OneWeb launch another 36 low earth orbit satellites from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in far east Russia. This brings the total to 254 satellites and completes and completes the five to fifty mission. From the north pole at five degrees to the fiftieth degree covering a large proportion of the northern hemisphere is ready for transmission.
Full global coverage is on track by June 2022, where internet services will be made available to regions that currently don’t have the low latency connections the connected part of the world experiences.It can be hard to imagine a world without high speed internet connections but there are still regions which OneWeb will be bringing online with their global networking.
Bharati $500m Dollar Investment
Bharti Enterprises, the Indian Telecomms provider have invested a further $500m (£352m, 13728rs crore). It’s interesting to note that by the time oneWeb has completed its 648 satellite constellation it will have invested $2.4bn and will have issue no debt.
Bharti Enterprises will own 38.6% on OneWeb
Connecting BT (UK) Rural Customers
OneWeb have partnered with the UK’s main Internet Service Provider BT to connect rural communities and works towards the UK governments target of providing widespread high speed internet connectivity. The UK internet market is controlled by BT, who also own EE, a leading 5G mobile carrier. There are already services in place for if broadband services going down they are replaced with 5G connectivity. Adding OneWeb will allow BT to reach regions where signal masts are not economically viable.
OneWeb are positioning themselves to provide Internet Service providers (ISP) with ways of connecting rural communities and relieving the Internets dependence on deep sea cables.
