Context: Gujarat’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with OneWeb India Communications Pvt Ltd to set up a ‘satellite network portal site’ at Mehsana in Gujarat.

About the Satellite Network Portal Site at Mehsana

• The Satellite Network Portal Site at Mehsana is a first for India.

• The Satellite Network Portal (SNP) site will be serving as a signal and data downlink and uplink terminal or base station on the ground.

• It will act as an intermediary for data transmission through satellite tracking antenna systems.

• DST Gujarat will facilitate change of land use, building permits, and fibre connectivity as part of the MoU.

• Gujarat was chosen for this project as it has the longest coastline in India. 

What is OneWeb?

• OneWeb Network Access Associates Limited is a communications company that aims to build broadband satellite Internet services. The company is headquartered in London.

• It is powered by a constellation of 648 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.

• It enables high-speed, low latency connectivity for governments, businesses and communities everywhere around the world.

• India’s Bharti Enterprises is a major investor in OneWeb group.

About LEO satellites

• Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites operate at an altitude of 500 to 1,200 km.

• Its height makes it ripe for high-speed and low latency, as compared to Geostationary Earth Orbit positioned satellites.

• Latency is a time lag between a user seeking data, and the server sending that data.

• The world is increasingly moving towards relying on LEO satellite communications for satellite broadband technology or satellite telephony.

Other key facts

• To cover the entire Earth, there is requirement of 40 such SNPs, but for India at least 2 such SNPs is required.

• Another such SNPs will be set up in the southern India, likely to be in Tamil Nadu.