Bharti is likely to launch satellite internet in 2023. It has in October 2022 deployed 36 LEO satellites through ISRO. Thus it has completed the launch of 70 per cent of its planned LEO fleet.

Starlink of Musk has launched around 2300 satellites and expects to offer services across 40 countries.

There are losses of satellites because of geomagnetic storms. It results into financial losses.

There is an issue of spectrum pricing in India. Bharti expects the government to charge an administrative price as per the global practice. The telecom operators and the government seem to be veering to the auction route for pricing. It will make the service costly.

It is difficult to predict the size of the market. There is a substantial business-to-business (B2B) market which a Tata Group company Nelco wants to exploit. Startlink of Musk is targeting business-to-consumer (B2C) market. It offers services in certain regions to in-vehicle internet on pay-per-use basis. Bharti has tied up with Hughes to provide broadband services across India. It also wants to target specific segments of the market. Both Bharti and Starlink would like to cater to the rural and remote areas.

Can satellite internet match the 5G speeds? Say speeds of around 1Gbps to 150 mbps. OneWeb expects to offer 195 mbps. Its network is built with terrestrial technology and is ready for 5G. Starlink expects to offer speeds between 50 mbps to 300 mbps. The customers in the US and Canada, however, feel the actual speeds are far lower.