Reliance Jio's satellite unit - Jio Satellite Communications, has reportedly received the GMPCS or Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite license from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). So after the Bharti-owned OneWeb, this Jio-owned satellite unit is the second in the country to get the GMPCS license from the govt. GMPCS license is offered to the companies by the government, allowing them to offer satellite communication services in licensed service areas.
The development has been reported by Financial Express which states that Jio Satellite Communications was expected to comply with the license requirements and sign the agreement within this week, basic which it was given the license to operate satellite communications services in India.
Jio would look to compete with Bharti in yet another communications space (pun intended). But it won't be a closed market to just Indian companies. Major corporations such as SpaceX and Amazon are also trying to secure GMPCS license in India. Space is the next big economy that every billionaire wants to explore before anyone else.
SpaceX owned Starlink was asked by the government to stop selling pre-booking connections in India before the company had secured a license to offer services. Starlink had to refund all the money that it had got from the customers due to this. Right now, there are no developments from the side of Starlink to enter the Indian market.
FE report also mentioned according to a senior DoT official, Amazon's Project Kuiper, which is Amazon's satellite communications leg, has not shown any interest in offering services in the Indian market. This could be due to the policies still being set for the space sector in India. It hasn't been long since the government approved private investments to flow into the space sector in India and thus it would take a little time for the ecosystem to mature enough for every foreign company to be interested to jump into it.
