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Erstwhile CEO and co-founders of Devas Multimedia are entering India’s satellite communication market again through a start-up called Omnispace. Omnispace recently entered into a strategic partnership with Tata-backed Nelco, a satellite communication, and VSAT company.
As per their March 23, announcement, Omnispace and Nelco have entered into a strategic agreement with an intent to enable the use of 5G direct-to-device communications using Omnispace’s global NGSO (non-geostationary) satellite network across various market segments.
Omnispace is helmed by its CEO Ram Viswanathan — who was the co-founder and part of the board of directors for Devas Multimedia between 2005 and 2016. Besides him, Lawrence Babbio — former Chairman of the Devas board of directors — is another founding member of Omnispace.
Devas-Antrix conflict
Devas Multimedia is embroiled in a major controversy in India, wherein the UPA-backed government terminated its contract with Antrix (ISRO’s commercial arm). In the contract, Antrix aimed to provide Devas with exclusive rights over 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band space segment, for which Devas would pay Antrix $300 million over 12 years. The Union governmentdissolved the Devas-Antrix deal in 2011. In 2021, the National Company Law Tribunal liquidated Devas on the grounds that it was fraudulently incorporated. This order was later upheld by the Supreme Court in January 2022. Allegations of collusion between Devas executives and Antrix officials also emerged in the NCLT court arguments.
Viswanathan was among the eight people accused of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and corruption in a CBI charge sheet filed in August 2016, in this case. It is unknown whether Viswanathan is still being investigated by the CBI. Devas and its shareholders have dismissed these allegations and have filed multiple legal cases against India in different jurisdictions.
In 2019, Omnispace received authorisation to set up mobile networks in Mexico. On March 23, Omnispace announced a strategic partnership with Nelco to prospectively expand into India and South Asia.
When BusinessLine asked Nelco MD and CEO, PJ Nath, whether they were aware of Viswanathan’s Devas connection, he declined to comment.
When contacted, a spokesperson for Omnispace said, “Omnispace does not have any affiliation with Devas Multimedia. Omnispace was founded by veteran telecommunications and satellite industry executives in the US from a cross-section of highly successful global companies. Omnispace is developing a 5G-based system that leverages the global footprint of a non-geostationary satellite constellation and enables interoperability with existing mobile networks to provide ubiquitous connectivity to users and IoT devices,”
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