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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
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Saturday July 04 2020, @10:56AM (2 children)
At 650 satellites, there is no way it would even come close to competing with Starlink, so purchasing OneWeb would have to be for some other reason than providing global Internet.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 04 2020, @12:17PM (1 child)
SpaceX says it can start to become operational with about that many. Depending on what kind of service they offer and what kind of customers they target, they might be able to compete. Remember that SpaceX has a few different markets to target: rural internet users, the U.S. Army and Air Force, and financial customers (e.g. high speed New York to London links). There's also a different company [spacenews.com] that wants to target smartphones.
OneWeb [wikipedia.org] was also seeking permission to launch way more satellites:
The big problem is that SpaceX is willing to aggressively launch satellites with cheap Falcon 9 rockets (they are including rideshare customers and recovering both fairing halves now), and would absolutely knock it out of the park with Starship.
If OneWeb still wants to pursue ~48,000 satellites, it will probably end up paying money to its competitor to send them up with Starships.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Saturday July 04 2020, @03:00PM
Thanks, I didn't know that. That would definitely put them into competition with Starlink, at least eventually.
As you alluded, though, SpaceX will probably be the means by which OneWeb's satellites get into orbit, meaning that OneWeb will be helping to fund its competition for at least a while. That's a lot like Netflix using Amazon to host its content, which actually worked (still works?) well for Netflix.