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Bharti Enterprise-backed OneWeb is one step away from completing its constellation of over 600 low earth orbit satellites, paving the way to offer broadband internet services from space to every corner of the world. OneWeb, a company backed by the British government, Bharti Enterprises, Eutelsat, SoftBank, Hughes Networks and Hanwha, has launched internet from space services in countries located above 50 degrees north latitude -- Alaska, Canada, Greenland, UK and Northern Europe. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) is set to launch 36 OneWeb satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on March 26, a move which will add to the United Kingdom-based company's existing constellation of 582 satellites. We are one launch away from achieving global coverage. This last launch with ISRO/NSIL will mark over 600 satellites in space, which is the number needed to go commercially live, a spokesperson of OneWeb told PTI. NewsSpace India
Private telecom operator Reliance Jio toppled state-run BSNL in August to become the largest fixed-line service provider in the country, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. This is the first time since the beginning of telecom services in the country that a private operator has gained the numero uno position in the wireline segment. According to Trai's subscriber report for August, Jio's wireline subscriber base reached 73.52 lakh while that of BSNL was at 71.32 lakh. BSNL has been providing wireline services since the last 22 years, whereas Jio launched its wireline offering 3 years ago. The wireline subscribers in the country grew to 2.59 crore in August from 2.56 crore in July. The growth was dominated by the private sector, with Jio adding 2.62 lakh new customers, Bharti Airtel 1.19 lakh, Vodafone Idea (Vi) 4,202 and Tata Teleservices 3,769. State-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL lost 15,734 and 13,395 wireline customers, respectively, in August. The overall telec