Satellite Tech: Sunil Mittal on Mobile Access in Remote Areas

New Delhi, Mar 12 (PTI) A day after signing a pact with Elon Musk's SpaceX, Bharti Group founder Sunil Mittal on Wednesday said that satellite will add the mix of communication technologies like 4G, 5G, 6G and enable customers to carry their mobile phones to the remotest part of the world, even in skies and to the ocean.

Both Indian telecom rivals, Bharti Airtel and Jio, have announced signing of agreements with SpaceX to offer Starlink's high-speed internet services to their customers in India.

"For the telecom industry, the addition of satellite technology should be no different from bringing new technologies to its customers. Just like 4G, 5G, and 6G in the future, we will now have one more technology in our mix, i.e. SAT-G. Soon customers will be able to carry their mobiles to the remotest part of the world, with them in the skies and blue oceans," said Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, in a statement.

Mittal also said that during his opening remark at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, he made a call to both telecom and satellite players to work together, combine their strengths, and complete the mission of connecting the unconnected, covering the oceans and the skies as well as difficult-to-reach areas.

"I am glad that this is being followed through with active announcements of partnerships between satellite companies and telecom operators," he said.

Mittal said that he had made a similar appeal in his keynote address at the Mobile World Congress in 2017 for operators to slash roaming charges, which were preventing customers from carrying their home networks and seeking local SIMs or Wi-Fi hotspots.

"The industry responded favourably; roaming rates went south, and the international home network switch-on rates shot up. Today, roaming tariffs across the globe are affordable. I have no doubt the satellite and the telecom industry globally will respond to my call to combine their strengths," Mittal said.