Connect rural India through LEO constellation, Sunil Mittal

Industrialist Sunil Bharati Mittal on Thursday said that a low earth orbit (LEO) constellation of satellites was the best way to connect rural India.

Bharti Enterprises in July won the bid to pick up a 45% stake in Oneweb, a UK-based firm looking to put a large constellation of satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) to deliver wireless internet services.

Mittal sought Isro’s partnership in building user terminals that will enable take internet to rural India and said the constellation will have satellites covering the whole world and that testing would begin next year.

“We’ve realised that taking optical fibre to some of the remote parts of India is near impossible and we’ve earmarked several areas in India to deliver broadband connectivity, and hope to work closely with Isro,” Mittal said. TOI