OneWeb to set up India’s first ‘satelllite network portal site’ in Gujrat

Subject: Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Context:

The Gujarat government through its Department of Science and Technology (DST) signed a memorandum of understanding with OneWeb India Communications Pvt Ltd for setting up a ‘satellite network portal site’ — a first for India — at Mehsana in Gujarat.

LEO and satellite communication:

Satellite constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO) are gaining traction with StarLink, Kuiper and OneWeb among many others, the world is increasingly moving towards relying on LEO satellite communications.
LEO satellites operate at an altitude of 500 to 1,200 km, making it ripe for high-speed and low latency — a lower time lag between a user seeking data, and the server sending that data, compared to geostationary Earth orbit positioned satellites.

Satellite network portal (SNP) site:

The satellite network portal (SNP) site will serve as a signal and data downlink and uplink terminal or base station on the ground, an intermediary for data transmission through satellite tracking antenna systems.
To cover the entire Earth, OneWeb need 40 such SNPs but for India it needs at least 2 such SNPs because India is such a large geography and they decided to set up one in Gujarat and another in the southern part of India, likely to be in Tamil Nadu.
As per the financial year 2021-2022 annual report of OneWeb, it had nine operational SNP sites serving the live coverage area and at the time, had agreements to build 38 SNPs in 27 different countries.

Investment, Infrastructure, Regulatory Approvals:

OneWeb India Communications plans to invest up to Rs 100 crore in this project, which would create 500 direct and indirect jobs.
Apart from civil infrastructure, setting up an SNP like this will also require a slew of regulatory approvals from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and spectrum allocation from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Why Gujarat and the role of DST, Gujarat in this deal:

The decision to set up an SNP in Gujarat was a combination of geographical and business interests.
- Suitable geography that covers/caters to the maritime sector also.
- Gujarat has the longest coastline in India.
- The kind of policy and incentives available.
- Favourable business climate
DST handles telecommunications and it also handles the Gujarat Electronics Policy (effected in October 2022, valid till 2028).

OneWeb’s growing footprint in India

Though OneWeb is UK-based,India’s Bharti Enterprises serves as a major investor and shareholder in the company, and Bharti Enterprises’ founder Sunil Bharti Mittal serves as OneWeb’s executive chairman.
OneWeb has 648 satellites orbiting at 1,000-1,200 km making 13 orbits per day, covering the entire globe.
India launched the 36 GEN 1 satellites of OneWeb on March 26 this year from aboard Launch Vehicle Mark-3 from Sriharikota.
For the SNP set-ups in India, OneWeb India Communications will be receiving the capacity from the UK parent company to sell in India.
Earlier, HCIPL and OneWeb, in January 2022, announced a strategic six-year Distribution Partner agreement to provide low Earth orbit (LEO) connectivity services across India, to deliver services to enterprises and government with OneWeb capacity, especially in areas outside the reach of fibre connectivity.