UK-based Network Access Associates (NAA), a OneWeb Group company, is set to acquire up to 74% stake in OneWeb India Communications as the latter gears up to run gateways and enter the bandwidth leasing business before launching fast satellite broadband services in India next year.
At present, OneWeb India is fully owned by Nettle Infrastructure Investments, a Bharti Airtel unit.
“Now, Network Access Associates, a wholly-owned arm of Bharti Global-backed OneWeb UK, will acquire a significant majority portion of Nettle Infra’s stake in OneWeb India and seek the requisite statutory approvals,” a person aware of the matter told ET on condition of anonymity.
Bharti Airtel is also a Bharti group company. Bharti Global is the overseas arm of Bharti Enterprises, the holding company of Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator.
UK-based OneWeb’s stakeholders – Bharti Global, the UK government, SoftBank and Hughes Network Systems – are all represented in NAA. Eutelsat too will be represented after the French geo-stationary satellite operator’s stated 24% stake buy in OneWeb-UK achieves closure, said another senior industry executive familiar with the matter.
OneWeb Group did not reply to ET’s queries till press time.
OneWeb India Communications, which recently applied for a global mobile personal communications by satellite services (GMPCS) permit to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), is likely to lease a sizable chunk of its satellite bandwidth capacity to offer cellular backhaul connectivity services to
and other telcos facing challenges in offering uninterrupted 4G coverage in India’s rural and remote corners amid a paucity of mobile towers, terrestrial microwave links and fibre networks.
OneWeb India may also offer satellite-based connectivity to private Internet of Things networks in India by leveraging its upcoming in-country earth station gateways. The telecom regulator is set to back widening the scope of GMPCS licences to allow such connectivity to IoT devices within a service area.
Globally, OneWeb is setting up a global constellation of about 650 low-earth-orbit satellites that will be leveraged to offer fast internet-from-spaces services worldwide. It is preparing to deliver high-speed, low-latency satellite broadband services in rural and remote regions globally including India, aiming to take on Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon-linked Project Kuiper. OneWeb is slated to roll out satellite internet services in India by June 2022.
A slice of OneWeb’s bandwidth capacity may also be set aside to enable Indo Teleports – another Bharti Airtel unit – to offer inflight connectivity and broadband services on domestic and foreign airlines using satellite systems and also voice-calling and internet connectivity on ships. This is possible since Indo Teleports has a flight and maritime connectivity licence using satellite systems.
