With this investment Bharti will acquire a minority stake in the company as well as get a representation on its board of directors.
Advertisement
OneWeb, which is privately-owned and based in Britain’s Channel Islands, also said that it has raised $500m (£318m) from a group of global investors, including Airbus, which will design and build 900 satellites for the project.
This is how the system would work: The satellites will provide high-speed connectivity to a small user terminal that transmits broadband access via wifi, LTE, 3G and 2G to the surrounding area. So the company has signed another agreement with Branson’s Virgin Galactic for 39 launches aboard its experimental LauncherOne.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Enterprises, said: “Access to affordable high speed Internet is a powerful tool for economic development and empowerment of populations, particularly in emerging economies”.
Like the Facebook-led Internet.org initiative, the OneWeb mission also aims to bring 5 billion people online in partnership with tech giants like Smasung and Qualcomm.
Arianespace said it had options for five more Soyuz launches and three Ariane 6 launches. Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne will enable an unprecedented quick launch and replenishment capability for OneWeb. We are committed to solving one of the world’s biggest problems – enabling affordable broadband Internet access for everyone.
OneWeb says that the plan is to formally launch its network by 2019.
“We’re very excited to be part of OneWeb’s endeavor to provide global Internet access for everybody, everywhere”.
“We are committed to giving our full industrial and space expertise to this mission”, said Tom, chief executive officer, Airbus Group.
“This project is exciting because it combines commerce with objective”, said Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company.
UK-based OneWeb was founded by Greg Wyler in 2012. Virgin Galactic is also developing LauncherOne, an affordable dedicated ride to orbit for small satellites.
Using satellites to deliver broadband Internet to hard-to-reach users remains a highly speculative undertaking that has been littered with failed investments and bankrupted ventures. To that end, the company has announced an alliance with communications satellite company Intelsat.
Sir Richard Branson’s spaceflight company has invested tens of millions of dollars in a project to create a global network of satellites that will provide internet connections to remote areas.
Advertisement
Barclays acted as exclusive placement agent to OneWeb. They are planning to put 700 low Earth orbit, geosynchronous micro satellites in the space, which will broadcast Internet services all over the world. This access will operate on the mobile operator’s billing platform with the mobile operator’s cell phone. Thus, any user handset can “roam” onto the OneWeb network, but would not know they are roaming. Other than this, the terminals can be used as access points for schools and health centres, as weather and navigation system for business and commercial airlines and to provide emergency services in areas affected by natural disasters like earthquakes.
