OneWeb came out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a new owner and says it will start rolling out more broadband satellites next month. Similar to SpaceX Starlink, OneWeb builds a network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that can deliver high throughput to high speed with much lower latencies than traditional geostationary satellites.
After a December launch, “Launches will continue through 2021 and 2022, and OneWeb is now on track to start business connectivity services to the UK and the Arctic region by the end of 2021 and will expand to provide global services in 2022. ” OneWeb said in a Friday Announcement.
In March of this year, OneWeb filed for bankruptcy and reportedly laid off most of its staff. In July, OneWeb agreed to sell the agreement to a consortium comprising the UK government and Bharti Global Limited for $ 1 billion. In Friday’s announcement, OneWeb said it had obtained “all relevant regulatory approvals” needed to come out of bankruptcy.
“Together with our UK government partner, we have recognized that OneWeb has high value global spectrum with priority rights, and we benefit from the $ 3.3 billion invested to date and the satellites already in orbit, securing our rights. to use, ”said Bharti Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal. said.
Launch scheduled for December 17
OneWeb previously launched 74 satellites into low earth orbits and announced plans to launch 36 more satellites on December 17, 2020. Friday’s announcement also stated that OneWeb was forecasting “a constellation of 650 LEO satellites”, but that could well be the beginning. OneWeb obtained US approval for 1,280 mid-earth orbit satellites in August, bringing its total approval to 2,000 satellites.
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OneWeb will catch up with SpaceX, which has launched around 800 satellites, has permission to launch nearly 12,000 and is already providing Internet service to US customers in beta. SpaceX and OneWeb are asking the United States for permission to launch tens of thousands of additional satellites.
There is also competition from Amazon’s Kuiper Project, which is approved by the United States to launch 3,236 satellites into low earth orbit and a $ 10 billion investment plan.