Sunil Mittal-backed Bharti Enterprises will invest $500 million to acquire a stake in OneWeb, a UK-based company that has proposed a mega-constellation of satellites in a low earth orbit to deliver affordable wireless internet services anywhere in the world.

Bharti is part of a consortium that includes the UK Government as well. The UK Government will also invest $500 million in the project.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises said: “I am delighted that Bharti will be leading the effort to deliver the promise of universal broadband connectivity through OneWeb, with the active support and participation of the British Government.”

“In addition to the strategic opportunities across a wide range of other applications and working with a broad range of international partners, this business has substantial commercial use cases across the telecoms, enterprise, aviation and maritime sectors. With strong operational execution, we will be able to generate an attractive return for investors, while ensuring that Britain plays a leading role in space and next generation communications.” he added.

“In addition to these commercial and strategic benefits, OneWeb’s platform will help to reduce the “digital divide” by providing high speed, low latency broadband access to the poor and hard-to-reach rural areas. A low-earth orbit constellation is the only viable mechanism through which the “last billion” can be connected. As one of the largest telecoms operators in India and Africa, I know what a powerful social and economic enabler this can be. We will work with partners around the world to deliver this technology to those who need it the most,” Mittal said.

Bharti Airtel will act as the testing ground for all OneWeb products, services, and applications.

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