The Bharti Airtel Ltd.-backed OneWeb has received permission from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre to launch its commercial satellite broadband services in the country.
OneWeb is the first organisation to receive this authorisation from the government, according to a statement on Tuesday.
"This will be a critical step forward to meet India's ambition of providing internet connectivity for all and will enable the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision of Digital India," Sunil Mittal, vice president (co-chair) of the board of directors of Eutelsat Group, said.
"Eutelsat OneWeb is ready to deploy as soon as it receives the final spectrum authorisation to launch commercial services," the Bharti Group chairperson said.
The company already has the required licence from the Department of Telecommunications to provide broadband services using satellite connectivity. It has also been sanctioned to set up and operate two gateways in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, which will deliver high speed, low latency internet connectivity in India, the statement said.
Eutelsat OneWeb, a subsidiary of Eutelsat Group, provides connectivity and broadcast services worldwide. The group was formed through the collaboration of Eutelsat and OneWeb in 2023.
Bharti Airtel plans to cover the whole nation with 5G by early next year, Chairperson Sunil Mittal said last month.
Currently, 20,000 villages in the country have been connected with Airtel's 5G services and the nation will be covered by next March, according to Mittal.
"Satellite communications will serve every inch of our country. People from remote areas can be connected via our satellite station at Mehsana in Gujarat," he said.
Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 1.02% higher at Rs 971.40 apiece, as compared with a 0.42% rise in the benchmark BSE Sensex.
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