BSNL approaches SoftBank to offer high speed affordable connectivity via OneWeb’s satellites

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is reportedly talking to leverage SoftBank’s OneWeb for low earth orbit (LEO) communication satellites.

The talks, if fructified, will change the face of telecom sector as it will provide high-speed connectivity with no change in latency during satellite handovers.

BSNL chairman Anupam Shrivastava along with key officials had recently met SoftBank’s CTO and its team in Japan.

According to Shrivastava, the government-owned telecommunication company has recently explained its plan for using OneWeb’s satellite that provides ultra- high performing satellites at high-volumes for consumers as well as enterprise voice and data services.

OneWeb Satellites is a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus, that designs and manufactures its fleet of satellites. It claims to be the world’s second largest space company to manufacture low-cost, ultra-high performing satellites at high-volumes.

The London-based company had raised over a billion USD from the likes of SoftBank, Bharti, Coca-Cola, Hughes, Intelsat, MDA, and Virgin. The Masayoshi Son-led investment firm owns near 40 per cent stake in OneWeb and it’s planning 850 LEO satellites to cover every part of the earth.

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In case, the ongoing talks between BSNL and SoftBank gets through and also get required approval from concerned ministries such as Home Affairs (MHA) and DoT, the high-speed, low latency broadband services from OneWeb will certainly provide a much required wing to government’s Digital India campaign.

Besides providing high-speed telecom and data connectivity, OneWeb satellites can also be crucial for smart cities and 5G rollout. SoftBank and Indian telecommunication companies are eyeing to develop GST compliance tool to prevent revenue leakage through Robotics Process Automation (RPA).

The development was first reported by ET.