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Satellite and emerging communications
Satellite internet and emerging ways to communicate: satellite constellations and how their service is licensed and given spectrum, communication between vehicles, short range wireless, photonics and optical links. It serves GS3 answers on communications technology.
All 6 subjects shown; the 3 that changed from 16 to 31 August 2026 are marked.Show only these
Photonics
Copy link to PhotonicsPrelims and Mains
Photonics is where India's chip policy meets its network hardware: the parts that carry a signal as light rather than as current. The firms making them here have just organised themselves, because demand from artificial intelligence data centres has arrived before a domestic supply of components has.
- An optical fibre carries light by total internal reflection, because the refractive index of the glass core is higher than that of the cladding.
- An optical transceiver converts electrical signals into light and back, which is where a fibre link meets the electronics at each end.
- Indian firms have formed the India Photonics Association, which says many of the components the industry uses are still imported.
- Photonics fabs are eligible for up to 35 per cent capital support under Semicon 2.0.
What changed
Background reading: The Indian Express, 1 Sep 2026: Semicon 2.0: What is India's Rs 1.27 lakh-crore push for chip design? (opens in a new tab)
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication
Copy link to Vehicle-to-vehicle communicationPrelims and Mains
A vehicle fitted for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication broadcasts what it is doing to the vehicles around it, and listens for the same from them. India has now set the dates on which new vehicles will have to do it.
- The draft Central Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2026 would make V2V compulsory in new vehicles made on or after 1 October 2028.
- A vehicle that carries V2V must meet Automotive Industry Standard 230 (AIS-230) from 1 October 2027.
- The mandate covers two and three wheelers, cars, buses and goods vehicles, against 1.83 lakh road deaths in 2025.
- Concerns remain over location data security, band capacity and crashes caused by miscommunication.
On Board Unit
Each vehicle's unit sends its speed, position, direction and acceleration
C-V2X radio
Reaches vehicles within about 300 metres in the 5.875 to 5.925 GHz band, exempted from licensing by the Department of Telecommunications
Alert
Warns of hazards beyond line of sight, which camera based advanced driver assistance systems cannot do
What changed
1 Sep 2026
The Indian Express, 31 Aug 2026
Satellite internet
Ground segment
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Only one part of a satellite internet service is in space. The rest is a dish at the user's end and a ground facility that puts the traffic onto the ordinary internet, and it is that ground half a government can actually reach.
- A user's dish sends a radio signal to a passing low Earth orbit satellite, which relays it to a satellite earth station gateway that hands it to the ordinary internet.
- No cable has to be laid to the user, which is why the service reaches homes that terrain or distance puts beyond a ground network.
What changed
GMPCS licence
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Selling a satellite service in India takes two permissions rather than one, and the three operators that want to sell it hold both. What none of them has is clearance to switch the service on.
- Selling satellite voice and data in India needs a GMPCS licence from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and an authorisation from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe).
- Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications all hold both, and none has been cleared to begin service.
- The worry holding them is that a foreign operator could route Indian traffic through gateways outside India, leaving the government no hold over the service.
What changed
22 Aug 2026
22 Aug 2026
- DoT's guidelines require data localisation, gateways on Indian soil, a lawful blocking mechanism, restriction of services during hostilities, and separate security clearance for voice and data.
- An operator must reach 20 per cent indigenisation of its ground segment within five years of commercial service.
- User terminals must carry Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) positioning by 2029.
Satellite spectrum assignment
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Spectrum is the one input a satellite operator in India cannot bid for. The Telecommunications Act, 2023 settled that, which is why a satellite licence is a set of conditions rather than a price.
- India auctions the spectrum for terrestrial mobile networks, where an operator buys an exclusive block of frequencies in a service area.
- The Act instead lists satellite based services among the uses for which spectrum is assigned administratively, on terms the government sets.
What changed
Satellite phones and Starlink in war
Copy link to Satellite phones and Starlink in warPrelims and Mains
A satellite phone works where there is no mobile coverage, and satellite internet constellations such as Starlink have become military infrastructure as well as civilian, which makes them targets for jamming.
What changed
10 Jul 2026New subjectalso in news
- BSNL announced a satellite phone for areas without mobile coverage. Separately, Starlink, brought into Ukraine in 2022 for civilian connectivity, now underpins drone operations and battlefield command, and Russia is trying to jam it.
The Hindu, 10 Jul 2026: BSNL announces satellite phone priced at ₹1.34 lakh (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 16 Jul 2026: BSNL announces satellite phone priced at ₹1.34 lakh (opens in a new tab)