Satellite Communications Vendors Calling for DTH Market Deregulation in Asia

India's DTH market needs to source satellite capacity  from  foreign satellite carriers to sustain its growth.  Members of the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia  appealed to Asian government to ease protectionist policy to satisfy pent-up market demand. According to Simon Twiston Davies, chief  executive officer of CASBAA , the local digital telecommunications and DTH markets, despite the ISRO success, remained under-provisioned.

The local industry cannot meet the demand from commercial satellite services  and DTH network operators. Deregulating the market to make international partnership possible is therefore essential to ease the shortage in transponder capacity.  The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) can't help but agree. The agency lashed out China and India for their refusal to comply with open-trade policy when it comes to domestic satellite communications industry.

Thanks to the booming DTH market in India, new players were able to break in the local satellite service market. DHT growth is exceeding INSAT SATCOM capacity, thus foreign supply forms a critical part of the domestic network backbone. Yet INSAT heavily regulates the market, increasing the cost of services and causing disincentives to foreign satellite players (ISRO can terminate foreign contracts in favor of a domestic operator). More than 19 million households in India has digital TV (10 percent penetration), and the figure is expected to jump to 42% in 2018. Operators also complained of  heavy taxes and regulatory caps, which they say are a big stumbling block to digitization since it requires a huge capital investment.

There are around six private players serving the local DTH and digital TV markers of India: Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV, Airtel Digital TV and Videocon D2H. There is also free DTH service provider,  Doordarshan . Zee-Group controlled Dish TV controls more than 35% of the market, thanks to partneship with  Monster.com, Shaadi.com and Yatra.com to increase  value-added services and convergent services.

Analysts believe that the Asian satellite communications industry will continue to grow in the long-run despite protectionist policy in some countries. They cite the apparent technological advantages of satellite com technology over terrestrial broadcasting platforms. Industry growth will also be driven by competition across different platforms serving the telecommunications, mobile Internet and television segments.  Many operators are  looking  forward to medium-term growth in the HDTV, IPTV , DTH and video-to-mobile services. Rural areas will also remain a good target market for the SATCOM operators.  As Asian economy grows, so does the requirement for wide-band connectivity. With a projected 4-6 CAGR through 2020, Asian mobile broadband is a promising market for transponder market.

APB Satellite Interview With NewSat CTO David Ball

David Ball, the CTO of Australia's independent satellite operator, talks with APB Satellite about the company's ambitious Jabiru Satellite Fleet program and the present state of the satellite industry. Mr. Ball considers the company's deal with Cyprus as one of its milestone achievements over the past decade. Last year, AP Kypros Satellites Limited (KyproSat) and the Cypriot government granted NewSat the rights over seven premium orbital satellite slots. Asia-Pacific is one of the target market areas of NewSat, and a number of orbital slots have been secured to serve the region.

 The mobile satellite service market offers great growth opportunities for carriers. Mr Ball said Newsat has steerable antennas and Ka band solutions for this promising market niche. Mr. Ball is also optimistic of the prospects of content distribution.

He expects content distribution over satellite to grow further given its edge over point-to-point terrestrial distribution. The rapid deployment of fiber networks and the growing pressure on government to bridge the digital divide is also driving the growth of the industry. According to Mr Ball, satellite will be needed to bridge urban and rural areas given the limitations of fiber-optic networks, notably cost constraints.
Africa offers potential business impetus given the recent fiber-optic network projects in the region. But the limited availability of satellite spectrum remains a big challenge for the whole industry. "I think the biggest issue we have to watch for is spectrum," said Ball. He urged industry advocates to push through with their lobbying efforts to counter spectrum restrictions.

Complicated buying process is another area of concern, and Mr Ball suggests that vendors make it easier for end-users to choose SATCOM solutions over terrestrial services. Lockheed Martin started building Jabiru -1 last year. It will be the first satellite to be operated by NewSat on its own. It will have three separate payloads. The satellite will boast of a trunking payload linking Adelaide, Perth and Cyprus into South Asia, East Africa and the Middle East, with more than 20 multi-spot beam pattern that will extend coverage outside the areas. The spot beams are steerable so they can cover larger areas of Earth.

The choice of contractors reflected how significant the Jabiru fleet is to both the company and Australia. NewSat signed Lockheed Martin and Arianespace, the world's two leading companies in space communications and satellite launch industries, to work on Jabiru-1. Market trends point to a more robust satellite sector, especially the advances in VSAT ground technology, improved ACM coding technologies and falling prices of remote terminals, which means more rural residents and establishments can now afford satellite-based communications. .