ONEWEB LAUNCHES 36 SATELLITES WITH AN AIM TO OFFER HIGH-SPEED INTERNET IN INDIA BY MID-2022
On Friday, Bharti Global and UK government-led OneWeb announced the launch of 36 communications satellites and said it aims to provide high-speed internet by mid-2022 from its satellite constellation in India. OneWeb's re-launch of satellite launches comes within weeks after the billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal-run Bharti Group, along with the British government, took over as the new owners of the bankrupt broadband satellite communications business. On Friday, the broadband satellite communications company Low Earth Orbit (LEO) launched 36 satellites from a Soyuz launch vehicle, which started in Russia from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. A company release said that this brings the total in-orbit constellation to 110 satellites, part of the 648 LEO satellite fleet of OneWeb that will provide high-speed, low-latency global connectivity. The launch puts OneWeb on track to deliver customers global services from late 2021, beginning with global service in 2022 for the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic Seas, and Canada. It added that OneWeb has won global priority spectrum rights and has now completed four launches successfully and aims to provide high-speed Internet from OneWeb satellites in India by mid-2022. "Today's launch is one of many steps we have taken to operationalize one of the world's first LEO constellations, which clearly demonstrates that we are on our way to achieving our mission," said Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises. OneWeb is rapidly returning to full operations less than a month after its acquisition by Bharti Global and the UK Government, hiring at a fast pace, restarting launches, continuing to build its ground station network, and moving ahead, the release said, on user terminal growth. OneWeb, which recently announced new management with telecom czar Sunil Mittal at the helm as Executive Chairman, has been taken over by the UK government and Bharti Global. Bharti Global, Bharti's overseas arm, operates from London and has investments in telecommunications, technology, hospitality, transport and electricity. Source: www.firstpost.com
