For decades, companies have wanted to stream cheap, high-speed internet to consumers from space. Some tried and failed. Now, after four years and more than $ 2 billion in investment, the London and US-based company OneWeb has just taken a small step to make this happen.
This company, whose sponsors – which are many – include SoftBank (the largest investor), Coca-Cola, Airbus, Qualcomm or Virgin Group, has launched its first batch of six satellites from French Guiana. Over the next two years, the company plans to continue launching more groups of satellites until hundreds of them are in Earth orbit.
The satellites will be approximately 1,100 kilometers in low Earth orbit, from where it is believed that they will be able to provide broadband to virtually anywhere on Earth, in any space where a base station can be placed and much cheaper and better than existing satellite connectivity.
To provide global internet coverage, there will need to be 648 units in orbit. But the project could require about 2,000 of these space objects in the future.
Delays
OneWeb has faced numerous delays; originally planned for the entire constellation to be arranged in orbit by the end of 2019, which is already materially impossible at this time. But delays are common in such ambitious initiatives, so far from wasting time, they have been preparing for mass production, raising funds to establish launch contracts and upgrading the satellites. As stated in the mission brief: “OneWeb will begin customer demos in 2020 and provide 24-hour global coverage to customers in 2021.”
Analysts say OneWeb will be worth a lot of money if it achieves cheaper and faster broadband to new areas. But the company has competition and a long road ahead.
Billions of people around the world still lack access to high-speed Internet, especially in areas that are difficult to access with fiber optic cables or other wireless infrastructure.
Most options for space-based connectivity are expensive and have long lag times because they use huge satellites that orbit more than 20,000 miles from Earth.
OneWeb says its constellation of satellites will be able to offer 3G, LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi coverage anywhere on Earth except Antarctica. That means it could create new community Wi-Fi systems, connecting remote schools, emergency responders, and ships and planes while in transit.
The competition
There are other projects with the same intentions or goals: Starlink, for example, has similar ambitions, with an even larger number of satellites planned, and Swarm is targeting a smaller constellation of smaller satellites for low-cost access. Lastly, Ubiquitilink just announced this week that its unique technology will eliminate the need for base stations and satellite connections directly to regular phones. And everyone has launched satellites already …
Reference: OneWeb.net
