OneWeb launches 40 SpaceX satellites, to start global services this year

Airtel-backed OneWeb successfully launched and deployed 40 satellites onboard a SpaceX launcher on Monday, January 9, the company confirmed in a statement. This was the UK-based satellite network provider’s 16th successful launch, bringing the total number of satellites in its low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of satellites up to 542. 

OneWeb originally sought to deploy a total of 648 satellites to enable its network of satellite-based internet connectivity around the world. After the launch, the company said in its statement that internet connectivity based on its satellite constellation is presently active in Alaska, ‘wider Arctic area’, Canada, Greenland and the UK. Services in the US, Australia, Middle East and Southern Europe will “come online soon”, OneWeb further added. 

With its latest launch aboard SpaceX’s latest mission, OneWeb is now two launches away from completing its intended target of LEO satellites in a relay configuration. The company was tipped to finish deploying its entire constellation of satellites sooner, but the Russia-Ukraine conflict saw 36 of its satellites held hostage by Roscosmos, Russia’s central space agency, which was previously scheduled to launch them into orbit aboard its Soyuz rocket. 

The debacle saw OneWeb look to other launch operators, which included Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro)’s commercial arm, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), to launch some of its satellites. The latter took place on October 23 last year, when Isro launched 36 OneWeb satellites aboard its LVM3 rocket — which was also the latter’s first commercial launch mission. The satellites were deployed in their intended orbits successfully.

OneWeb said in September last year, as part of its financial filings, that it took a hit of $229 million due to the Roscosmos debacle. 

OneWeb, backed by Bharti, is rivalled in an increasingly populous market by the likes of Elon Musk-helmed SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos-backed Project Kuiper, homegrown telco Reliance Jio in partnership with Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES, and domestic telecom services firm Nelco Limited in partnership with Canadian satellite operator, Telesat. 

Going forward, industry stakeholders and experts have pegged services such as OneWeb to play an increasingly important role in offering connectivity to enterprises and in areas where terrestrial networks cannot reach easily. However, mainstream smartphone companies and technologies, starting with iPhone-maker Apple in September last year, have also been increasingly looking at satellite connectivity. 

On January 6, US-based chipmaker Qualcomm launched Snapdragon Satellite, its first satellite connectivity chip that intends to bring satellite connectivity support to ‘premium’ Android smartphones. The company said that the feature should be enabled later this year, and the first crop of Android smartphones supporting satellite internet connectivity will be launched later this year.