“The satcom industry is coming of age”: Interview with Sasken Technologies’ Rajiv C. Mody

Sasken Technologies Limited recently launched the world’s first high speed satellite broadband device, the LTE-based Mobile Satellite Equipment (MSE). In an interview with tele.net, Rajiv C. Mody, chairman and managing director, Sasken Technologies Limited, talked about how the launch will revolutionise the satcom industry, the company’s operational and financial highlights, investments and future plans…

What were the financial and operational highlights for Sasken Technologies during 2023? What are your key focus areas?

Sasken has been known for its best-in-class set of customers globally and we have earned the right to service them globally in all geographies. Today, our single-minded objective is to scale and grow each of our customers to at least $3 million-$4 million in the next two to three years.

Traditionally, Sasken has been known as a technology-savvy company, focusing on leading-edge technologies that are required and relevant in the markets we serve. We serve the semiconductor, automotive, industrial, consumer device, networks, satcom and digital markets. We recently made an announcement where we built and delivered the world’s first LTE technology-based satellite product. It is called the Widestar III service in Japan and is enabled by DOCOMO for any emergency or otherwise needed infrastructure for communications broadband set up at short notice. This is one example, but we have many examples in the different verticals we are serving.

How is India’s satcom landscape evolving?

The satcom industry in India is coming of age. There are various services that have been launched. We can fortunately say that we have participated in some ways indirectly. Inmarsat’s IsatPhone Pro has been built and delivered by Sasken.

We believe that satcom will make an impact in both the consumer segment and the industrial segment. India is geared up and we are excited to participate in this growth journey and provide best-in-class solutions to our customers, specific to the Indian market.

What role will Sasken’s MSE play in revolutionising the satcom industry?

This is the world’s first LTE technology-based satellite product and has been built from scratch. It has all the interfaces that are needed for traditional hook-ups. For example, it has a way you can hook up your public switched telephone network phone, fax machine or latest mobile terminal. Various legacy interfaces as well as futuristic interfaces have been taken care of so that the user of the terminal can adopt any latest approach to communicate ubiquitously.

What kind of investments have you made in the 5G and AI segments? Are there new products/investments in the pipeline?

We have been working in the 5G space for the past four to five years. We have worked with leading customers working on 5G open radio access network architectures. We continue to invest in that because we believe 5G will play out in various segments. We believe in 5G, not only from a cellular point of view, but also from a satcom and a consumer point of view. In the consumer world too, there is a major shift that is taking place because of satcom, 5G and all these technologies coming together. We are geared up and we are investing in that.

Regarding artificial intelligence (AI), we are evaluating our options and exploring some ideas. In the near future, when we are ready, we will demonstrate and showcase our ideas on the 5G and AI intersection.

What have been the key advancements in the semiconductor space? How do you plan to tap opportunities in this domain?

Semiconductors are the new oil. It is important to protect the supply chain in order to manage all other verticals because semiconductors are ubiquitous. We have constantly invested in this, and we believe semiconductors will play out two or three shifts. One is AI/machine learning (ML), which is witnessing a lot of action. We have invested in a semiconductor company and are creating a separate vertical for it. We are going to continue to invest heavily in this sector so that we can get an advantage in terms of our ability to serve our customers better.

What are your strategies for future growth?

We are executing our 60x4x3 objective, which means 60 marquee customers, $4 billion in three years’ time. That is what the entire organisation is geared towards. We will continue to invest in futuristic technologies. The other key element is that today’s market demands not only quality but also cost advantage. So, we will focus on that.

We are committed to AI, ML and large language models that will impact markets. We are starting to invest in the required talent. We will remain focused on these segments and entrench ourselves deeply, going forward.

 

“Semiconductors are the new oil. It is important to protect the supply chain in order to manage all other verticals because semiconductors are ubiquitous.”