Indian space technology company Vestaspace Technology has announced plans to launch more than 35 high-speed 5G satellite constellations across India. Plans are for beta versions of the constellations to launch in September 2020 and fully operational satellites in early 2021.
The company has installed eight ground stations and 31,000 data receptors all over India which, it says, will help with accurate positioning and the telemetry-related activities of the satellites.
The satellites will be placed into low earth orbit (LEO) or geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) and, says the company, will help to build 5G-speed network connections and IoT functionalities across all industries.
To address data privacy and security issues, the company adds, it has put up a firewall with 10 security layers.
The business model isn’t entirely clear yet, but the aim is to guarantee accessibility to a wide range of end users. Anyone, it seems, will be able to uplink and downlink data while browsing the internet by buying a token or directly partnering with Vestaspace.
How, or whether, Vestaspace plans will be affected by recent delays in India’s 5G spectrum auction and rollout was not addressed in the announcement.
The company recently secured $10 million worth of funding from US-based Next Capital Tech LLC, an American investment and advisory firm, to expand the reach of its solutions across India and the world. The company says it has also been working with ISRO, NASA and other leading space agencies on various strategic projects.
