NXTDIGITAL LIMITED (NDL) and Thaicom Public Company Limited, Thailand (Thaicom) made a joint announcement of having signed a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form a strategic partnership to enter the Broadband-over-satellite (BoS) market and related services in India. The MOU envisages a partnership that includes deployment of BoS systems on India-focused capacity, which could be enhanced to provide future additional capacity on a software-defined high throughput satellite; augmenting the existing IPSTAR-1 that is the first broadband satellite in the world and operational over India since several years. Partnership could also be in OneOTT Intertainment Limited (OIL), the broadband subsidiary of NDL and India's fourth largest private ISP with over 1 million customers and a presence in 150+ cities and towns.

Thaicom and NDL will look to provide BoS services immediately on IPSTAR-1 - focusing mainly on the rural footprint of India, comprising 60% of NDL's customers, through the only HITS (Headend-In-The- Sky) platform in India. The BoS service will focus on providing cost-effective and quality broadband and will give a tremendous boost to delivering education, information, entertainment, health and other services to these markets. It will also look to complement the existing broadband delivery technologies and broadband penetration of NDL's broadband subsidiary, OIL.

The details of partnership elements are being discussed and will be documented in definitive agreements between Thaicom and NDL.