A US bid to use more than 600 satellites to provide cheap internet access across the world looks set to move forward thanks to a massive cash injection.
Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank has announced that it is putting up a $1bn stake in OneWeb, an American company that includes Richard Branson on its board of directors. OneWeb’s plan is to launch a massive constellation of simple satellites to encircle the world and provide access to the internet from anywhere in a cost effective way.
The first 10 satellites are planned for launch in 2018, with broadband access to businesses becoming available as early as 2019. By 2022 OneWeb wants to have connected every school, and by 2027, it aims to have bridged the “digital divide” by giving the entire world cheap access to the internet.
It plans to launch 648 identical micro-satellites that will be mass produced in a similar way to how today’s avionics or medical equipment is made.
Initial investors included Airbus, which is making the European Space Agency’s 2020 ExoMars rover, and Branson, whose space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, tested a new spaceplane earlier this month.
This week’s money is the first part of a major $50bn pledge made by SoftBank’s chief executive Masayoshi Son to invest in US businesses. The promise was made following a meeting on 7 December between Son and the US president-elect Donald Trump.
The satellites will be equipped with a mechanism to automatically de-orbit them at the end of their working lives to cut down on space debris.
