ISRO's 100th Orbital Launch Marks Highest Payload Lift with AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 6

Vodafone UK's satellite partner AST SpaceMobile has sent their BlueBird Block-2 communication satellite into its intended Low Earth Orbit with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s LVM3-M6 rocket on 24th December 2025. BlueBird Block-2 satellites, including BlueBird 6, feature a massive 2,400 square foot (223 m²) communication array, weighing in at 6,100 kilograms, was the heaviest payload that the LVM3 has ever launched into LEO.

While ISRO firmly maintains its stand of global satellite launch market with 6th mission of LVM3, it also marks the completion of 100 orbital launches. The LVM3 launch vehicle (Launch Vehicle Mark-3, formerly GSLV MkIII), developed by ISRO, is a three-stage rocket comprising two solid strap-on motors (S200), a liquid core stage (L110) and a cryogenic upper stage (C25). With a lift-off mass of 640 tonnes and a height of 43.5 metres, the vehicle is capable of carrying up to 4,200 kg to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.

Why BSNL 4G Has So Much Issues?

From my last post on BSNL's official entry into 4G space, I am continuing here. Making it a brief, BSNL 4G is giving download speed of 20-30Mbps on 10/5MHz x 700/2100MHz band using LTE-FDD in 2025 while Airtel's initial 4G offering on 20MHz x 2300MHz on LTE-TDD was upto 40Mbps downlink. 

So BSNL's using lower bands with less bandwidth those should offer lower downlink speed, that's what I am getting. But BSNL 4G is having coverage issues, why?

Vi 5G Review: Speedtest Results in Kolkata

Vi, the third largest mobile operator of India, has launched 5G, and it is now in Kolkata too, but in a few pockets of the metro. Though it's not present at my home area, it is widely available in Salt Lake. 

To deploy 5G, Vi took a multi-vendor strategy - made deals with Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson for different circles. In Kolkata Nokia is the vendor of Vi 5G. 

BSNL 4G Officially Launched on 27th September 2025 - Discussions

BSNL, the state owned telecom service provider has officially launched its 4G-LTE services in India in an event at Jadsuguda, Orissa as India's prime minister Narendra Modi unveiled Swadeshi 4G network of BSNL on September 27, 2025. In fact, BSNL completed its 25 years of milestone of September 26, 2025. 

BSNL has deployed indigenous 4G stack, made by Tata backed Tejas Networks & TCS and C-DoT. Multiple Indian startups are also part of it. It is aligned with the government's strategy of Atmanirvar Bharat (Self reliant India). 

Jio Deploys 5G-NR Country-wide, Details of UBR based Jio AirFiber

From the very beginning of deployment of cellular technology, India had behaved like any 3rd world country - late deployment, poor services and poor adaption. However since 2015 the perception gradually has been changed, all thanks to Mukesh Ambani backed Reliance Industries' telecom arm - Jio. 

Now Jio has launched 5G-SA and brought 5G-FWA (fixed wireless access) to connect homes with wireless broadband. Initially Airtel with their 5G-NSA could not enter into 5G-FWA market as 5G core is very much essential for roll out 5G-FWA, but they now entered into 5G-FWA market with their limited 5G-SA deployment. 

Coffees in India - Listing of New Brands

Over a cup of coffee

Coffee is an interesting drink, common to most Indian household, be it north India or south India. Coffee is not a native to India, rather in 17th century Sufi saint Baba Budan brought coffee seeds from Yemen, and started coffee plantation in Chikmagalur, a hill station on the Western Ghats, in Karnataka. Hence most of the coffee production are done in southern states like Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra and Maharashtra. Other states are Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura are also producing some amount of coffee.

Nescafé, owned by multinational company Nestlé is probably the most popular coffee brand in India. Next is Bru, now owned by Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) - which was launched in India in 1968. Tata Coffee, with history of more than 90 years is another popular name among Indian coffee lovers. Others names include Davidoff - the luxury coffee brand, Cafe based Starbucks India and Coffee Day. The later mentioned coffee cafes like Starbucks, Café Coffee Day, Costa Coffee (now owned by Coca Cola) and Barista (https://www.barista.co.in) are also creating the traction of coffee popularity across the country. 

Private 5G: BSNL Cracked Two Deals

Indian operators are banking on FWA to make 5G tech monetized, but the most effort on FWA is being played by Jio. The next monetizing factor could be deployment of private 5G networks. First trial of private 5G network was done by Airtel, back in July 2022, at Bosch Automotive Electronics India Pvt Ltd's facility in Bengaluru using trial 5G spectrum allocated by the Department of Telecom (DoT). 

But private 5G network is not getting much demand from the enterprises, as many want to deploy bypassing the present telecom operators - as the companies want their own spectrum and will bring their own technology partner to deploy private 5G. Even if the business sector starts working with the telcos, the spectrum will be another issue.