Ambani chooses a partner
Published 11 October 2026
On February 14, Jio Platforms and SES announced a joint venture called Jio Space Technology Limited. Jio Platforms would own fifty-one percent and SES forty-nine percent. The venture would deliver satellite-based broadband using geostationary and medium Earth orbit networks. Its intended customers included enterprises, mobile backhaul users and retail customers across India and neighbouring regions. The partnership put Jio into the satellite business through an established international operator rather than through a newly announced low Earth orbit constellation of its own. The distinction is visible in the company's release: the space networks named were SES's geostationary capacity and the O3b mPOWER medium-orbit system. This was a specific multi-orbit arrangement, not a generic declaration that Jio would build every part of a satellite network itself. ses.com, Jio Platforms Ltd and SES Announce Joint Venture to Deliver High-Performance..., 2022-02-14
The venture would make up to one hundred gigabits per second of SES capacity available and develop gateway infrastructure in India. Jio became an anchor customer through a multi-year capacity agreement linked to milestones, together with gateway and equipment purchases. The announced contract value was about one hundred million dollars. These figures belonged to different parts of the arrangement. Capacity described what SES would make available; the contract value described a package of commitments including equipment and gateways. Neither was a count of customers or an actual speed promised to each customer. The release provided the outline of a network and a commercial relationship through which satellite capacity would be brought into Jio's Indian operations. ses.com, Jio Platforms Ltd and SES Announce Joint Venture to Deliver High-Performance..., 2022-02-14
Jio would supply managed services and operate gateway infrastructure for the venture. SES-12 and O3b mPOWER would extend and complement Jio's terrestrial network. The language of complementing is important because it describes the satellite connection as part of a wider communications system. Capacity from orbit could support a link beyond the reach of an existing network or carry traffic back into it. The announcement did not present every satellite customer as someone abandoning terrestrial service. Mobile backhaul, in particular, connected the space segment to the business of providing mobile access on the ground. Jio's existing network and customer reach were therefore assets within the satellite plan, rather than infrastructure the plan was supposed to make obsolete. ses.com, Jio Platforms Ltd and SES Announce Joint Venture to Deliver High-Performance..., 2022-02-14
Akash Ambani described the venture alongside Jio's expansion in fibre-to-the-home and its investment in 5G. He said satellite coverage and capacity could connect remote towns and villages, enterprises, government establishments and consumers. SES chief executive Steve Collar similarly described the partnership as a way to complement even extensive terrestrial networks. These were company statements about the venture's intended use. Their common emphasis was on combining systems. The commercial prospect lay in the parts of India where a terrestrial network alone did not provide the desired reach, and in customers or applications that could use an additional form of connectivity. The announcement linked the new space capacity to the scale of a business already operating below it. ses.com, Jio Platforms Ltd and SES Announce Joint Venture to Deliver High-Performance..., 2022-02-14
Another route to satellite broadband appeared commercially on September 12. Hughes Communications India announced a high-throughput satellite service combining Ku-band capacity from ISRO's GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 with Hughes JUPITER ground technology. The company described uses including community Wi-Fi, managed networks, backhaul extending mobile coverage and internet for small businesses. It focused on enterprise and government networks, including remote areas beyond terrestrial reach. Hughes called it India's first high-throughput satellite broadband service. That was the company's description of this service category, not a claim that India had never used satellites for communication. The announcement joined Indian spacecraft capacity to a commercial ground platform and a defined set of customers and applications. hughes.in, Hughes Communications India Launches India's First High Throughput Satellite Broadband..., 2022-09-12
Hughes said it already supplied satellite broadband to more than two hundred thousand business and government sites in India. Its new service therefore entered an existing operating business rather than a market with no satellite users. The company's list of applications also gave the term broadband several practical forms. A community hotspot could let people connect through a local Wi-Fi access point; a backhaul link could support a cellular network; an enterprise connection could serve a financial or industrial site. Those were different ways of using the same general class of technology. The satellite link could be behind a service the end user encountered through other equipment, instead of requiring every user to become a direct subscriber to a consumer satellite product. hughes.in, Hughes Communications India Launches India's First High Throughput Satellite Broadband..., 2022-09-12
ISRO chairman S. Somanath welcomed the service as an example of cooperation with the private sector. Hughes presented the combination of ISRO capacity and its own ground technology as a way to improve connectivity and address gaps. The arrangement differed from Jio's SES partnership in the capacity provider and the commercial operator, but it kept the same basic need to join space and ground. A national satellite could support a private service, just as an international satellite network could support a locally organized joint venture. India's choices already included more than a single foreign product versus a single state programme. Different providers were assembling different combinations of infrastructure, control and customer access. hughes.in, Hughes Communications India Launches India's First High Throughput Satellite Broadband..., 2022-09-12 ses.com, Jio Platforms Ltd and SES Announce Joint Venture to Deliver High-Performance..., 2022-02-14