‘It’s the equivalent of sending fibre into the sky and the satellites are 36,000 kilometres away’

▶ Mubadala-owned satellite operator also developing project to supply Wi-Fi on board planes

Masood Sharif Mahmood talks about Yahsat’s ability to bring telecoms to the world’s most remote locations as well as providing extra connectivity to well-served urban areas

Yahsat anticipates higher growth from its satellite broadband business as it looks to enter the mobility and Internet of Things segments and possibly compete with telecoms service providers.

The Mubadala Investment Company-owned satellite operator launched its third satellite, Al Yah 3, in January, and expects greater demand for broadband on the back of higher uptake in IoT-serviced industries, such as oil and gas, and on the growth of sustainable cities in the region.

Live asset tracking through GPS is increasingly being merged with business analytics and artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to cross-country, regional mobility – which can be better serviced by satellite providers.

“Everything is sensored and metered and whether consumers choose telecoms service providers or satellite is not a big challenge,” Yahsat’s chief executive, Masood Sharif Mahmood, told The National.

According to International Data Corporation, the IoT market in the Middle East and Africa is set to grow 15 per cent in 2018 to reach $6.99 billion (Dh25.67bn) in 2018 and $12.62bn by 2021.

Yahsat’s ongoing acquisition of a majority stake in fellow UAE satellite operator Thuraya was also considered as part of efforts to grow its mobility segment, Mr Mahmood said.

He declined to specify Yahsat’s stake in the operator or the value of the transaction.

Al Yah 3, which completed orbital testing at the end of May, is expected to increase the operator’s footprint in an additional 19 countries, including newer markets in Latin America and Brazil.

The operator has two other satellites – Al Yah 1 and Al Yah 2 – which provide government solutions, satellite TV and satellite broadband across the Middle East, Africa, central and south-west Asia.

“When we mix our old fleet and the new fleet our satellite broadband will cover 60 per cent of the population of Africa and 95 per cent of the population of Brazil,” said Mr Mahmood.

YahClick, the operator’s satellite broadband service, has grown to cover around 50,000 devices, he said.

While this satellite broadband connectivity is available through retailers in the markets covered by Yahsat – often remote localities – it is also the third licensed operator for internet services in the UAE.

While YahClick provides connectivity to the oil and gas industry as well as services requiring remote connectivity in the Emirates, Mr Mahmood said it would be a while before it becomes competitive with telecoms service providers.

“It’s the equivalent of sending fibre into the sky, and the satellites are 36,000 kilometres away,” he said.

Yahsat, which specialises in coverage of unserved, digitally remote areas, will eventually target providing connectivity to already-served segments in cities as well.

“The way technology is moving, we think that it will be able to compete in the served ring as well.

“That will be the future,” said Mr Mahmood.

The company also wants to draw in revenues from a planned roll-out of Wi-Fi services with regional airlines.

YahSat has already trialled such a service on board Etihad aircraft.

“We reached high speeds of up to 50 Mbps versus the existing airline legacy systems that are around 4 Mbps or 5 Mbps, so we’re talking about a 10fold increase,” he said.

“We are continuing our development of this project with Etihad Airways and we are in early discussions with a few other airline operators here.”

The challenge moving forward, he said, was to make such services affordable to consumers as well as encourage their uptake in the region, where on-board Wi-Fi is still viewed as a luxury.

It also faces competition from legacy infrastructure such as older in-flight entertainment systems. YahSat also sees opportunities in the developing world to provide affordable basic internet connectivity to bridge the digital divide, especially through partnerships with governments.

Citing Free Basics, the affordable internet service launched by Facebook in less-developed economies, Mr Mahmood said should his company enter this segment, it would look at doing things differently.

“Free Basics is a model that Facebook rolled out and it has not been successful for a variety of reasons,” he said.

“If we price it in the right way and to the right target segment, then we will tie up with governments and bid for government connectivity programmes by offering an affordable price.

“We would then be able to subsidise part of that and offer it to the municipality so the end user doesn’t get the burden and has a shared approach. But it has to make commercial sense.

“There are enough of those opportunities out there.”

Yahsat launched its third satellite, Al Yah 3, in January. It completed orbital testing at the end of last month