Photo: Business Wire

Intelsat is entering the in-flight connectivity (IFC) market in India through an agreement with Nelco, a satcom service provider in India. Intelsat announced Thursday that the service is currently available on Intelsat partner airlines and their passengers on aircraft. 

The agreement covers Intelsat airline partners with domestic and international flights to or from an Indian airport, as well as aircraft flying over the country. Jeff Sare, president of Commercial Aviation, said this opens the possibility for Intelsat to serve India’s domestic airlines with “untapped potential for IFC growth.” 

Nelco will provide these services using Intelsat’s IS-33e high throughput satellite, which 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. 

“We are proud that Nelco has forged this relationship with in-flight connectivity pioneer Intelsat to offer aero IFC services on their customer aircraft,” said PJ Nath, managing director and CEO of Nelco. “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.”

This is the latest IFC win for Intelsat, which recently announced a distribution agreement with OneWeb to offer a multi-orbit IFC service combining Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite capacity by 2024.