OneWeb Micro Satellite Constellation Challenges Foreseen
WorldVu Satellites, operating as OneWeb, is building a low earth-orbit satellite system to extend high-speed Internet and telephony to underserved rural and remote areas, a OneWeb spokesman said in an interview last week. The system is similar to O3b Networks’ constellation, which comprises 12 satellites in medium earth orbit. And OneWeb may face challenges, experts said. They said that the new OneWeb network, backed by some heavy hitters in the telecom industry, can succeed technically. They questioned the business prospects.
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OneWeb said the planned 648 satellites will create the first telecom-class micro-satellite system, with the first of the fleet operational in about four years. OneWeb plans to have up to 2,000 satellites in its system, the spokesman said. OneWeb picked Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne rocket for its first launch vehicle. Initial investors are Qualcomm and Virgin Group. Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson will join OneWeb’s board, said a OneWeb news release Thursday. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OneWeb's focus is extending mobile operator networks and first responder systems to rural and remote areas, the spokesman said. All these systems technically "are doable, but the question is what’s the business that will make it feasible?” said Joe Hoffman, an ABI Research analyst. “The smart thing to do is to partner with various cellphone companies for representation on the ground.” The WorldVu system is likely a follow-up to the SkyBridge system that passed the ITU process years ago and the license expired, said a satellite lawyer.
O3b is where WorldVu might be in a few years, said O3b CEO Steve Collar. “We’ve been on our own saying this is really important. It’s exciting for us to see other companies developing constellations of satellites.” O3b would rename itself O4b for “4 billion people that aren’t connected,” he said. “The problem at the moment isn’t too many systems, there’s too few. There’s not enough infrastructure to support the inexorable demand for data.” O3b will continue launching satellites to add capacity to its network, he said. The company offers 120 Gbps and plans to increase to 1 Tbps with 20 to 40 additional satellites, he said.
Decades ago, Globalstar and Iridium competed for such markets, but struggled with high costs, ABI's Hoffman said. Meanwhile Tuesday, SpaceX raised $1 billion from Google and Fidelity in a financing round to continue sending satellites into orbit, SpaceX said in a news release. “There’s enough demand for maybe one or two of these satellite systems,” Hoffman said. “One system is enough to supply all the demand worldwide. There will be a shakeout and some startups will survive and some won’t.”
WorldVu completed the first stage of the ITU satellite filing process, advanced public information and began the next stage of coordination, said an industry lawyer. WorldVu’s filing was made to OfCom, the U.K. communications regulator, under the name L5, he said. But WorldVu hasn’t filed at the FCC and doesn’t have a license for the satellite system in the U.S., he said.