Photo: Via Satellite

The role of governments as an investor and market creator will be the dominant trend to watch in the growth of the space economy in India and the Asia Pacific (APAC), regional operators and service providers said Wednesday at SATShow.

“What it boils down to is policy norms and investments into the sector, and opening up the sector” said Neha Idnani, regional vice president, Asia Pacific at Eutelsat. As India has eased regulation and opened its space industry to the private sector, she noted, it has been a big boost to startups and the overall ecosystem.

“Governments are no longer just becoming a customer, but they’re becoming an investor,” said Andrew Cavalier, a senior analyst at ABI Research. “They’re helping prop up commercial industry so that these industries can flourish.”

Ashwin Mahavadi, senior vice president at Skyroot Aerospace, India’s first private launch provider, agreed that the government is “doing a lot to create demand” by opening contracts to private industry. He cited India’s Space-Based Surveillance-3 (SBS-3), a 52-satellite military surveillance constellation, where more than half of the satellites will be awarded to private industry.

SKY Perfect JSAT President of the Business Strategy Group, Nao Shigenari cited the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s recent 9 billion yen ($56 million) contract award to JSAT to supply optical satellite data as an example of how “the government role is changing as an investor.”

With roughly 60% of the global population in India and APAC, providers are seeing an untapped market for connectivity, launch and other services. Given the scope of the pent-up demand, Adnani sees room for multiple competing service providers, particularly in satellite communications to extend terrestrial network, close the digital divide and support government customers.

“The more data … you keep putting out there, it will be consumed,” Idnani said. “The world is becoming more and more starved of connectivity. At any point in time, any new technology you throw in, they’ll lap it up.”

Further upstream, Skyroot is looking to close the gap in regional launch capabilities with the maiden flight of its Vikram-1 rocket, scheduled to occur by May. “There’s still no credible launch player in APAC,” said Mahavadi, noting a large portion of regional spending leaves the region on Western launch providers like SpaceX.

Japan has shown a high-level of interest in a regional launch provider. During the panel, Shigenari noted that JSAT is looking to the Indian space sector for launch to complete its recently announced 36-satellite SAR constellation, which will be part of a Japanese Ministry of Defense initiative to support persistent monitoring for national security and disaster management.

The Indian government’s move to ease restrictions on foreign direct investment has been positive in creating new opportunities for Indian startups to serve a global market, Mahavadi said. But “the operational ease” of those regulations “are not there yet.” Once those issues are resolved, he anticipates “a lot more” capital coming into Indian startups, drawn by a high-tech workforce and large-scale, cost-efficient manufacturing base.

Across India and APAC, sovereign services and data sovereignty are a significant source of opportunity and challenges for service providers.

Eutelsat, which has more than 40 ground station sites in India and APAC, has planned their deployments around regional government requirements for data landing in-country, with physical points of presence to meet security requirements of defense forces and other. Space assets could still be shared, explained Idnani, “but it’s really the security and sovereignty of the role played by ground infrastructure in the country which we are heavily focused on.”

Idnani told Via Satellite that they have significant localization of data in India and are providing regional defense forces with anti-jamming features and “undisclosed mode,” to mask the GPS locations of terminals.

JSAT continues providing sovereign satcom services to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, while also moving into sovereign data services. Last month, JSAT formed Tri-Sat Constellation Co., Ltd., with six other companies, which announced a 283.1 billion yen ($1.78 billion) project to provide the JMOD with a dedicated, high-frequency satellite constellation for sovereign Earth Observation. Shigenari explained that being a “trusted partner” in this space means controlling “end-to-end reliability from orbit to ground.”

“The satellite alone is not enough,” she continued. “The integration of data, ground station service and analytics will define the winner.”

The sovereignty demands from local governments are also creating friction for businesses, according to Cavalier, noting that they may need to reconsider and ease gateway mandates. “It makes sense that you need your data to land in-country, but I think that is stopping services from entering the country.”

Cavalier called for “alignment” among regional governments to enable further collaboration. He said the diverse policies across the region have created a “fragmented regulatory environment.”

Idnani similarly urged governments to engage with trusted partners and organizations to expand opportunities for industry collaboration. “We have the right ecosystems in place, the right interest, the right talent in place. It’s just about making sure that governments are seeing these opportunities as growth opportunities and are not being bogged down by fears.”