Airtel Join Forces With This Company For Launching Satellite Internet In India: Expected Date Of Launch, Tariff & More

• OneWeb and Hughes Network Systems have signed a six-year distribution agreement to provide satellite broadband services across India.
• These services will be provided in India by Bharti Airtel and Hughes’ joint venture Hughes Communications India Private Ltd.
• OneWeb has launched over 60% of the planned 648 LEO satellite fleet.
• The global service is planned to commence by the end of 2022.

Bharti-Group backed firm OneWeb and Hughes Network Systems have signed a tactical six-year distribution agreement to provide satellite broadband services all across India according to a joint statement made on Thursday.   

Airtel, Hughes Join Forces

These services will be provided in India by Bharti Airtel and Hughes’ joint venture Hughes Communications India Private Ltd. The deal is following the memorandum of understanding which was signed by the companies in September 2021. 

HCIPL president and managing director Partho Banerjee said “This announcement marks a turning point for Digital India. Enterprise and government customers, including telecom service providers, banks, factories, schools, defence organisations, domestic airlines, and offshore vessel operators, are eagerly anticipating the arrival of new high performing Satcom services. We look forward to bringing them high-speed, low-latency services from HCIPL, using OneWeb capacity,” 

Airtel’s Satellite Internet: Story So Far..

On 27th December, 2021 OneWeb launched it’s latest satellite which has brought its total in-orbit satellites to 394, over 60% of the planned 648 LEO satellite fleet. 

The global service is planned to commence by the end of 2022 as the demand from telecommunication providers, aviation and maritime markets, ISPs and governments worldwide for low-latency and high speed connectivity services is constantly rising. 

Neil Masterson, the CEO of OneWeb has said that OneWeb is delighted to partner with Hughes and provide high-speed and low-latency satellite broadband. He said that OneWeb’s constellation will cover the length and breadth of India from Ladakh to Kanyakumari and from Gujrat to the Northeast and will also bring secure solutions to enterprises, governments, telcos, airline companies and maritime customers. OneWeb will also invest in setting up enabling infrastructure such as Gateways and PoPs (points of presence) in India to light up services.

Hughes’ parent company EchoStar is a shareholder in OneWeb. It is also the ecosystem partner to OneWeb and is developing gateway electronics for those living in Gujrat and Tamil Nadu. It is also developing a core module that will power every user terminal for the system. 

Hughes is also the primary contractor on the agreement with US Air Force Research Lab to integrate and demonstrate the managed LEO SATCOM using OneWeb’s capacity in the Arctic region according to the statement.