BBNL may soon provide its satellite internet service in northeast: Report

CIOReviewIndia Team | Monday, 17 January 2022, 08:39 IST

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State-owned Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) may soon offer its satellite internet services in the north-east, Indian Express reported, citing a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) official.

BBNL, which is also implementing the BharatNet project, has piloted its satellite-based internet services in hilly and remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh.

Further details regarding a commercial rollout as well as the tariffs of services will be drawn up after the project is piloted in more states, the telecom department official told the publication.

The costs are expected to be “reasonable”, and a shortage of revenue for the implementing agencies, whether government or private, will be plugged through the Rs 60,000-crore Universal Service Obligation Fund or USOF, he said.

The report added that BBNL is proposing to offer satellite-based internet to 7,000 gram panchayats and sites that are remote and inaccessible, or where deploying fiber is not feasible. About 4,000 GPs have already been commissioned across the country.

These 7,000 sites will be covered by four satellite gateways with two high throughput (HTS) satellites under the BharatNet project.

BBNL’s broadband-from-space offering may compete head-to-head against Elon Musk’s Starlink, Bharti Group’s OneWeb, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

Starlink will power up its commercial internet services in early-2022 while OneWeb will launch its commercial internet services in India by mid-2022.

Following an order from the government, Starlink recently started refunding pre-order money to customers in India.

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