Founder of Bharti Airtel and Indian billionaire, Sunil Mittal has said that ‘OneWeb’, a satellite broadband company which Bharti Global holds a stake of will be providing satellite internet services globally by 2022. For the unaware, Mittal had rescued the company along with the UK government by pouring in $500 million each for a 45% stake to keep it from going bankrupt earlier this year. Now as per a report from Mint, in a bold statement, the business tycoon has said that OneWeb will be able to provide broadband internet services around the world in the next 18 months, i.e., by 2022 — more on the story ahead.
OneWeb to Compete Against Giant Corporations for Providing Broadband Services
OneWeb provides satellite broadband connection to the users. With the company going global in the next 18 months, it will be up against two of the biggest companies in the world namely Space Exploration Technologies Corporation founded by Elon Musk and Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos.
Mittal in his statement at the conference held by the United Nations said that by the month of May or June in 2022, OneWeb will cover the entire planet with the constellation of its satellites.
It is worth noting that Elon Musk is also ready to launch multiple SpaceX rockets into space for building his vision of Starlink constellation. His company is already testing the service with its potential customers.
But there will be one big difference between the services of OneWeb and Starlink initially. It will be that OneWeb will release its satellites covering the entire planet, whereas Musk isn’t going down that route, for now at least.
Mittal said that OneWeb is ready to fight like hell in the marketplace to stay at the top. He further said that the future generation of OneWeb satellites will also be able to provide global positioning capabilities.
As of now, 74 satellites out of the planned 648 are already in the orbit of the Earth providing users living in multiple locations with satellite internet services. The company seeks more funding to launch further satellites.
