Gilat wins multimillion Nelco deal to deploy SkyEdge IV in India
Gilat Satellite Networks (NASDAQ: GILT) has secured a multimillion-dollar order from Indian satcom provider Nelco to deploy its SkyEdge IV ground-hub platform across India. Deliveries are scheduled over the next twelve months, the Israeli vendor said on 5 May 2026. The deal marks one of the more substantial Ka-band ground-infrastructure commitments announced in the Indian satellite market this year.
Under the agreement, Nelco will use SkyEdge IV to build what the company positions as the most advanced Ka-band service network in India, running over the GSAT-N2 high-throughput satellite (HTS). The platform is intended to serve a range of connectivity segments including in-flight connectivity (IFC), cellular backhaul for remote base stations, and enterprise broadband to locations beyond the reach of terrestrial fibre. Gilat did not disclose the contract value beyond the "multimillion" characterisation, nor did it specify shipment volumes or per-site throughput commitments.
The platform
SkyEdge IV is Gilat's multi-orbit ground system, designed around a software-defined architecture that the company says can support very high-throughput satellite (VHTS) and software-defined satellite (SDS) configurations. The hub is positioned by Gilat as capable of serving diverse service tiers — fixed enterprise, mobile backhaul and aero — from a single ground infrastructure, which is an operationally significant claim in a market where operators have traditionally run separate ground systems for each service category.
Ron Levin, President of Gilat's Commercial Division, said the Nelco selection "reflects the platform's ability to support high-throughput satellite services with the flexibility required for diverse service requirements." Gilat added that the deployment will leverage GSAT-N2, an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Ka-band HTS asset, giving Nelco access to domestic spectrum capacity.
Market context
India's satellite broadband market is entering a period of acute competitive pressure. SpaceX's Starlink received regulatory approval to operate in India in early 2025 and is expected to begin commercial service, while Amazon's Project Kuiper and Eutelsat OneWeb are also pursuing Indian licences. Incumbent geostationary operators — including the Tata-backed Nelco — are responding by upgrading ground infrastructure to extract maximum efficiency from HTS capacity and to differentiate on managed-service quality, particularly in enterprise and mobility verticals where low-Earth-orbit latency advantages matter less.
Gilat has a long track record in Indian cellular backhaul, having previously supplied ground equipment for 4G rollouts in remote districts. The SkyEdge IV win with Nelco extends that relationship into the Ka-band HTS era and gives Gilat a reference deployment on GSAT-N2, which could strengthen its positioning for follow-on Indian government or defence tenders.
Regulatory and standards read-across
India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) have been actively updating the licensing framework for non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) operators, creating a more complex regulatory environment for incumbents like Nelco. The GSAT-N2 deployment sits squarely within the existing geostationary licensing regime and is therefore less exposed to the policy uncertainty currently surrounding NGSO entrants. For enterprise buyers in regulated sectors — banking, insurance, critical infrastructure — the compliance clarity of a domestic HTS solution may itself be a procurement consideration.
Gilat's shares trade on both NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company noted in standard boilerplate that forward-looking statements are subject to risks including geopolitical developments related to its Israel headquarters.