The firm has filed for an initital public offering – probably India’s biggest ever with the issue expected to be about $4bn – and plans to have the constellation operational within 3 years
A week ago, at Reliance’s Annual General Meeting, Reliance Jio Platforms (the digital and telecom subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd or RIL) outlined plans to build its own sovereign satellite constellation.
Commentator Sebastian Barros notes, “The financial and operational commitments are massive. Jio has budgeted between $10 billion and $15 billion for the initial infrastructure build, aiming for an aggressive deployment window of just two to three years.”
However, “To put the current LEO satellite plan in perspective, Jio is now preparing to spend on space infrastructure, roughly half of what it originally spent to build its entire terrestrial footprint a decade ago,” he added.
Jio Platforms shared a detailed proposal it has submitted to India’s space regulator, IN-SPACe. The plan is to deploy the deployment a LEO constellation of about 1,650 satellites, at an altitude of some 650km above Earth to provide fixed broadband in rural areas and direct-to-device mobile connectivity.
Barros points out that the announcement marks “a big strategic shift” as most telcos globally address the satellite market through passive wholesale partnerships or minority stakes in satellite companies. Jio is looking to build, own and run its own sovereign constellation.
IPO in the offing
And the funding? Yesterday, Jio Platforms filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with regulator SEBI for what could be India’s largest‑ever IPO.
Estimates put the issue size at roughly ₹37,000–₹37,700 crore (about $4 billion), implying a post‑issue valuation in the ₹12–₹13 lakh crore range (around $135–140 billion), according to m.stock. The website adds this would place Jio Platforms “in the league of global mega‑listings, as analysts increasingly benchmark its valuation closer to Big Tech platforms than to traditional telecom operators”.
An in an increasingly fractious world, providing India with its own constellation for the population of – ~1.47 billion people is a compelling proposition.
