Space wars: Mittal, Musk bet on satellite broadband as telecom's new star

Mittal is planning to invest $2 billion on a once bankrupt low earth orbit constellation satellite company OneWeb to put up more satellites

Space wars are here again, but with a difference. Pitted on one side is India’s telecom czar Sunil Mittal who has taken a big gamble by buying a 50 per cent stake in the once bankrupt low earth orbit constellation satellite company OneWeb. The company, Bharti Global, is planning to invest $2 billion (of which it has already put in $500 million) to put up more satellites and it has set a stiff deadline to launch its commercial internet services by October next year in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.

Taking him on will be the formidable