Satellite Connectivity: Sunil Mittal on Bridging the Digital Divide

New Delhi, Oct 21 (PTI) Satellite communications is a "magic bullet" to cover dark unconnected areas, Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal said on Monday, adding that players now have a great new opportunity to leverage satellite connectivity to cover remote areas that have so far been left out.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, Mittal said that nearly two billion people in the world are still not connected to the internet, and in the Indian context too there are areas -- large swathes of desert, forests, coastlines -- where neither mobile networks, not fibre is feasible.

"For those areas you need satellite communications, and that, to my mind, offers now a great source of new opportunities for us, mobile operators, or telecom operators, to put that in a mix and start to cover areas which are still left behind," Mittal said.

About five per cent of India's population sans internet connectivity lives in 25 per cent of the area, he said, emphasising that satellite is the only solution for them.

"India provides a very high quality signal to 95 per cent of its population, but there are still five per cent of people who do not get internet in the country, and they live in 25 per cent of the area of the country. So it's a very large area with a very small population, the only way to cover that is satellite," Mittal said.

Mittal said that two ground stations in Mehsana (Gujarat) and in Pondicherry are in a state of preparedness and ready to start services.

"The day government gives us the permission, there will not be a single square inch of this country which will not have a radio coverage. So you just need to raise your hand and be connected," he said.

Mittal said he is of the view that satellite is truly a "magic bullet" to cover the dark areas, and noted that about 2 billion people in the world are still not connected to internet, including in advanced countries like the US.

The telecom stalwart's comments assume significance as billionaire Elon Musk and Indian tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Mittal are locked in a standoff over satellite spectrum, and nuances of its allocation in India.

While Ambani's Reliance Jio has been vocal about the need to allocate such spectrum through an auction to give a level-playing field to legacy operators who buy airwaves and set up infrastructure like telecom towers, Mittal during India Mobile Congress held last week articulated the need for satellite companies harbouring any urban ambitions to buy spectrum as telecom companies do.

Musk-led Starlink is demanding administrative allotment of licences in line with the global trend as it looks to tap into the world's fastest-growing mobile telephony and internet market. This has found some backing in Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who said recently that such airwaves will be given out through administrative allocation at a cost, but not auctioned.