Bharti Group-backed OneWeb India has received the necessary authorisations from Indian space regulator IN-SPACe to launch Eutelsat OneWeb’s commercial satellite broadband services in India.

OneWeb India is the first organisation to be granted this authorisation, Eutelsat OneWeb said in a statement. Eutelsat OneWeb, the low earth orbit operator, is part of Eutelsat Group.

“Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), Ahmedabad has authorised Eutelsat OneWeb constellation to enable provisioning of its capacity in India for providing the communication services,” IN-SPACe said in a statement.

The authorisation has a validity period of five years and is subject to the assignment of the spectrum by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for both the gateways and user terminal operations.

IN-SPACe is the agency of the Government of India responsible for regulating space activities and granting authorisation for conducting space activities in the country.

IN-SPACe stated that OneWeb India aims to provide internet services to rural and unconnected areas and territorial waters of India on a 24x7 basis.

“Eutelsat OneWeb is ready to deploy as soon as it receives the final spectrum authorisation to launch commercial services,” Bharti group chairman and vice-president (co-chair) of the Eutelsat Group board, Sunil Bharti Mittal, said.

“We are pleased to have received these approvals from the space regulator that bring the country a significant step closer to providing high-speed connectivity to even the most remote locations. Having completed our LEO constellation last year, we are perfectly placed to deliver this vital connectivity service to businesses across India,” Eutelsat Group co-general manager of connectivity Cyril Dujardin said.

The business has also obtained in-principle approval to establish and operate two gateways in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, which would secure the provision of vital high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity to customers across India, once services are rolled out.

OneWeb has already received a permit for satellite communication services and internet services from the Department of Telecom and the approval from IN-Space was the last permit in the process that the company needs before starting service.

The company now needs only spectrum for transmitting signals for broadband services directly to customers in India.

Eutelsat OneWeb, earlier known as OneWeb, is a global constellation with 648 satellites orbiting Earth in circular polar orbits at 1200 km altitude and shall provide about 21 Gbps throughput over India.

The Department of Telecom has sought a reference from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on spectrum allocation methodology for satellite communication services.

Trai officials have claimed to be ready with their recommendations but it will be issued after the appointment of the regulatory body’s chairperson.

The position of Trai chairperson has been vacant since October 1 after the tenure of P. D. Vaghela ended in September.