Starlink and OneWeb: Can satellite broadband bridge India’s digital divide?

When lockdown was imposed and schools were shut, scores of reports about students climbing to the top of trees to attend virtual classes on their phones poured in from various quarters of the country. In this age and time, children risking their lives to get education shocked many. A majority of students in rural areas could not attend the online classes at all during the pandemic as they had no Internet connectivity.

But one technology is promising to change all this — satellite-based broadband connectivity. What challenges does it face? Here is a peek into this new technology which promises to bridge the digital divide: