In early October, we wrote that the satellite Internet operator OneWeb left Russia, joining forces with the UK and India.
In addition, the company had to file for bankruptcy earlier this year because its main investor, Softbank, did not provide $ 2 billion in funds. In March, negotiations for the allocation of money fell through a few hours before 34 satellites were put into orbit. Now the British government and Bharti Global are buying out most of OneWeb's assets.
It seems that there is no need to worry about bankruptcy - the company will continue to work . Moreover, OneWeb, after bankruptcy, filed an application for launching 48 thousand (!) Satellites, which is even more than SpaceX. It seems that the provider of satellite Internet Starlink Elon Musk has a serious competitor in the face of the British government and the billionaire of Indian origin who owns Bharti Global.
Each of the parties paid $ 500 billion for 84% of the company. The funds will be used to pay off debts to ex-owners, including SoftBank and Airbus.
The company's council is now being formed, which will include three representatives from the British government and Bharti Global. Neil Masterson, ex-top manager of Thomson Reuters, will become the chairman of the board of directors.
The UK has long planned to become a significant player in the exploration of near-Earth space, so that with OneWeb technologies, the country's government will be able to fulfill its plans. Plus, the country will become a satellite Internet provider for users from all over the world.
The positive thing about this whole story is that OneWeb has all the developments ready, satellites are being launched into orbit, and even launch vehicles are chartered to launch them.
The company intends not to supply communication services directly to consumers, but to cooperate with the largest telecommunication companies in the world. According to the plan, it is the partners of the satellite Internet provider that should provide their customers with access to communications from OneWeb. Satellite Internet would be very useful for remote and hard-to-reach regions and ships. According to company representatives, the user can be in a car, helicopter, on a mountain top, anywhere in the world - communication will always be available.
The British government has formed Satellite Applications Catapult, an organization that is now working with OneWeb, with plans to improve the company's technology, plus use satellites to improve the reliability of existing navigation services like GPS. After Brexit, the EU closed Britain's access to the Galileo geolocation system. The country planned to deploy its own navigation system, but this project turned out to be so expensive that they decided to abandon it.
OneWeb will not be able to provide the accuracy of geolocation at the level of GPS or GLONASS, but as a fallback option it is quite an option. Thus, the UK will not have to deploy another satellite network.
But the main focus of the project is to provide access to the global network to clients from the UK and the Arctic regions. The commercial launch of the network is scheduled for next fall. The renewed company plans to focus on business clients. As for ordinary users, it is not yet known whether OneWeb will work with them, as Starlink does now.
The problem is that SpaceX has developed cost-effective equipment and reduced communication services for individual customers. While the company still doesn't benefit from its network in its current configuration, it should become profitable over time. The cost of communication services for clients is hundreds of dollars per month. OneWeb will have it in the thousands or even tens of thousands.
OneWeb was one of the first companies to announce its intention to deploy a large-scale network of communication satellites in orbit, which would provide access to the network for residents of hard-to-reach and remote regions. The company now has 74 satellites in orbit. Starlink already has 800. On December 17, Starlink plans to launch another 36 satellites into orbit. By 2020, she plans to increase their number to 2022.
Earlier, OneWeb received over $ 3 billion - this money was provided by ex-partners, which were already mentioned above. The company managed to develop the technology, bring it to mind and start launching satellites. The funds raised now will be used to expand the network and pay debts.
