Hughes and Bharti-backed OneWeb sign agreements for LEO services in US, India

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) and Bharti-backed low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications (satcom) company OneWeb have signed a distribution agreement in the US, focused on enterprise services, and in India, the companies have entered into a strategic agreement to distribute services to large enterprises, small and medium businesses (SMBs), government, telcos, and ISPs, in the rural and remote parts of the country.

According to an official statement, services will be provided by Hughes and Hughes Communications India Private Ltd., respectively.

Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal at a recent global satellite event said that OneWeb will not compete with telcos but instead, it will collaborate with them. Mittal said the LEO satcom company has partnered with US’s AT&T to improve connectivity for telco’s customers residing in remote locations.

OneWeb has similar deals with north Canadian telco Northwestel and UK’s BT.

“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,” Mittal had said.

Hughes and OneWeb intend to broaden their agreement globally, with Hughes offering OneWeb’s low-latency, high-speed satellite broadband connectivity to enterprise, government, commercial aviation and maritime, cellular backhaul, and community WiFi hotspots.

“OneWeb’s system enhances the Hughes portfolio of networking capabilities, introducing a low-latency option with global reach that complements GEO satellite capacity density and capability to meet our customers’ needs,” said Pradman Kaul, President, Hughes.

“OneWeb is thrilled to be working with Hughes to offer our connectivity solution across the U.S. and India. This agreement is another example of our commitment to deliver high-quality, continuous internet access to areas in need including in rural and remote areas of the U.S and India,” added Neil Masterson, Chief Executive officer, OneWeb.

Hughes, through its parent company EchoStar, is an investor in OneWeb. It is also an ecosystem partner to OneWeb, developing gateway electronics and the core module that will power the user terminal for the system.

Hughes is a contractor on an agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab to integrate and demonstrate managed LEO satcom using OneWeb capacity in the Arctic region.

OneWeb is building its initial constellation of 648 LEO satellites. Services will begin this year to the Arctic region including Alaska, Canada, and the UK. By late 2022 OneWeb will be offering its high-speed, low latency connectivity services globally.

Co-owned by Bharti group and the UK government, OneWeb is readying to take on Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper venture in the relatively nascent fast broadband-from-space segment.

OneWeb had applied to India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for two permits — a national long-distance (NLD) and a GMPCS (global mobile personal communications by satellite services) license for delivering satellite broadband using its LEO constellation.

The telecom department has issued a letter of intent (LoI) to the company for NLD services via satellite. It is yet to receive a GMPCS license.

Mittal, who is also OneWeb’s executive chairman, previously said the company will invest around Rs 250-300 crore ($30-40 million) in setting up new ground stations in India as it gears up to launch satellite services in India next year.

Bharti Global invested $500 million in OneWeb in June 2021, making it the biggest shareholder in the satcom company with a 39% stake.

It received a further $300 million from Korea’s Hanwha Systems for an 8.8% stake.

With the latest round of cash injection, the company has received a total of $2.7 billion in equity investment since November 2020, with no debt issuance, OneWeb had said.

Hughes is also developing its next-generation Jupiter 3 Ultra-High Density Satellite, expected to launch in the second half of 2022.

Pranav Roach, President, Hughes Network Systems had told ETTelecom that a proposal to launch a high throughput satellite (HTS) in India for affordable broadband services, originally submitted in 2016 by Hughes Communications, is yet to be approved.