Jio Adds SpaceFiber to Deliver Gigabits in Remote Areas, Partner SES in Trouble with O3b mPower Fleet

It's time to grace SATCOM as it goes masses. Country's largest telecom player Reliance Jio and Luxembourg-based satellite communications company SES backed 'Jio Space Technology Limited' (51:49) had demonstrated capabilities of JioSpaceFiber services at Mobile Congress India's conference on 27th October, 2023. Jio Satellite was formed in February 2022. 

As of now only Bharti backed OneWeb & Jio Space Technology holds the global mobile personal communications. 

Jio to connect 'everything, everywhere across land, air, sea & space'

Unlike Starlink and OneWeb to use LEO (low earth orbit, at 850-2000km up from the earth) satellites to offer broadband internet to the ground, JioSpaceFiber will use SES' O3b and O3b mPower MEO (medium earth orbit, satellites, rotates at 5000-12000km up) to connect everywhere. 

JioSpaceFiber would be an extension to other two high speed internet services offered by Jio, i.e. JioFiber (fiber optic broadband) and JioAirFiber (5G Fixed Wireless Access). 

At present JioSpaceFiber is live in only four locations in India - Gir in Gujarat, Korba in Chattisgarh, Nabrangpur in Odissa, and ONGC in Jorhat, Assam. I think that's only for trials, as it could go live across the country within a minute. 

As of now Jio SpaceFiber did not announce any commercial tariff plans. However as we concerned with Starlink's plans in other regions and Jio's perfect plan to disrupt market - we can expect Jio Satellite could come as low as Rs 500. 

Trouble with O3b mPower Satellites

By end of October SES announced its Q3 results, which addressed the electrical module issues with existing O3b mPower MEO satellites. O3b mPOWER is SES’s second generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system. It builds on the proven commercial success of SES’s current O3b constellation, which has been delivering low-latency, fibre-like services since 2014.

Ruy Pinto, the acting CEO clarified that due to this module issue the lifespan of the existing 4 of O3b mPower satellite will be shortened (which were deployed at orbit by SpaceX in December 2022 & April 2023) and Boeing & SES are actively collaborating to address the issues. Boeing, for its part has already taken a write down believed to be about $315 million for the problems. The two extra satellites (numbers 12 and 13 in the fleet) will be provided within the SES Capital Expenditure budget for the complete fleet.

He also named the next CEO, Adel Al-Saleh, effective February, 2024. Presently he is the head of Deutsche Telekom IT arm T-Systems. 

So far it was confirmed of launch of next 2 satellites in early November, 2023 as the company is looking forward to deploying customers and beginning commercial services from early Q2 2024 - that could be JioSpaceFiber's commercial launch. However the launch is now being delayed, as SES and Boeing plan to upgrade 5 of the remaining satellites (7-11) already under manufacture and add two additional satellites into the constellation.

However Jio clears that they will leverage existing O3b classic fleet of 20 satellites to launch its AirFiber services. They will also use SES fleet of geostationary satellites to backhaul existing terrestrial 5G networks in remote rural areas as per the JV policy.

Satellite Broadband Spectrum Allocation in India - Policy NOT finalized
While satcom players are gearing up for global/regional launch, India's stand on the allocation of satellite spectrum is not clear. While the satcom industry (including the satcom players eyeing for Indian market - Amazon, Starlink, OneWeb, Tata backed Nelco, Telesat, Hughes) is requesting an administrative allocation method, Jio and Vi favor the auction model citing the same-service-same-rules logic. TRAI, while looking a new chairman, is not in a state to submit its recommendations anytime soon.