Britain in on a bankrupt broadband company...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Talk of about ideology trumping technological sense. As for using this constellation for accurate military grade GPS, it is akin to grafting an Anglican vicar onto a white elephant's backside... our wonderful government on the way to making another world class cock up. If they really wanted to go down this route they would have been better off investing in Elon's Musk's solution.

The UK government has pledged to invest $500m (£400m) in bankrupt satellite company OneWeb, giving it a stake in a business that provides broadband from space.

The government, which has proven so far unwilling to take stakes in major British companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic, will receive a “significant equity share” in the loss-making company as it seeks to make “high-risk, high-payoff” investments of the kind advocated by 10 Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings.

The deal, which is still subject to US court approval, is expected to close before the end of the year. It includes a pledge to bring manufacturing of OneWeb’s satellites to the UK, where it is headquartered.

Indian telecoms company Bharti will also invest $500m, which will “bring OneWeb a revenue base to contribute towards its future success”, the government said on Friday. Much of India does not have access to high-speed internet.

Downing Street said: “The deal will support the UK to be a pioneer in the research, development, manufacturing, and exploitation of novel satellite technologies, whilst boosting UK manufacturing.”

The investment is backed by the Unite trade union, which represents many aerospace manufacturing workers, in the hope it will bring secure, high-skilled jobs for workers.

However, some space experts have raised concerns over the suitability of its technology for navigational purposes. The government had ambitions to create its own rival to the US’s global positioning system (GPS), although it had reportedly scaled back those plans. The UK has been barred from the EU’s Galileo system because of Brexit.

Dr Bleddyn Bowen, a space policy expert at the University of Leicester, told the Guardian last week it was a “tech and business gamble” that the satellites could be redesigned to allow navigation. The existing major satellite navigational systems all use satellites orbiting about 20,000km from the Earth’s surface, compared with only 1,200km for low-Earth orbits.

OneWeb’s network has been described as unsuitable for navigational purposes by the UK’s own space agency, according to internal documents cited by the Daily Telegraph. A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on the documents.

Graham Turnock, the UK Space Agency chief executive, said: “Now is the right time to look at new ways to use space to boost the UK’s prosperity, security and global influence, while benefitting people across the whole country.”

The satellites were previously built in the US by Airbus, the European aerospace manufacturer, which was also an investor in OneWeb. OneWeb’s main competitor in low-Earth orbit satellites is Starlink, the satellite company run by the billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

OneWeb was founded in 2012 by American businessman Greg Wyler with the aim of providing cheap internet access around the world through a network of hundreds of satellites. OneWeb had raised $3.4bn in equity and debt to fund its “constellation” of 74 satellites, with plans for a network of 650 covering the globe. However, it failed to secure new funding at the end of March from investors including its largest backer SoftBank, the big-spending conglomerate controlled by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son. OneWeb filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US at the end of March to try to find a buyer.

Alok Sharma, the business secretary, said: “This deal underlines the scale of Britain’s ambitions on the global stage.

“Our 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.”

Bankrupt idea

[TheGreenGoblin]

On March 27, 2020, OneWeb Global Limited and 18 affiliates all filed bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company blamed the COVID-19 pandemic, but it needs to raise an additional several billion dollars of capital after development and early testing was always a part of the plan, and the high-cost structure of OneWeb's contracted launches and satellites relative to the market size and other emerging competition, principally SpaceX's self-launched Starlink constellation, had been known for some time, and was thought to be challenging well prior to the emergence of the pandemic.[6] OneWeb Satellites, the joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus Defence to build the satellites, says it has made temporary furloughs due to the COVID-19 pandemic but that they are not due to the OneWeb bankruptcy filing...

The palooka's in the British (or should I say English) government think that this outfit, which doesn't have its own launch capability will win out against SpaceX!

I note the government of Rwanda are also underwriting this outfit... Britain and Rwanda go it alone... FFS...

OneWeb

[TheGreenGoblin]

One wonders if all this is just a scam by city types, and heaven forfend, some of our own, oh so honest, lot in government, to leverage stock price differentials when the company goes public, before the whole idea, and the company goes down the gurgler and the existing IP is bundled off and sold in tranches with the net result that some individuals in the know will benefit but UK Plc and the hard pressed UK tax payers will be mugged off again.

Cynical! Moi?

More of a fire sale than a strategic asset...

There is also the huge risk that Trump will scupper the deal. Personally I hope he does.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Satellite firm OneWeb out of bankruptcy as shared UK takeover deal is complete

https://www.newschain.uk/news/financial ... lete-49615

But with only 74 satellites in orbit at present, the firm will have to play catch-up to rivals such as SpaceX’s Starlink constellation – which more than 800 satellites already in space.

OneWeb plans to launch 36 satellites in December and hopes to begin commercial connectivity services to the UK and the Arctic region in late 2021, before having a full network in 2022.

The next batch of satellites have been shipped from Florida to Vostochny as they undergo preparations for a December 17 target date.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “This strategic investment demonstrates Government’s commitment to the UK’s space sector in the long-term and our ambition to put Britain at the cutting edge of the latest advances in space technology.

“Access to our own global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect people worldwide, providing fast UK-backed broadband from the Shetlands to the Sahara and from Pole to Pole.

“This deal gives us the chance to build on our strong advanced manufacturing and services base in the UK, creating jobs and technical expertise.”

"our strong advanced manufacturing and services base in the UK" - The satellites are manufactured by Airbus Industries a Pan European company when I last looked!

I am betting on SpaceX to crush this upstart company within a couple of years but not soon enough to stop the insider dealing of government ministers using our (i.e. tax payers) money) to make a small killing while they can.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/s ... -ntp-feeds