OneWeb ties up with Hughes to bring Low Earth Orbit Connectivity Service

OneWeb and Hughes Communications India Pvt Ltd recently entered into a strategic six-year agreement to offer low earth orbit (LEO) connectivity services across India.

OneWeb is a low earth orbit satellite communication company, while HCIPL is a joint venture between Bharti Airtel and Hughes Network Systems.

Partho Banerjee, president and managing director, HCIPL, said, "This announcement marks a turning point for Digital India. 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 them high-speed, low-latency services from HCIPL using OneWeb capacity—and catapulting India to the cutting edge of connectivity."

Neil Masterson, CEO, OneWeb, said, "OneWeb is 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."

The agreement between the OneWeb and Hughes follows a Memorandum of understanding signed by the companies in the month of September 2021.

As a leading satellite broadband provider in India, HCIPL is well-positioned to deliver services to government and enterprises with the OneWeb capacity, especially in areas outside the reach of fiber connectivity.

OneWeb will now help to connect villages, towns, and local and regional municipalities in those hardest to reach areas, which plays a major role in bridging the digital divide.

Hughes, with the help of its parent company EchoStar, is a longstanding and supportive OneWeb shareholder. It is also an ecosystem partner to OneWeb, developing gateway electronics which includes those in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and the core module that will power every user terminal for the system.