OneWeb Looking for Collaboration, Not Competition: Sunil Mittal

Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal said that OneWeb has "no plans to compete with telcos around the world". He said that the global LEO operator would instead collaborate with them.

OneWeb Looking for Synergies with Telcos

While addressing delegates virtually at a global event in the US on Wednesday, Mittal said, “we plan to sign up with at least one telco in each of the 135-odd markets across the world in the run up to OneWeb’s targeted global satellite broadband coverage by mid-2022".

He also added that in the US, OneWeb has partnered with AT&T the LEO player will offer its satcom technology to improve access of telco’s business customers into remote and challenging geographic locations. He further added, “the partnership with AT&T in the US will...also meet the connectivity requirements of US defense forces and government needs.”

He said that the OneWeb target remains to line up pending approvals before achieving global coverage. Mittal said, “there are some 30 countries that have very stiff market access rules…we have secured the necessary approvals in 12-13 countries and expect to conclude the rest on schedule".

Mittal further informed that OneWeb has joined hands with Qualcomm and Hughes to deploy satellite ground stations. Apart from these, the satcom company will also introduce low-cost, satellite user access terminals to catalyze global adoption. The satellite access terminals will come in two variants; the smaller ESAs, and the bigger DPAs.

Recently, Bharti Global, who also co-owns OneWeb along with the UK Government, decided to invest $500 million in the company. This cash infusion, equal to all the previous ones combined by Bharti, will take its investment to $1 billion; the company will then hold 38.6% stake in OneWeb.