New Delhi: Top officials of electronics chip major Qualcomm on Monday met IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and telecom minister Manoj Sinha to discuss its satellite connectivity project and the production of chips, used in devices like mobile phones.
“They really intend to expand their footprint. They have great experience in the field of chip design. They are very excited about expansion of mobile manufacturing in India,” IT and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after meeting with Qualcomm’s executive chairman Paul Jacobs.
“I also asked him to explore the possibility of bring in satellite connectivity in hilly areas of India. He has told me these are very exciting areas and area of his concern,” Mr Prasad added.
Qualcomm met the IT minister to discuss a slew of issues around its expansion in India, venture fund and its new global satellite based communications network —OneWeb.
Mr Jacobs also met Mr Sinha to discuss OneWeb which the company expects to launch in 2019-20. “We also spoke about investment in satellite company called OneWeb that is going to build over 700 satellites, launch those by 2019 and 2020. It will provide mobile broadband to most remote areas of the country and will have connectivity from a terminal on ground, up through sky into the rest of the network,” Mr Jacobs said after meeting Mr Sinha. The OneWeb communications network will be made of low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite.
