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UK Government and Indian Mobile Operator Acquire OneWeb and its Broadband Satellites

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday July 04 2020, @06:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the your-government-as-your-ISP dept.

takyon writes:

British government and Bharti Global buy OneWeb, plan $1 billion investment to revive company

The British government and Indian mobile network operator Bharti Global placed the winning bid to acquire OneWeb, a broadband megaconstellation startup that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March after running out of funding, OneWeb said July 3.

OneWeb said it has secured $1 billion in new funding — $500 million from the British government to "deliver first UK sovereign space capability," and another $500 million from Indian mobile network operator Bharti Global — to recapitalize its constellation effort.

OneWeb, in a news release, said the funding will "effectuate the full end-to-end deployment of the OneWeb system," but did not specify if that system is the original 650-satellite constellation the company was pursuing prior to bankruptcy. OneWeb has 74 satellites in low Earth orbit.

"This deal underlines the scale of Britain's ambitions on the global stage," Alok Sharma, business secretary for the British government, said in a separate July 3 release from the U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. "Our access to a global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect millions of people worldwide to broadband, many for the first time, and the deal presents the opportunity to further develop our strong advanced manufacturing base right here in the UK."

UK looks to challenge Elon Musk's Starlink after winning bid for bankrupt satellite company OneWeb

The U.K. government is set to try and take on Elon Musk's Starlink after it was crowned the winning bidder of failed satellite company OneWeb at an auction in New York.

[...] The $1 billion-plus rescue bid was made through a consortium involving India's Bharti Global, which through Bharti Airtel, is the third-largest mobile operator in the world, with over 425 million customers.

[...] U.K. Business Secretary Alok Sharma confirmed the government has pledged to invest $500 million and take a "significant" equity share in OneWeb, which is headquartered in London. The stake is reported to be around 20%.

Previously: OneWeb Goes Bankrupt, Lays Off Staff, Will Sell Satellite-Broadband Business
OneWeb Seeks Permission to Launch 48,000 Satellites Despite Bankruptcy

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Saturday July 04 2020, @02:16PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday July 04 2020, @02:16PM (#1016108) Journal

    UK May Have to Deploy its Own Satellite Navigation System Due to Brexit [soylentnews.org]

    We already discussed the security implications in that article. Relying on a system controlled by the U.S., Russia, China, EU, etc. is not acceptable (so they say). So there will be another one (maybe).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(satellite_navigation) [wikipedia.org]

    In March 2018, the European Commission announced that the United Kingdom may be excluded from parts of the project (especially relating to the secured service PRS) following its exit from the European Union (EU). As a result, Airbus plans to relocate work on the Ground Control Segment (GCS) from its Portsmouth premises to an EU state. British officials have been reported to be seeking legal advice on whether they can reclaim the €1.4 billion invested by the United Kingdom, of the €10 billion spent to date. In a speech at the EU Institute for Security Studies conference, the EU Chief Negotiator in charge of the Brexit negotiations, Michel Barnier, stressed the EU position that the UK had decided to leave the EU and thus all EU programmes, including Galileo. In August 2018, it was reported the UK will look to create a competing satellite navigation system to Galileo post-Brexit. In December 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the UK would no longer seek to reclaim the investment, and Science Minister Sam Gyimah resigned over the matter.

    Yes, the UK got unceremoniously kicked out of the Galileo program. That was back in 2018, but it has remained a hotly debated issue this year.

    March 1: UK’s Galileo rival delayed amid wrangling and rising costs [archive.is]
    May 8: Britain's £5 billion rival to EU's Galileo satellite project faces scrap [telegraph.co.uk]
    June 19: UK scales back plans for £5bn rival to Galileo satellite system [archive.is]

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