'On national security issues, there can be no compromise.'
Sunil Bharti Mittal-led conglomerate Bharti Enterprises and private equity firm Warburg Pincus will collectively acquire a 49 per cent stake in Haier Appliances India, the local unit of China's Shandong-based Haier group, for an undisclosed amount. The transaction, according to industry sources, values the company at about 15,000 crore.
The telecom department is not contemplating providing any relief to Vodafone Idea with regard to adjusted gross revenue, Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said on Monday. "We have recently converted a lot of their debt into equity.
As part of a plan to refinance debt and expand its upcoming constellation of satellites, French satellite major Eutelsat Communications will raise euro 1.35 billion, or $1.55 billion, through a reserved capital increase and a rights issue, the company announced on Friday. Bharti Enterprises' space venture, Bharti Space Ltd, will invest euro 31.4 million, or $36 million, in the capital raise.
India's space regulator INSPACe has granted a license to Starlink to offer space-based internet services in the country. The authorization is valid for five years and subject to regulatory provisions and clearances.
The government has issued Letter of Intent to Starlink for satcom services, sources said on Wednesday. Starlink is a satellite internet service developed by SpaceX -- the American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company founded in 2002 by world's richest man Elon Musk.
Bharti group-backed OneWeb and New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, have entered into an agreement that will help ensure OneWeb completes its satellite launch programme. The first launch with New Space India is expected in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launches will add to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications firm OneWeb's total in-orbit constellation of 428 satellites -- 66 per cent of the planned total fleet -- to build a global network that will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity.
The heaviest rocket of the Indian Space Research Organisation -- LVM3-M2/OneWeb India-1 -- blasted off from the Sriharikota spaceport on Sunday to place 36 broadband communication satellites into the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for a UK-based customer.
On Sunday, at 12.07 am in Sriharikota, off the coast of the Bay of Bengal, it was almost like an early Diwali, with the sky lit up by the launch of 36 OneWeb satellites. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) did the launch on a 43.5-metre-tall Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) rocket. After the countdown, which started 24 hours in advance, once the mega screen marked the launch, a select group of invitees at the gallery cheered by applauding the feat.
Bharti will invest an additional $500 million (over Rs 3,700 crore) into OneWeb, to become the largest shareholder in the satellite communications company that billionaire Sunil Mittal-run Bharti Group along with the UK government had rescued from bankruptcy last year. The investment is a result of exercise of a 'call option' by Bharti. On completion of the transaction and with Eutelsat's $550 million investment, Bharti will hold 38.6 per cent. The UK government, Eutelsat and SoftBank will each own 19.3 per cent, OneWeb said in a statement.
Shares of Reliance Industries as well as Bharti Airtel began the trade on a positive note on Wednesday after the two firms announced their partnerships with Elon Musk's SpaceX for providing high-speed internet services in India. Bharti Airtel stock opened with a gain of 5.49 pc to hit a high of Rs 1,388.25 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Soon, it pared all gains and traded 0.77 per cent lower to Rs 1,650.10 per piece.
Bharti Group-backed OneWeb on Monday said it has entered an arrangement with the commercial arm of ISRO, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), to launch its satellite in India from 2022.
Elon Musk's Starlink has got licence for satcom services in India, according to sources.
'The LVM3 rocket will orbit one Block 2 BlueBird satellite in Low Earth Orbit.'
While Indian telecom czar Sunil Mittal's Bharti did not share deal details, UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma said his government and Bharti Global, will provide $500 million each.
Starlink's application for offering satcom services in India had been held up for the company's inability to comply with mandatory ownership disclosure norms.
India's biggest telecom players, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries-backed Jio Platforms, will soon bring billionaire Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Starlink satellite services to India. According to analysts, the move could boost India's tele density, especially in the rural areas, and may be an opportunity for investors to add the two stocks on dips for long-term gains
Reliance Jio has urged telecom regulator Trai to come up with a revised paper on spectrum allocation for satellite communication alleging that it ignores the key point of ensuring level-playing field between satellite and terrestrial services. In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman, Anil Kumar Lahoti, Reliance Jio has sought revision of the consultation paper on recommending rules for "terms and conditions for the assignment of spectrum for certain satellite-based commercial communication services".
