NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel-backed OneWeb and satellite services provider Hughes have signed a strategic six-year Distribution Partner agreement to provide low Earth orbit (LEO) connectivity services across India.
OneWeb and Hughes Communications India Private Ltd. (HCIPL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2021. OneWeb will connect towns, villages, and local and regional municipalities in those hardest-to-reach areas, playing a critical role in bridging the digital divide.
“Enterprise and government customers, including telecom service providers, banks, factories, schools, defense organizations, domestic airlines, and offshore vessel operators, are eagerly anticipating the arrival of new high-performing Satcom services.
"We look forward to bringing high-speed, low-latency services from HCIPL using OneWeb capacity—and catapulting India to the cutting edge of connectivity,” said Partho Banerjee, president, and managing director of HCIPL.
Neil Masterson, CEO of OneWeb said they are delighted to partner with Hughes to offer high-speed, low-latency satellite broadband solutions and contribute to the Digital India vision.
“OneWeb’s constellation will cover the length and breadth of India, from Ladakh to Kanyakumari, and from Gujarat to the Northeast, and bring secure solutions to enterprises, governments, telcos, airline companies, and maritime customers. OneWeb will invest in setting up enabling infrastructure such as Gateways and PoPs in India to light up the services,” said Masterson.
Today’s agreement expands upon an established relationship between the two companies. Hughes, through its parent company EchoStar, is a longstanding and supportive OneWeb shareholder. It is also an ecosystem partner to OneWeb, developing gateway electronics – including for those in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu – and the core module that will power every user terminal for the system.
Hughes is also the prime contractor on an agreement with the US Air Force Research Lab to integrate and demonstrate managed LEO SATCOM using OneWeb capacity in the Arctic region, the statement said.