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Bharti and British government plans for space startup One Web
Indian company Bharti invested 361 million pounds in space startup One Web. The satellite operator has now become an investor with a 39% stake. Another holder of One Web is the British government, which bought it after bankruptcy for $1 billion. Eutelsat and SoftBank own 19.3% each.
Bharti plans to transform OneWeb, and to do so it needs to increase its investment in the business. The money will be used to launch commercial satellites, as well as to deploy low-orbit satellites that will provide broadband communications in different parts of the world. The project is estimated to be completed at the end of this year. How many satellites will be launched is not yet known, but previously it was said that a system of 650 satellites would be deployed.
OneWeb is also working with BT to investigate methods of distributing broadband Internet access to remote areas of the U.K. that are experiencing problems.
OneWeb’s direct competitors are large companies, such as Jeff Business’s Project Kuiper startup, and Elon Musk’s Starlink. The latter has received a license to operate from the British regulatory authorities.
Not so long ago, representatives of Starlink said that the technical capabilities of the company can provide high-quality coverage of most of the territory of the planet. Now there is a beta-mode, which allows providing coverage in 11 countries. In addition, the company of Elon Musk may in the near future enter the stock exchange through IPO, which will also affect the competition in the space segment.
Bharti Corporation is a leader in the global telecom market. Its Bharti Airtel division operates in 19 countries in Asia and Africa. It is expected that the company will use OneWeb satellites to provide high-quality streaming in its networks. Thus, the Indian corporation wants to increase coverage in India, where uninterrupted communication is still not available in many regions. To this end, Bharti Airtel has previously entered into an agreement with Ericsson, which handles telecommunications equipment for 170 million customers in India. Thus Ericsson has taken over support and service for 70% of Bharti’s network in the country.
In turn, the UK government is interested in the space startup because after leaving the European Union, the kingdom has lost access to the satellite system Galileo, which is used in Europe. For some time, the British authorities considered the idea of developing their own navigation, but this project proved to be very costly. Therefore, it was decided to use the power and technology of OneWeb.