Bharti Airtel’s unit, Nettle Infrastructure Investments, has completely acquired OneWeb India. OneWeb India Communications Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary company of OneWeb that operates out of the UK. For the unaware, OneWeb is already co-owned by Bharti Airtel along with the UK government. Nettle Infrastructure Investments, an arm of Bharti Airtel, has now acquired a 100% stake by purchasing 10,000 shares of the OneWeb India in cash. Bharti Airtel has confirmed this in a regulatory filing on Wednesday evening. This will give Airtel complete control over the Indian subsidiary of OneWeb.
OneWeb’s Plans of Providing Satellite Internet in India by 2022
OneWeb is a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company that aims to provide satellite internet in several parts of the world in the next few years. The company plans to enter the Indian boundaries in 2022. OneWeb will come into India via a commercial partnership by either merging with a company to form a joint venture or by leasing a bandwidth capacity pact. Further, the telco said during the filing that Access Associates Ltd is in the process of seeking foreign direct investment (FDI) for investing in OneWeb India. The government will soon provide clarity in the FDI norms with the revised satellite communications policy. OneWeb wants to create a constellation of low-orbiting satellites surrounding the complete atmosphere of the globe in the coming few years. OneWeb India will be rivalled by Elon Musk’s Starlink. Starlink has been under scrutiny recently since the company hadn’t followed up with the regulations set by the government. The Indian government is all set to announce a revised policy on satellite communications that will determine the future of not only Starlink but also OneWeb and multiple other companies that want to enter the concerned market space. Starlink also has plans of providing satellite internet services by the mid of 2022 in India. The company had already started taking pre-bookings for its satellite internet connection kit. Users who have purchased the kit within India don’t need to worry even if the government doesn’t allow Starlink to come to India. This is because the company had said that the deposit made for pre-booking was completely refundable.
