Airtel is set to start providing satellite internet services in selected regions. This service will be offered by OneWeb, in which Airtel has a shareholding of 30%. OneWeb will let users access fully-fledged internet using Earth orbit satellites.
OneWeb is a satellite service provider, that was backed by SpaceX, Qualcomm, Airbus, and Google in the past. In 2020, the company filed for bankruptcy, but it was bailed out by Airtel and the United Kingdom Government. Since then, Airtel has been investing resources to enter the satellite internet services business through OneWeb.
OneWeb has been placing satellites in the lower-earth orbit, which will act as a relay service to provide internet services to any ground station below it. The technique is very similar to Elon Musk’s Starlink but on a smaller scale. As of now, OneWeb has a constellation of 542 satellites for its internet services.
For comparison, Starlink currently has 4487 satellites, which is almost ten times of OneWeb. Starlink is undoubtedly the market leader for satellite internet services, but Airtel’s OneWeb is catching up pretty fast to enter the competition.
For comparison, Starlink currently has 4487 satellites, which is almost ten times of OneWeb. Starlink is undoubtedly the market leader for satellite internet services, but Airtel’s OneWeb is catching up pretty fast to enter the competition.
OneWeb currently has a limited number of satellites that mainly cover the Arctic region. These include the UK, Greenland, Alaska, and some parts of Canada. This will further be expanded to the US and Australia. OneWeb will monitor its business operations in these regions first, and later expand to other markets like the Middle East, and South Asia.
It is very unlikely that Airtel will bring its satellite internet services to India. The company is currently focusing on expanding its Airtel Xtream fibre connections in the country as a priority. Airtel has also been investing heavily in deploying 5G connectivity across all circles. It also holds a 25% market share in DTH in India.
Amongst all these projects and its existing operational costs for cellular and DTH spectrum, it is very unlikely that Airtel will try to bring OneWeb to India.