In 2006, Frost & Sullivan analysts commented, “The Asia Pacific VSAT market continues to see steady growth… The total installed sites for all VSAT applications numbered over 300,000 in 2005, and this is expected to grow to over 900,000 sites by 2012, presenting huge opportunities for both VSAT equipment vendors and satellite service providers alike.”
Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) was originally a trademark for small earth stations marketed by Telcom General of the USA in the ’80s. However, today it is a widely used technology all over the world, which provides highly reliable communication means for data, voice and fax – theoretically between any numbers of geographically dispersed sites.
Frost & Sullivan then pointed out, “In the corporate and enterprise VSAT segment, future growth will be driven by the ever increasing number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and the associated demand for easily deployable, reliable broadband connections in areas underserved by terrestrial services. While rural telecommunications are also expected to play a big part in the future growth of this market segment, the consumer and small office/home office (SOHO) VSAT segment in Asia Pacific is still in its early stages, with the installed base being under 60,000 in 2005.”
These days, VSAT refers to a family of geostationary satellite systems and applications, which are used as cost effective solutions for subscribers looking at independent communications’ networks — connecting a number of remote sites. Networks based on this technology can support Internet, LAN, voice communication, fax communication, video conferencing et al –necessary for modern business firms. It is in short a versatile, scalable and cost-efficient solution for communicating with the multiple, remote business centers.
The research firm also predicted, “While Indonesia and India will see the greatest opportunities for VSAT service providers in the next decade, the overall market’s growth is expected to peak around 2007-2008, when India’s regulatory liberalization begins to see positive effects and China continues to show strong growth.” Well, the time has come…
Most of the advanced VSAT operators are now nicely linked with terrestrial networks, and the data transmission rate is also speeding up with the passage of time. One of the major advantages of VSAT network is its mission-critical service. In wired system, disruptions in the fibre optic line cut off connectivity, which doesn’t happen with VSAT technology.
Many enterprises in India have already tasted the effectiveness and cost benefits of adopting VSAT technology as a connectivity medium. As SMEs in India are growing at a rapid pace, and for many of them — the communication needs are in no ways different from those of enterprises, today they’re turning towards this technology.
Solution providers are also coming up with their VSAT initiatives — specifically targeting Indian SMEs.
Tatanet is one of the known players in this field, as far as the domestic VSAT services are concerned. The company offers VSAT-based solutions on Ku band and INSAT Extended C-band. They are now looking at channel expansion plans to further strengthen their SME initiative.
According to a recent Tatanet communique, the company is planning to appoint more channel partners in the tier-2 and tier-3 towns, to tap its enormous growth potential. Contextually, Tatanet offers ‘ReadyNet’, a high-speed broadband internet service over VSAT for SMEs. As per the company, the ‘One Stop’ proposition of this offer takes care of hardware, service delivery, installation and CPE maintenance.
Currently, Tatanet has a total of 50 active partners across the country, which they are all set to increase 4-fold. They are planning to appoint 200 more partners, in a phased manner, by the end of September 2008. In the words of Zal Engineer, executive director, Tatanet, “We are looking at both Telecom as well as IT partners for ReadyNet. Our focus is to collaborate with partners — who already have a sizeable number of SME customers and adequate reach in remote locations.”
Engineer also says, “We are committed to developing and nurturing relations with our new channel partners, and strengthening relationships with our existing ones. We will be offering attractive margins, higher than that offered by the IT industry, accompanied by various appealing schemes. Apart from that, we will also be designing and organizing training workshops in sales and product understanding to empower our partners.”
It may be noted that Tatanet has a good chunk of clients from the enterprises, and now the company is determined to expand its clientele in the SME segment. ReadyNet has already tasted initial success, however, with the proposed channel expansion; the company hopes to address technology needs of new customers, providing them with mobility and value.
Obviously, it’s an opportunity knocking the doors of the channel partners, who are already dealing with SMEs in the remote areas. VSAT’s market is expected to grow in a robust way in the coming days, thus the CPs need to carefully consider the emerging potentials of this business line.
[N.B. ChannelTimes has arranged an online Spotlight Chat with Ravi Kumar A, national manager (Channel Sales), Tatanet, on 21.05.08 at 11 a.m. Interested resellers can join online and get direct answers to their questions from him.]