New Delhi, Mar 16 (PTI) OneWeb on Wednesday said it has received the letter of intent (LoI) for GMPCS licence from the telecom department, but admitted that the “recent developments” have led to a few launch delays, which will impact service introduction to lower latitude regions, including India.
OneWeb, however, exuded confidence that the delay will not be too prolonged.
The satellite communications company – where Bharti Group is the largest shareholder – had decided to suspend all launches from Russia-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier this month, amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The decision to suspend the launches from Baikonur came after Moscow’s space agency Roscosmos asked for guarantees that the satellites and the technology would not be used for military purposes.
OneWeb, the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, is owned in part by the UK government.
“We have received the letter of intent for the GMPCS (Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite) licence from the Department of Telecom and look forward to contributing to the Digital India vision through our services,” OneWeb said in a response to an e-mail query.
Given the “recent developments”, a few remaining launches will be delayed, OneWeb said.
They will impact service introduction to lower latitude regions including India, the company further said.
“We are now actively examining alternative launch options, including from ISRO, a highly experienced operator of launch services and are confident that the delay will not be too prolonged,” it added.
Bharti-backed OneWeb had recently said it is in talks with France-headquartered satellite-launch company Arianespace on how its contracted launches will be completed, after halting of takeoffs from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
“Clearly, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has considerable launch experience and we have signed a letter of intent with them in October 2021. We will be looking at all available options to bring OneWeb connectivity across the globe,” OneWeb had earlier said.
Apart from guarantees that satellites and technology would not be used for military purposes, Roscosmos had also demanded that the UK should sell its partial holding in OneWeb, an ultimatum that was flatly rejected by the British government.
OneWeb had been eyeing full global coverage in 2022 with a constellation of 648 satellites.
The initial plans outlined by the company had pegged mid-2022 as the timeline for OneWeb’s services to be available in India.
Rescued from bankruptcy, OneWeb was acquired by the UK government and Bharti Global in 2020, and has since attracted investments from Eutelsat, SoftBank, Hughes Network Group, and Hanwha. PTI MBI HRS hrs
