{"id":17668,"date":"2020-06-26T23:28:45","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T15:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/british-led-consortium-favored-to-acquire-oneweb-broadband-satellite-network\/"},"modified":"2020-06-26T23:28:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T15:28:45","slug":"british-led-consortium-favored-to-acquire-oneweb-broadband-satellite-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/british-led-consortium-favored-to-acquire-oneweb-broadband-satellite-network\/","title":{"rendered":"British-led consortium favored to acquire OneWeb broadband satellite network"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Satellite
An artist\u2019s conception shows a constellation of satellites in orbit. (Credit: OneWeb)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The likeliest purchaser of the bankrupt OneWeb broadband satellite venture isn\u2019t Amazon, but a consortium backed by the British government. That\u2019s according to satellite industry watchers cited by Space Intel Report and The Financial Times.<\/p>\n

Amazon, which is working on its own Project Kuiper satellite constellation, was said to be among the entities that expressed interest in bidding on OneWeb\u2019s assets after the London-based satellite concern declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. OneWeb said the market disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic spoiled arrangements to win further financial support from SoftBank group, one of its biggest backers, forcing the move to seek financial protection.<\/p>\n

OneWeb\u2019s assets were put up for sale under the supervision of U.S. bankruptcy court in New York. Bids were due to be opened today for an initial round of assessment. If there\u2019s no clear winner in the eyes of the judge and OneWeb\u2019s creditors, an auction would be held on July 2.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times quoted its sources as saying the British government was willing to put up about $617 million (\u00a3500 million) as part of a wider private-sector consortium bid. If the bid is successful, the government could end up owning more than 20% of OneWeb, according to The Financial Times.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YIrIt0R47Z8<\/p>\n

One of the reported sweeteners is that global positioning systems optimized for low Earth orbit could be added to the second-generation OneWeb satellites. That would give Britain its own GPS-like satellite constellation \u2014 making up for the anticipated loss of access to the European Union\u2019s Galileo navigation system due to Brexit.<\/p>\n

Several Chinese ventures were said to be planning bids for OneWeb\u2019s assets, but Space Intel Report said the U.S. government signaled that it would raise regulatory roadblocks to any Chinese purchase. The federal government has significant say over how the sale proceeds, because under international export regulations, it would have to approve any international sale involving OneWeb\u2019s U.S. assets, such as the venture\u2019s satellite factory in Florida.<\/p>\n

OneWeb\u2019s biggest creditor is Airbus, the European consortium that\u2019s a key partner in the satellite manufacturing operation. Today Airbus issued a statement saying it supported a bid involving the British government:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe reported support of the UK government for a bid for OneWeb looks positive to support UK\u2019s ambition to continue to be a leading player in space. As an original investor, and the manufacturer, in OneWeb, Airbus is pleased that a way forward looks likely. Airbus is the leading space manufacturer in the UK, pioneering many leading satellite technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OneWeb constellation could help address the UK\u2019s future space requirements and with innovative thinking should further enhance the UK\u2019s place at the forefront of satellite technology and applications. Airbus and the wider UK space ecosystem have the skills to build future capability and then drive export opportunities. We would look forward to supporting OneWeb in the next phase of their business and growing the UK contribution to this market changing business.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

OneWeb has already launched 74 satellites for a constellation that\u2019s expected to number around 650 satellites. Before filing for bankruptcy, OneWeb had expected to begin offering limited broadband internet service in the Arctic as early as this year. But it will take dozens more launches and billions of dollars of additional investment to complete the constellation and move ahead with the second-generation satellites.<\/p>\n

Several other satellite ventures are targeting the market to provide broadband internet access from low Earth orbit to the billions of people around the world who are currently underserved. SpaceX has already launched 550 satellites for its Starlink satellite network, and is getting set to launch 57 more. (Today\u2019s launch attempt was called off to provide more time for pre-launch checkouts, SpaceX said.)<\/p>\n

Telesat, Canada\u2019s biggest satellite operator, is also working on deploying a broadband constellation \u2014 with Blue Origin, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 space venture, tapped to provide future launches. And speaking of Amazon, the Seattle-based retail and cloud-computing giant is working to get the regulatory  go-ahead for its Project Kuiper constellation.<\/p>\n

Some had speculated that Amazon might have been able to leverage OneWeb\u2019s assets, including its licenses, for Project Kuiper\u2019s benefit \u2014 but the hardware and the licenses aren\u2019t a perfect fit for Kuiper\u2019s planned specifications.<\/p>\n

Amazon is getting a 219,000-square-foot facility ready for the Kuiper team in Redmond, Wash., and has posted more than 100 job offerings in Washington state, Texas, California and Virginia. One of the recent job postings is looking for a senior public policy manager to deal with domestic regulatory matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows a constellation of satellites in orbit. (Credit: OneWeb) The likeliest purchaser of the bankrupt OneWeb broadband satellite venture isn\u2019t Amazon, but a consortium backed by the British government. That\u2019s according to satellite industry watchers cited by Space Intel Report and The Financial Times. Amazon, which is working on its own Project Kuiper […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-17668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17668"}],"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=17668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}