OneWeb delays satellite broadband service rollout

Bharti Group-backed OneWeb's much awaited rollout of broadband-from-space services in India has been pushed back to at least August 2023 as the company has been unable to conclude its low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite launches amid the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine.

The launch of OneWeb's satellite broadband services in India has been further delayed by the long-pending new spacecom policy. "It (read: the launch) will happen anywhere between August to December 2023," Shivaji Chatterjee, executive vice-president of Hughes Communications India, told ET. He was responding to a specific query on the likely timing of OneWeb's satellite broadband services rollout in India.

Hughes Communications India, a JV between Hughes and Bharti Airtel, will be distributing OneWeb's upcoming space broadband services in India. US-based Hughes, through its parent company EchoStar, is also a stakeholder in OneWeb.

OneWeb had originally planned to roll out broadband services in India by May-June 2022. But the launch schedule of its LEO satellites was impacted by the Ukraine crisis when the company had to suspend launches from a key cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Till date, around 65% of OneWeb's targeted 648-strong global LEO constellation are in orbit.