Broadband
Shin Corp to wholesale Ipstar services to resellers
MUMBAI: Shin Satellite, which plans to launch Ipstar between mid-February and mid-March and belongs to Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s family, will wholesale services to resellers across Asia, leaving them to deal with local regulators while battling stiff competition from ever cheaper, faster wired and wireless broadband.
The massive satellite beaming broadband Internet across Asia, conceived in the dial-up dot-com mania of the 1990s, when millions of speed-hungry urbanites promised soaring revenues, the largest commercial satellite ever now seems destined to serve dull, but steady, income-seeking governments, telcos and consumers beyond wired broadband’s reach in rural Asia.
“I’m not sure a satellite guy charging higher up-front fees is really a threat to ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) operators in urban areas,” a MacQuarie Securities telecom analyst Richard Moe says. “The Shin Corp has always had a bias towards the higher end of the market. To be honest, I was more bullish a few years ago.”
ADSL is a technology that provides broadband cheaply, for about US$25 (1,040 baht) a month or less. It uses telephone lines, usually more reliable and faster than satellite links, and works best in urban areas where customers pack around telephone exchanges.
Ipstar’s earth stations have provided a low-key first-generation service using current satellites for the past two years. Suppliers targeting users in rural Thailand ask $100 a month for this service. Ipstar is keeping mum about prices for second-generation services using the new Ipstar satellite. “We will charge consumers the market rate in each territory,” says an Ipstar spokeswoman. “We will break even when we have 20 per cent of capacity booked.”
That may be so, but with broadband prices on a one-way trip south it may not be true for long. “The primary challenge is to get some payback in a reasonable amount of time in a market that is fast commoditising,” says research house Intercedent’s Hong Kong managing director Ross O’Brien.
“The perception that bandwidth is a commodity has driven long-distance rates down to unprecedented levels. Bandwidth is not a commodity like coffee or orange juice, the price is not going to come back,” O’Brien adds.
So far two major customers have signed up, neither of which seems destined to deliver fat revenues. Chinasat, a second-tier telco, faces a tough fight from China’s huge incumbents China Telecom and China Unicom. While Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), which runs a network of high-tech industrial estates in India, does not appear well positioned for expansion.
In Japan and South Korea, which together account for about half of Asia’s 70 million broadband connections, fiber-optic cables, which are even faster and more reliable, are becoming common as prices fall and companies battle fiercely.
“How are they going to compete in the real money markets like Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong that are wired to the max?” wonders O’Brien. “You aren’t going to pull anybody away from a fiber-optic cable to their home with satellite Internet.”
Broadband
Tejas Networks names Arnob Roy as MD and CEO, overhauls top leadership team
The Bengaluru-based telecom gear maker reshuffles its entire top team even as quarterly revenue collapses by 83 per cent
BENGALURU: Tejas Networks is changing the guard at the top, and doing so at speed. The Bengaluru-headquartered telecom equipment maker has elevated Arnob Roy as managing director and chief executive officer, effective April 15, 2026, for a term running through to August 3, 2028, and in the same breath announced new appointments across operations and finance. The timing is pointed: the company is navigating one of the roughest patches in its recent history.
Roy steps up from his role as executive director and chief operating officer, a position he has held since March 2019. He brings more than three decades of experience in the high-technology sector across research and development, operations, and sales. His predecessor, Anand Athreya, resigned last year citing personal reasons and was relieved on June 20, 2025, leaving a gap at the top that has now been formally filled.
The numbers Roy inherits are sobering. Tejas posted a net loss of Rs 211.3 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, a near-194 per cent widening year on year from Rs 71.8 crore in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter collapsed 82.6 per cent year on year to Rs 333 crore, down from Rs 1,907 crore. EBITDA swung to a loss of Rs 118.2 crore against a profit of Rs 121.5 crore a year ago. The culprit is not hard to identify: Tejas has derived the bulk of its revenue from BSNL’s fourth-generation network project, delivered as part of a Tata Consultancy Services-driven consortium, and that roll-out is now winding down.
Roy, speaking during a post-earnings conference call with analysts, was candid about where the company has been. “The BSNL 4G network went live across 100,000 sites. We deployed our largest indigenous router networks in the country through the BSNL MAN network, as well as in the BharatNet Phase 3 network,” he said, adding that Tejas had also successfully rolled out its 400G and 800G DWDM equipment in domestic and international markets, and continued the deployment of what it describes as the world’s largest satellite IoT network through its vehicle tracking system solution.
The pivot to new revenue streams is already under way. Tejas has partnered with Japan’s Rakuten Symphony and NEC Corporation to push deeper into international markets, with several Open Radio Access Network trials ongoing, one of which concluded recently. The company is also diversifying across equipment categories and geographies to sustain momentum as the BSNL chapter closes.
To prosecute that strategy, Roy needs a full team around him. Preetham Uthaiah has been appointed chief operating officer, moving up from his current role as vice president of product management for wireless products at Tejas Networks. Uthaiah brings nearly 30 years of global experience spanning engineering, product management, and business development across India and the United States. Before joining Tejas Networks, he served as executive vice president of product management, marketing, and strategy at Saankhya Labs, and held senior roles at Tech Mahindra on both sides of the Atlantic. He holds an MBA from Arizona State University and a degree in electronics and communications from Karnatak University.
On the finance front, AVS Prasad has been approved as chief financial officer, effective May 16, 2026, succeeding Sumit Dhingra, who has resigned. Prasad, currently serving as finance controller at Tejas Networks, brings over 27 years of experience within the Tata Group across telecom, aerostructures, and defence. A company secretary and cost and management accountant by training, he has spent more than 15 years in senior finance roles including CFO and financial controller positions, with expertise spanning corporate finance, treasury management, regulatory compliance, internal audit, and governance.
New chief executive, new chief operating officer, new chief financial officer — all installed in a single move, at a moment when the company’s largest revenue source is drying up and the next chapter remains unwritten. Tejas Networks has placed its bets. Now it has to deliver.