The ISRO on Sunday scripted yet another history after its LVM3 rocket successfully placed 36 satellites of United Kingdom-based OneWeb group company into intended orbits.
While the market for satellite broadband currently is small, the potential is large as an estimated 30 per cent of the country does not have reliable terrestrial broadband services.
'With India's growing capabilities in the space sector, this creates promising opportunities for enhanced collaboration and market access.'
'The service we are offering is for all telcos and not just Bharti.'
Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) heaviest rocket LVM3 will launch British start-up OneWeb's 36 broadband satellites from the spaceport in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on October 23, marking the launcher's entry into the global commercial launch service market.
Many who track the ministry and the technology sector closely believe that the space won't see much impact on the policymaking side, but the gestation time for regulations might get long, as now there could be a wider consensus-building exercise on policy matters under a coalition government.
'We operate in 16 countries already, and therefore adding the UK to it, and beginning a chapter in the European continent is the next step.'
Bharti Global, the international investment arm of Bharti Enterprises, has decided to buy 24.5 per cent equity in BT Group - a move that will make the Indian conglomerate the biggest shareholder in the UK's second-largest telecom company both in terms of market value and subscriber count. The shares are being purchased from billionaire Patrick Drahi's Altice UK through a combination of cash and debt .
The engine is earmarked for the LVM3-M3 mission identified for launching the next 36 OneWeb India-1 satellites, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
Spectrum allocation for satellite services came up as a dominant theme at the launch of 36 communication satellites by OneWeb, a Bharti group venture, here on Sunday. Following the launch, Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal, in a conversation with a group of reporters, reiterated that spectrum auction did not make sense in the case of satellite services. "This (satellite services) is not competing with mobile services where you can justify the auction.
The government is not seeking to change the 2012 Supreme Court judgment that backed auction as the preferred mode of allocating telecom spectrum except for narrowly defined sectors such as satellite communication and defence where the auction is not feasible, a top source said on Wednesday.
The mission is targeted for launch in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to make its maiden commercial launch of 36 broadband communication satellites on board the space agency's heaviest rocket LVM3-M2, the countdown for which began early on Saturday at Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.
Reliance Jio has suggested an alternative plan to the The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) under which spectrum required by non-geostationary orbit satellite (NGSO) operators to run their gateway terminals should be auctioned geographically, based on districts, rather than circles as done for mobile services. For spectrum which would be required to connect user terminals (like individual homes), Jio has suggested it should be auctioned frequency-wise and exclusively to an operator at a pan-India level. The move is significant as the auctioning of satellite space spectrum has been vehemently opposed by low earth orbit satellite operators (satellites which circle at low altitudes of 200-2000 km).
Bharti Global and UK government-led OneWeb on Friday announced the launch of 36 communications satellites and said it aims to offer high-speed internet from its constellation of satellites in India by mid-2022. The recommencement of satellite launches by OneWeb comes within weeks of billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal-run Bharti Group along with the British government taking over as the new owners of the broadband satellite communications company, which emerged from bankruptcy. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company on Friday launched the 36 satellites from a Soyuz launch vehicle, which began from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, in Russia.
Lauding India's ambitious space programme, The New York Times has said the country, currently witnessing an 'explosive' growth in space-tech start-ups, is set to 'transform the planet's connection to the final frontier' and can emerge as a 'counterweight' to China.
The new year will witness two unmanned missions under the "Gaganyaan" project, deep ocean exploration project, "Samudrayaan" and many more.
Reliance Jio has sent a second legal opinion to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the subject of the potential allocation of satellite spectrum. The letter is written by retired Supreme Court Justice L Nageshwara Rao and argues in favour of auctions, stating that any other method for allocating spectrum apart from auctions could be constitutionally unsound. Business Standard has reviewed the letter.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
'If you are going to have only a handful of telecom players on whom the entire dream of Digital India rests, it's important they are financially sustainable.'
Indian Space Association (ISpA) chairman Jayant Patil has said that the executive council will debate whether it can include more telecom companies as founding members. The response came after some leading telcos said that they had been asked to be core members but preferred to be inducted as founding members. The key founders of the ISpA include the Bharti group through two companies (OneWeb and Airtel), L&T, Nelco, Walchandnagar, Alpha Designs and MapmyIndia.
'The current launch is a sounding rocket, this cannot be called a milestone. The importance is this is for the first time a private player is doing it.'
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