Starlink and OneWeb: Can satellite broadband bridge India's digital divide?

When lockdown was imposed and schools were shut, scores of reports about students climbing to the top of trees to attend virtual classes on their phones poured in from various quarters of the country. In this age and time, children risking their lives to get education shocked many. A majority of students in rural areas could not attend the online classes at all during the pandemic as they had no Internet connectivity.
 
But one technology is promising to change all this -- satellite-based broadband connectivity. What challenges does it face? Here is a peek into this new technology which promises to bridge the digital divide:
 
India’s rural Internet connectivity so far
 

• 70% of India’s rural population does not have Internet access 
• Union government had launched Digital India scheme to connect rural areas with Internet
• 1.78 lakh gram panchayats connected with optical fibre so far 
• The target is to provide broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats
• Internet penetration in the country stood at around 50% in 2020

 
India had launched BharatNet project in 2011 to ensure that every village panchayat in the country has broadband Internet connectivity. But, according to a report in 2020, half of India’s population still does not have Internet access. And 70% of the country’s rural population is yet to log in to the Internet.
 
Till date, BharatNet connections have been provided to 1.78 lakh gram panchayats. In June this year, the Union Cabinet approved the implementation of the project in 16 states through the Public Private Partnership Model (PPP). When it comes to wired broadband, India had only 24.3 million customers at the end of August, most of whom are urban subscribers.
 
How satellite-based internet service works
 
Starlink and OneWeb are among a number of companies which use Low-Earth Orbit satellites to provide high-speed broadband Internet services around the world, with a special focus on remote areas where deploying mobile towers or fiber optic cables are difficult. These satellites can beam the Internet to virtually anywhere on the earth. 
 
Starlink and OneWeb
 

• Starlink is a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX
• OneWeb is owned by Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Group along with the British government
• Leading the race, Starlink has already deployed more than 1,700 satellites in low-earth orbit

 
Sensing the opportunity, Starlink and OneWeb are looking to provide the unserved areas with the Internet. Starlink is a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX and OneWeb is owned by Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Group along with the British government. Starlink is one of a growing number of companies launching small satellites as part of a low-Earth orbiting network to provide low-latency broadband Internet services around the world, with a particular focus on remote areas that terrestrial Internet infrastructure struggles to reach.
 
Satellite broadband wars
 
Starlink has already deployed more than 1,700 satellites in low-earth orbit, against a target of having 12,000 satellites in its constellation. Meanwhile, OneWeb has put 322 satellites into orbit and plans to have 648 of them by the middle of next year. Starlink currently serves about 100,000 users in 14 countries. Recently, Starlink established a subsidiary in India headed by former PayPal executive Sanjay Bhargava as it gears up to launch its services in the country. It has already received over 5,000 pre-orders for its devices in India. But there are some factors which could hit its Indian venture, it’s the high cost is one of them  
 
The roadblocks
 

• Starlink may cost $99 or Rs 7,300 per month
• Starlink kit will cost Rs 37,000
• India’s rural consumers will not be able to afford it  
• Like satellite TVs, its services will also be affected by cloudy sky 

 
Starlink’s service at the moment costs about Rs 7,300 per month. This is in addition to Rs 37,000 that customers have to shell out for the Starlink kit, which contains an antenna dish, a stand, its power supply, and a WiFi router. Moreover, the antenna requires a clear view of the sky. Rural consumers in India cannot be expected to pay such huge sums for the Internet. Perhaps, keeping this in mind, Starlink is seeking collaboration with Indian telcos like Jio and Vodafone Idea as well as BharatNet and RailTel.
 
Starlink is planning to have 200,000 connections in India by December 2022, of which 80% will be in rural areas. It has started applying for licences though there is no regulatory clarity over satellite broadband in India. There is uncertainty around the mode of spectrum allotment and the licensing framework. Things also get complicated as Starlink will make use of foreign satellites for its Internet services in India.
 
Ankit Jain, Assistant Vice President of ICRA, said about this India’s satellite broadband space:
 

• Indian satcom market not fully evolved
• Mode of spectrum allocation not decided
• Initial costs to set up constellation of satellites very high
• Cost is a big impediment
• Financial viability of satellite broadband not proven yet
• Government trying to provide rural connectivity with BharatNet

 
The Indian government is in the final stages of approving a new spacecom policy that will underscore the role of Low Earth Orbit satellite systems in increasing Internet coverage.  Only once this policy is finalised, companies like Starlink will get some clarity over their future in India. Starlink is initially looking to give 100 devices for free to schools in Delhi and nearby rural districts as part of a pilot project. For this, it is seeking limited approval from the government.

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