Starlink rival OneWeb completes fleet to offer global broadband

OneWeb Ltd. launched the final 36 satellites of its initial 616-satellite “constellation,” allowing the rival of Elon Musk’s Starlink to offer global broadband coverage this year.

“It’s the fruition of an enormous amount of hard work, and obviously we’ve been through some geopolitical issues over the last year or so, and the team has proven to be extremely resilient and caught up,” chief executive officer Neil Masterson said in an interview ahead of the launch, which used space agency Indian Space Research Organisation.

OneWeb now has enough fastflying spacecraft in orbit to offer broadband to businesses and government customers in the lower 48 US states in May, and ultimately global coverage by the end of 2023, Masterson said.

The launch took place in Sriharikota, an island off Andhra Pradesh. It concludes a tumultuous chapter for the satellite venture that was founded a decade ago by serial space entrepreneur Greg Wyler.

The company filed for bankruptcy in March 2020 after being shut out of credit markets by the economic turmoil caused by Covid-19, and was rescued by the UK government and telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Group. It has since attracted investment from SoftBank Group Corp. South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Systems Co. and US firm Hughes Satellite

Systems Corp.

Another major shareholder is French satellite firm Eutelsat SA, which agreed to merge with OneWeb last July pending regulatory clearances and a shareholder vote. The group is vying for a role in a multi-billion euro European Union satellite project dubbed IRIS².

OneWeb has $900 million in contracted revenues and plans to break even by 2025, Masterson said. The London-based company has also started planning for a second, more sophisticated wave of several hundred extra satellites, which could cost as much as $4 billion and be operational by 2028. The company expects to send out information to potential “Gen 2” suppliers in the second quarter.