{"id":12377,"date":"2020-07-03T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T09:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/uk-government-commits-500-million-in-bid-to-rescue-bankrupt-oneweb\/"},"modified":"2020-07-03T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T09:07:08","slug":"uk-government-commits-500-million-in-bid-to-rescue-bankrupt-oneweb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/uk-government-commits-500-million-in-bid-to-rescue-bankrupt-oneweb\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government commits $500 million in bid to rescue bankrupt OneWeb"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A OneWeb satellite inside the company\u2019s factory in Florida. Credit: OneWeb Satellites<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The UK government and India\u2019s Bharti Global mobile telecom operator announced Friday they placed the winning bid to purchase OneWeb, which filed for bankruptcy in March while in the early stages of deploying a megaconstellation of broadband satellites.<\/p>\n

The $1 billion purchase agreement includes $500 million each from the UK government and Bharti Global, and OneWeb said in a statement the deal would \u201ccapitalize the company sufficiently\u201d to complete \u201cthe full end-to-end deployment of the OneWeb system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe move signals the government\u2019s ambition for the UK to be a pioneer in the research, development, manufacturing, and exploitation of novel satellite technologies through the ownership of a fleet of low Earth orbit satellites,\u201d the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal will enable the company to complete construction of a global satellite constellation that will provide enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n

The UK government and Bharti Global lead the consortium that placed the winning bid in the court-supervised sale of OneWeb. The transaction is subject to court and regulatory approvals.<\/p>\n

The acquisition of OneWeb by the UK government is part of an effort by British officials to field a domestic satellite navigation network. The UK\u2019s withdrawal from the European Union on Jan. 31 forced Britain to drop out of participation in the EU\u2019s Galileo navigation network.<\/p>\n

British military forces can still access Galileo\u2019s open service, which are available free of charge around the world. But Galileo\u2019s most secure encrypted navigation signals, known as the Public Regulated Service, will be unavailable to UK troops, airplanes and naval ships.<\/p>\n

Bharti Global, through Bharti Airtel, is the third largest mobile operator in the world, with more than 425 million customers. Bharti Airtel will \u201cact as the testing ground for all OneWeb products, services, and applications,\u201d OneWeb said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBharti will contribute significant contract value to OneWeb through its presence across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where the terrain necessitates the use of satellite-based connectivity, providing a near-term anchor customer for large-scale global deployment of OneWeb\u2019s services,\u201d OneWeb said.<\/p>\n

The UK government is expected to take a 45 percent equity stake in OneWeb.<\/p>\n

OneWeb filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in March after launching 74 of a then-planned 648 satellites, furloughing much its staff while keeping a skeleton team on-board to continue safely operating the spacecraft already in orbit.<\/p>\n

In March, OneWeb said it was unsuccessful in efforts to raise additional money to fund the company\u2019s satellite constellation and the start of of commercial services.<\/p>\n

OneWeb is headquartered in London with a significant workforce in the United States, and the company\u2019s spacecraft are built near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida by a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus named OneWeb Satellites.<\/p>\n

OneWeb faces intense competition from deep-pocketed entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Musk\u2019s SpaceX is working on the Starlink network, and Amazon has plans for its own satellite constellation named Kuiper to provide broadband connectivity from space.<\/p>\n

The Japanese conglomerate SoftBank invested $2 billion into OneWeb since 2016, making the Japanese holding company OneWeb\u2019s largest financial backer. In total, before the bankruptcy, OneWeb had announced $3.4 billion in money raised from SoftBank and other investors, including Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Group, Qualcomm, Airbus, Coca Cola, Intelsat, Hughes Communications, and the Mexican conglomerate Grupo Salinas.<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t enough to carry OneWeb through the fully deployment of nearly 650 satellites to beam Internet signals worldwide.<\/p>\n

The $1 billion in fresh capital from OneWeb\u2019s acquisition by the UK government and Bharti Global could allow OneWeb to rehire staff and continue building and launching satellites. But OneWeb will likely need more than $1 billion to build out its entire network, according to industry analysts.<\/p>\n

OneWeb said the company\u2019s purchase by the UK government and Bharti Global is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, the purchasing consortium will work with the OneWeb management team to further develop the strategy and business plan and to resume the Company\u2019s launch schedule,\u201d OneWeb said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Illustration of OneWeb\u2019s satellite network. Credit: Airbus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adrian Steckel, OneWeb\u2019s CEO, said the UK government and Bharti will \u201cbring immediate value\u201d to the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis successful outcome for OneWeb underscores the confidence in our business, technology, and the work of our entire team,\u201d Steckel said in a statement. \u201cWith differentiated and flexible technology, unique spectrum assets and a compelling market opportunity ahead of us, we are eager to conclude the process and get back to launching our satellites as soon as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The French launch services provider Arianespace is OneWeb\u2019s launch contractor, handling procurement of Soyuz boosters from Russian suppliers and overseeing launch campaigns. OneWeb signed a contract with Arianespace in 2015 for 21 Soyuz launches.<\/p>\n

OneWeb also signed a contract last year to launch a cluster of satellites on the inaugural flight of the new European Ariane 6 rocket.<\/p>\n

OneWeb was founded in 2012 by Greg Wyler, a satellite and telecom entrepreneur who dreamed of a global satellite fleet to provide Internet services to people unable to connect to terrestrial networks.<\/p>\n

Last month, OneWeb filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission to increase the number of satellites in its constellation to 48,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis larger OneWeb constellation will allow for greater flexibility to meet soaring global connectivity demands,\u201d OneWeb said.<\/p>\n

At least some of OneWeb\u2019s satellite production could be moved to Britain from Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis deal underlines the scale of Britain\u2019s ambitions on the global stage,\u201d said Alok Sharma, UK business secretary. \u201cOur access to a global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect millions of people worldwide to broadband, many for the first time, and the deal presents the opportunity to further develop our strong advanced manufacturing base right here in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A OneWeb satellite inside the company\u2019s factory in Florida. Credit: OneWeb Satellites The UK government and India\u2019s Bharti Global mobile telecom operator announced Friday they placed the winning bid to purchase OneWeb, which filed for bankruptcy in March while in the early stages of deploying a megaconstellation of broadband satellites. The $1 billion purchase agreement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1657,498,1762,252,1397,395,1277,1811],"class_list":["post-12377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-arianespace","tag-bharti-global","tag-broadband","tag-galileo","tag-navigation","tag-oneweb","tag-oneweb-satellites"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}