In selected regions, Airtel will offer satellite internet services. Airtel owns 30% of OneWeb, which will provide this service. Earth-orbit satellites will be used by OneWeb to provide users with full internet access.
In the past, OneWeb was backed by SpaceX, Qualcomm, Airbus, and Google. Airtel and the United Kingdom Government bailed out the company in 2020. Through OneWeb, Airtel has invested resources into the satellite internet services business since then.
Currently, OneWeb is placing satellites in lower-earth orbit, which will provide internet services to any ground station below them. It is very similar to Elon Musk’s Starlink but on a smaller scale. Currently, OneWeb has a constellation of 542 satellites.
Compared to OneWeb, Starlink currently has 4487 satellites, nearly ten times more. Satellite internet services are led by Starlink, but Airtel’s OneWeb is catching up pretty fast.
In a recent interview, Akhil Gupta, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises (parent company of Airtel), said satellite communication needs to be given a boost. Airtel’s OneWeb will start offering its services by next month, according to ETTelecom. The exact details of the deployment, however, were not revealed by Akhil.
Starlink’s technology is similar to OneWeb’s. To use satellite internet services, a receiver antenna must be placed on the ground, just like with DTH. Internet connectivity will be possible in any remote area, without the need for underground cables.
For internet connectivity, your phones will not be able to directly connect to OneWeb satellites. While Android OEMs are working to bring satellite connectivity to phones, it will only support SOS alerts, not internet access.
