OneWeb has joined hands with the Kazakhstan government to offer high-speed internet connectivity in remote areas. This development comes after Bharti Enterprises signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan. Under this MoU, OneWeb is planning to demonstrate the network in June this year.
"OneWeb always partners with local telecom operators who know the market and their customers, and seeks to distribute its connectivity services to the private and public sector, including businesses, schools, hospitals, and civil services across Eurasia," the company said," Bharti Enterprises said.
The company said it has also received a Certificate of Incorporation for OneWeb Kazakhstan. It is worth noting that OneWeb was acquired by Bharti Enterprises and UK Government in 2020. Notably, OneWeb is building its stations to offer internet connectivity in Central Asian countries.
OneWeb Plans For India
After offering telecom services for 20 years in the country, Bharti Enterprises has acquired OneWeb to offer internet connectivity via satellites. The company has bought a 45 percent stake in OneWeb. The new move is likely to give a tough competition to Starlink, which is also planning to launch its services soon; however, the latter is facing regulatory hurdles. Notably, OneWeb is likely to increase rural broadband connectivity in India and other developing countries like Africa.
"For rural broadband, I would say Africa, India, and less developed countries will benefit from OneWeb's satellite network. They will have the biggest benefit. For critical applications such as defense, the ministry of defense in the UK is already engaging with us because they need connectivity in very remote areas," Sunil Bharti Mittal, Executive Chairman of OneWeb said.
He states that satellite services will play important role in deploying the 5G services. The satellite services can be deployed in those areas, where fibre and airwaves cannot be deployed. However, he added that satellite network is a bit costlier than fibre and spectrum. So, there are high chances that customers will use other networks for data. Satellite services have been designed for unconnected areas and TRAI is also considering that matter.