Bharti group has reportedly bought a strategic minority stake in OneWeb. Other investors in OneWeb include Qualcomm Incorporated, Virgin Group, Airbus Group, The Coca-Cola Company, Intelsat and Grupo Salinas.
Bharti Airtel, a Bharti group company, will be a preferred distributor of the service in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Africa, with a strong focus on rural markets. It will also have representation on the OneWeb board. The company can leverage its investment by becoming a preferred distributor of these services across its operations. The company’s mobile networks cater to about 1.85 billion people.
OneWeb is a satellite internet company that seeks to provide affordable internet access in rural and remote areas across the world. Bharti Airtel is a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top 5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.
