Intelsat, Nelco partner to offer inflight connectivity in India

Satellite company and broadband services firm Intelsat on Thursday announced the beginning of Intelsat's inflight connectivity services in Indian skies through an agreement with Tata Group satellite services firm Nelco.

As part of the collaboration, Intelsat's airline partners and flyers will enjoy end-to-end broadband coverage on domestic and international aircraft flying to and from an Indian airport as well as the aircraft flying over the country.

"In addition to expanding our service coverage area for current customer airlines, our agreement with Nelco opens the possibility for Intelsat to serve India's domestic airlines. This is a fast-growing airline market, and there is considerable untapped potential for IFC growth," Intelsat president of Commercial Aviation Jeff Sare said in a statement.

Nelco has a permit to provide in-flight telecom services in India.

"As India's leading satcom service provider offering best-in-class services, we are now creating a great opportunity through this relationship with Intelsat for further growth of our Aero IFC services in the country in the coming years and we intend to be a leader in this market in India," Nelco Managing Director and CEO P J Nath said.

Nelco has been offering the Aero IFC services for more than two years with plans to introduce these services to more airlines in collaboration with its global partners.

Nelco will provide inflight services using Intelsat's IS-33e high throughput satellite.

IS-33e was launched in 2016 that provides C and Ku-band connectivity to parts of Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Intelsat's IS-33e satellite is approved by Indian government regulators, the statement said.