Tatanet's VSAT base grew by 3,321, clocking a growth of 63% and taking the total VSAT count to 8,389 in FY 2008-09. The company recently bagged an order from ONGC to augment its voice and data communication requirements between its offshore installations and base station office in Mumbai, and to provide back-up network for existing C band satellite network.

Tatanet is also focusing on the fast growing CSCs. The company is in the process of implementing two of the largest CSC VSAT networks across India. In the enterprise segment, new customers on board included–-Tulip, Rignet, Federal Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, Jindal Steel, VESTAS, and Lanco.

The Trends
Overall, the industry recorded a growth of 24% in FY 2008-09 in the number of terminals. Major players, like Hughes and Airtel, adopted the latest DVB-S2 technology. This has helped the industry tide over the space segment crisis caused by the proliferation of multiple DTH operators and the lack of new satellites in FY 2008-09. The new technology has also enabled the VSAT operators to effectively compete with the terrestrial players in the access market.

In FY 2008-09, banking and rural segments have been the primary growth drivers. Satellite has and would continue to play a big role in the CSC initiative by the Government of India.

In the BFSI segment, VSATs played a key role in ATM connectivity. With the government's thrust on providing banking facilities to the most rural areas, there was an upsurge in the expansion of banking networks from most of the public sector banks. Majority of expansion came from public sector banks including the State Bank of India,Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, etc. Hughes alone got a contract of 2,800 VSATs, worth Rs. 30 crore, from public sector banks.

Tele-education has also done well with state and central government and private projects that have added good number of terminals.

Further, the rising demand for higher-speed services for new value added applications like two-way videoconferencing, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone services and other real-time applications that require higher bit rates and faster links were driving factors for VSAT.

In the international arena, VSAT is widely deployed for maritime communication, which is not the case in India due to regulatory issues. Another trend that is not seen in India is that of VSAT supporting virtual network operators (VNOs). With VSAT having VNO capabilities, service providers can lease network capacity to emerging operators that wish to pursue satellite business opportunities while minimizing their initial capital costs.

In Indonesia, almost 15,000 islands of the country are connected via VSAT for basic connectivity.