Bharti Group-backed company OneWeb and satellite service provider Hughes Network Systems have signed a strategic six-year distribution agreement to provide satellite broadband services across India, a joint statement said on Thursday.
Services in India will be provided by Hughes and Bharti Airtel joint venture Hughes Communications India Private Ltd.
The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the companies in September 2021.
“This announcement marks a turning point for Digital India. Business and government customers, including telecom service providers, banks, factories, schools, defense organizations, domestic airlines and offshore vessel operators, are eagerly awaiting the arrival of new high-quality Satcom services.
“We look forward to bringing them high-speed, low-latency services from HCIPL, leveraging OneWeb capability,” said HCIPL president and general manager Partho Banerjee.
OneWeb’s most recent satellite launch on December 27, 2021 brought the total number of satellites in orbit to 394, more than 60 percent of the planned 648 LEO satellite fleet.
It plans to begin global service by the end of 2022 as demand from telecommunications providers, aviation and marine markets, ISPs and governments around the world for its high-speed, low-latency connectivity services continues.
“OneWeb is pleased to partner with Hughes to offer high-speed, low-latency satellite broadband solutions. OneWeb’s constellation will span the latitude and longitude of India, from Ladakh to Kanyakumari and from Gujarat to the Northeast, providing secure solutions to enterprises, governments, telecom companies, airlines and maritime customers.
“OneWeb will invest in setting up infrastructure such as Gateways and Points of Presence (PoPs) in India to ease its services,” said Neil Masterson, CEO of OneWeb.
Hughes is a shareholder of OneWeb through parent company EchoStar. It is also an ecosystem partner of OneWeb, developing gateway electronics – including for those in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu – and the core module that will power each user terminal for the system.
Hughes is also the prime contractor of an agreement with the US Air Force Research Lab to integrate and demonstrate managed LEO SATCOM using OneWeb capability in the Arctic, the statement said.
