Eutelsat OneWeb is all set to launch commercial satellite broadband services in India. The satellite communications (satcom) player has bagged all the necessary licenses from the Department of Space, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and IN-SPACe. In fact, Eutelsat OneWeb has been conducting trials with the trial spectrum that DoT has allocated the company. The trial spectrum in Ka (27.5-29.1 GHz and 29.5-30 GHz) and Ku (14 GHz) bands. The wait is for the company to complete these trials and then launch services.
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However, there's one more thing to note here. It doesn't have the spectrum for commercial services yet. The satcom companies requested the government to allocate the spectrum via the administrative route. However, the Supreme Court of India has clearly said no to this. The only method in India for companies to acquire spectrum currently is through the spectrum auction route.
Satcom services can bridge the digital divide by bringing connectivity in remote or rural areas where it is either disadvantageous to deploy fiber or it's impossible to deploy it because of geographical limitations/challenges.
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Eutelsat OneWeb won't be like Starlink. The latter wants to serve both enterprises and retail customers like you and me. Eutelsat OneWeb actually wants to operate in the B2B domain. There are many areas where satellite broadband connectivity can help enterprises, defence departments/agencies, government bodies and more. Because offering satellite broadband to customers directly in India will be an expensive affair, one where the returns would be pretty low, OneWeb wants to focus on B2B initially.
The use cases demonstrated by the company during the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2023 showed that the company is completely geared towards B2B market. When will the commercial launch happen will totally depend on how soon the telcos can acquire spectrum.
