Broadband satellite network and services provider Hughes Communications India (HCIL) today said it has become the largest player in the industry with a market share of 59 per cent in 2014-15.
Refering to the latest report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the company in a statement said it "continues to be the market leader with a subscriber base of 1,02,606 as of March 2015".
This figure translates into a cumulative market share at "an all-time high of 43.42 per cent among VSAT service providers in India", it added.
The company said: "HCIL reported its 12-month market share at 59 per cent for 2014-15, with banking and rural installations as the key drivers of growth, followed by other high-value applications such as e-learning, digital cinema, energy and government."
It attributed a significant portion of HCIL's growth to the banking sector's retail expansion by way of ATMs linked to the Prime Minister's financial inclusion campaign.
"A notable achievement was the collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), a partnership that saw Hughes roll out an e-governance project under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in 468 blocks across the country," HCIL, a subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, said.
HCIL President and MD Partho Banerjee said these are "exciting times" for HCIL and the Indian VSAT industry overall as it has emerged as one of the key pillars of the digital India mandate.
"The government's financial inclusion programme has given a major boost to banking growth across the nation, and we see sustained growth as well in e-learning and e-governance," he added.
