Planet to Get Global and Fast Internet

A group of six satellites of a new communication system have been successfully launched into the Earth’s orbit from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana. This is the beginning of a project to create the satellite telecommunications system, OneWeb. Millions of potential users, in places where mobile communications are not yet securely stable, will get broadband access. Within two years, almost anywhere in the world, phones and laptops can transfer data at a level above terabit per second through inexpensive subscriber terminals. Groups of small 150-kilogram devices deployed on 18 low-orbit planes (40 devices in each group) will provide the quality connection.

OneWeb is implemented without public funds. The UK company of the same name, OneWeb LLC was founded by the American tech entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor Greg Wyler, who has managed to attract many well-known brands to become project partners: from chip makers and satellite equipment manufacturers to leading banks and producers of popular beverages. In total, taking into account the ground infrastructure, investment in the project is estimated at three billion dollars. All Wyler's predecessors had gone bankrupt, as they tried to build large-scale satellite constellations without government funding. Even the heavyweights Iridium and Globalstar survived only because the bankruptcy procedure freed them from debt. But contrary to pessimistic forecasts, for three years OneWeb managed to cover the most difficult part of the way and reach the home straight. Closer to the summer, monthly launches will start delivering three dozen spacecraft to space each. According to calculations, the global Internet coverage of the planet will be complete in two years when 648 OneWeb satellites start operating in the orbit.