DoT issues LoI to Bharti's OneWeb for satellite services licence

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued a letter of intent (LoI) to Bharti group-backed OneWeb for satellite services in India, according to an official source.

OneWeb is eyeing a full global coverage, including India market, by the middle of 2022 with a constellation of 648 low-earth orbit satellites.

"DoT has issued LoI for global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) licence to OneWeb.

"The company needs to submit all compliances, fees, etc., after which licence will be issued to the company. It should take about a month in the whole process," the source told PTI.

With this, Bharti group will become the only company in the country to have presence in both satellite and terrestrial communication services.

The company had applied for the licence in June 2021.

Last month, the Digital Communications Commission (DCC), formerly the Telecom Commission, had cleared a provision of using satellite connectivity in telecom networks through VSAT terminals.

With the GMPCS licence, Bharti group will have an edge in connecting its mobile towers through satellite services.

In 2020, OneWeb was acquired by the UK government and the Bharti group.

The UK government and Bharti Global invested USD 500 million each in the company last year. In January 2021, SoftBank and Hughes returned as equity investors with an additional USD 400 million investment. In April, Eutelsat made USD 550 million equity investment in the company for a 24 per cent stake.

Elon Musk-owned Starlink and other companies such as Telesat and Intelsat have also shown interest in provinding broadband services in India.

Inmarsat is already providing satellite communication services in partnership with BSNL in a limited manner.