutelsat OneWeb, which initially had 20-25 gigabits of capacity over India, may need a much more nominal investment. It may be $15 million-20 million. It is proportionate to the capacity.
Could India emerge as a regional hub for satellite communications?
India is one of the few countries that have an organisation like the Indian Space Research Organisation, with space and launch capabilities. With the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), the authorities are unshackling the sector. There is also a growing satellite ecosystem. Every time I come to the Indian Mobile Congress, I am amazed by the diversity of what is happening in this field through startups. These are looking at security, intelligence, payloads, launch, gateways, the low-earth orbit, surveillance, earth stations, and agricultural monitoring.
What are Hughes’ priorities as new satellite technologies become available?
We are looking to take our incumbent position in the market as the satcom market leader and leverage these great new technologies and bandwidth services. We have always had to manage around bandwidth. Now, we can go and, as they say, play on the front foot. We are focused on enterprise and government satcom, not the consumer market. But I feel the consumer market will come into its own once non-terrestrial network (NTN) technology allows a normal handset to talk directly to a satellite.
